How much water can I change at a time?

[Mariette]

I've got a 5 foot long tank and I'd like to clean all the gravel but it syphons out too much water to do it all at once. How much of a water change is too much? I want to avoid restarting the cycle as i have done in the past.

 

[Euphyllia97]

I would say to limit it to a max of 40%.

 

[brandon429]

Here is one way that works. If you veer from it, then it may not


this allows complete sandbed swaps on sps tanks but u have to follow order of ops to make it skip cycle

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

*example reading work is post #1 and then last two pages, each work job read in full from last two pages it’s only 20 mins read

if you read that you won’t lose your tank to a recycle. You can move your reef, change bed, clean bed, change all water, upgrade or downgrade, if you simply don’t do it on top of a dirty sandbed or dirty unkempt rocks. When you change water on top of dirty substrates, then a % change max does apply or you’ll upwell too much waste.

 

[brandon429]

Drain your currently clean top water off the tank and hold in two brute trash cans before clouding work ruins it

Run the work we show after the water has been collected and held away from sand needing fixed

install 80% old water and 20% new as a work trade off on top of new/old but rinsed or no sand at all

if you don’t want to do a second grade job, which will still skip cycle it’s just more algae water left in the tank, then change out to all new water as we did.

 

[Larry L]

Do you have a sump? If so you can siphon from the tank into a filter sock in the sump without losing any water.

 

[Mariette]

Thx guys!