How often do you change your water?

[shorty2545]

I do a 25% change every three months or so....
135 display sump made from a 40 breeder.
I don't dose anything just run a skimmer and an algae skimmer with half of the Sump as a fuge.
Nitrates run from 3-5
Phosphates .25

 

[jkapit]

I do 1% per day. The Poll should be modified to include daily water changes as an option

 

[Doubbler]

I used to do weekly, no dosing, I'm starting to wander away to biweekly then monthly, then never unless needed. I'm finding out, new ways to keep myself on my toes. Changing my patterns but maintaining stability.

 

[Reefbuds]

I use to do 10 to 20 percent a week. My tank has stabilized recently tho and I find myself only having to do water changes ever so often now, only when nitrates rise to an uncomfortable level.

 

[Crabs McJones]

%10 once a week including dosing (around 6 gallons). Usually Sunday is "tank maintenance" day

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

50% weekly FOWLR tank, too much?

 

[Solracju]

only do water changes to remove detritus. So a gallon here and there every couple of months. I don't think I change 10 gallons of water in a year.

 

[Flameback Pair]

My RSR 250 has been set up since Dec '16 and has fish only at the moment with a ton of previously dry Pukani. I've only done one water change because I feel my nitrates have been low up until now and I setting up a major W/C system with those big AG industry tanks which I'll use in conjunction with the Zeovit method and 1% daily water changes. I plan another water change of 25% next month because my NO3s are about 20. I'm going into semi-retirement as soon as the family business gets sold and will soon have plenty of time to implement a daily system using Apex dosers and continuous auto changes.

 

[Clarke]

I do 20 gals every 3 weeks,use Fritz. I have a 66 gal Red Sea reef. Everything doing well. Mostly softies some SPS.

 

[saltyhog]

25 gallons (15%) weekly for the last couple of months. I was doing 25 gal bi-weekly until a recent algae problem.

 

[don74136]

I think its interesting to watch how the hobby has evolved.

With all of the relatively new husbandry techniques out there like the cheato reactors, the new technologies for maintaining alk levels, the insanely accurate test results of Triton, the dropper heavy zeovit system and so many more... I wonder if and how much people's water change patterns have evolved.

Plus I like polls, think they're awesome.

I've tried putting enough options in there so you can hopefully find something that fits you. If not then just leave your response in the comments.

Feel free to just vote, or to elaborate on your response with anything from mentioning some new changes you made and love, a dosing schedule you follow, what parameters you try to keep, or what salt you use. Everyone here who is keeping their tanks beautiful is doing something right so go ahead and share what you do so we can all learn to take better care of our systems.

I do a 10% water change every Monday for three weeks and on the fourth Monday I do a 30% water change.

 

[jaws789832]

In my 120 I change out 20 gallons every month whether it needs it or not. It runs triton so it probably doesn't need it but I just feel guilty not doing water changes, plus I don't test the water as much as I used to so I figure the 20 gallons will keep it good (just in case something is getting off) until I do my quarterly triton test. In my 5 gallon seahorse I change out about 40% weekly (2 gallons). That one gets fed a lot of brine shrimp daily so it gets dirty quicker and I don't want the nitrates to build up too high.

 

[Forsaken77]

I try to do 20% biweekly, but sometimes I keep pushing it off and end up doing a huge monthly change that's about 45%.

I keep telling myself after I do the monthly huge maintenance that if I did it weekly it would be easier, but biweekly is the best I get to. Frigin HATE water changes and algae scraping.

 

[slief]

I change out 5 gallons a day via my Genesis Renew. My system is about 700 gallons total volume.

 

[Radman73]

Before we moved and I had corals I used a DOS for small, daily water changes and I'll get back to that soon. But for now, whenever I feel like it lol! 3 fish, 60 gallons, and I feed sparingly. Frequent water changes aren't necessary right now. When the 220 is cycled and fish go in I'll probably start with 1gal/day and adjust from there.

 

[Oldsalt01]

10% weekly and change out my floss in my 14g Biocube. For some reason I can't seem to keep zoas even though I test regularly and all my parameters are where they should be. Thinking it might be the stock lights I pulled the hood, added a Hydra 26 (which dropped my temps to the upper 70's) but still they just fade away. Been picking everyone's brains but nothing I do seems to help. NOW you have me wondering about sulphur. It never ends.

 

[Reefiness]

anyone else out there care to share? or did we get to everyone...? I think we have more than 56 members on this site.

Edit: actually, its 244 responses to far to poll so we will go with that number. Theres still more, I know it.

 

[gotwins86]

3 gallons per week on my 30 gallon. Ends up being 14% of water volume.

 

[BoomCorals]

I use Neptune dos to run constant water changes that equates to 8% per week

 

[Reefiness]

Because there have been several people saying they do some continuous type change, I have added a poll option that better matches that type of changing method. For anyone who may just have selected one of the other options that matches what their weekly change is via the continuous method, not only did I add a new option, but I allowed participants to vote on up to 2 answers hoping that anyone who does continuous changes will vote for both the continuous change and the actually quantity change % listed in one of the other options.