How often do you do water changes? Anyone do none?

[joshwaggs]

I did water changes every hour or so, 24/7. Never had to be around to watch.

Amounted to about 1% daily.

No showing off, Randy.

 

[Mical]

I'm in the little to no water change camp. After seeing some of the "Triton Method folks" - I decided I'd try a hybrid version, no socks, no water changes and dose 2 part ( not Triton) and as others mentioned tank(s) have never looked better. Once a year I might change 10 gals out of each my 120 & 65 but nothing more.

 

[mike550]

120G reef tank that's just over a year old, and I do 15G-20G weekly water changes. I dose ESV A & B and NoPox. My view on water changes is simply to keep things "fresh" and replenish things that the tank might be drawing from the water. I also use this time to check all of the equipment, see what else might be going on in the tank, etc. My tank is still growing in that I'm continuing to add corals and fish along the way. I'd love to get to an auto water change / continuous water change, but that's not going to happen because of the location of the tank, etc.

As a newbie reefer I've learned from this group that when things go bad water changes never hurt.

 

[Uncle99]

I use WC as a tool to manage nutrients in that first year of maturity.
Seems to become less important after.

 

[Lizbeli]

Waterbox 70.3- I went in wanting to try the balling method along with a fuge/skimmer for nutrient control with the hopes of no water changes. However, even though I am dosing the Aquaforest balling solutions I feel like I may not be adding all the trace elements that are needed.

So I still do 20gal water changes in hopes to replenish everything. Plus, my corals always look so poofy and happy after a water change. Maybe one day ill push forward and try no water changes, but for now im all set. I actually like doing maintenance on the tank.

 

[robmiller2]

When it was first set up I would do them weekly. On my 75 I do them monthly and change around 20 gallons. Everything has been really stable, so I plan on sticking with that.

 

[joshwaggs]

I'm in the little to no water change camp. After seeing some of the "Triton Method folks" - I decided I'd try a hybrid version, no socks, no water changes and dose 2 part ( not Triton) and as others mentioned tank(s) have never looked better. Once a year I might change 10 gals out of each my 120 & 65 but nothing more.

Wow, no mechanical? Does your sump or anything get gunk build up at all? If not, what magic is this?

 

[fishybizzness]

I do a weekly 5 gal on my3 year old 55 dt with 20 gal sump and a weekly 10 gal on my 7 month old 120. I used to do 10 gal a week on the 55 but scaled back to 5 because I felt like it was too much to be changing and it looks much better since. After the 120 passes a year I will be trying to do 10% every 2 weeks on both tanks to see how it goes. Btw, I use natural sea water almost exclusively. I live about 5 minutes from the beach and I have a 50 gallon water tank that I fill every few weeks and store it until I need it. I currently don't dose anything on the 120 because I don't have any coral and only dose kalk on the 55.

 

[MichaelReefer]

No water change since I moved in August.

 

[HB AL]

What do you dose?
Have you had any outbreaks of anything during that time?

Red Sea ABCD for elements, Red Sea ab+ for aminos, dose nopox to contain nitrates and phosphates.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don't change but simply add due to evaporation. I rarely if ever have issues and this has been for my tanks over last 5 years.

 

[R.Weller]

No water changes here. 300gal display & around 450 total water volume. 50 gal remote refugium, algae scrubber & skimmer. We drip kalk constantly from a 20gal Brute. No nutrients & lots of biology.

 

[joshwaggs]

No water changes here. 300gal display & around 450 total water volume. 50 gal remote refugium, algae scrubber & skimmer. We drip kalk constantly from a 20gal Brute. No nutrients & lots of biology.

Thant tank is dang near the size of the ocean. It probably has its own tides.

 

[R.Weller]

Thant tank is dang near the size of the ocean. It probably has its own tides.

Close! We have a long way to go, but we are slowly trying to recreate a complete ecosystem with a lot of motion.

 

[tonyc247]

How do you know when or when not to perform water exchanges?

 

[Chris Weddle]

So, I have been considering not doing anymore water changes. At all. It has been a couple months since my last water change and so far everything is very stable. I have to feed heavy just to keep the nutrients above zero, too. I dose Polyplab ONE and sometimes, two part. I also dose amino acids, PNS Probio, Phytoplankton, and PNS Snow. The two part is Brightwell, which has trace elements. So I dont dose trace elements very often. I keep dkh at 10.

Is anyone else doing the no water change option? How has it gone for you?

I completely understand that this is a heated topic, but please keep this friendly. I want to hear what people have seen with no water changes over long swaths of time. What works and what doesnt?

I totally get it. I only have a 10 gallon mixed reef, but all of my corals are growing and bright, and I’ve only conducted one 10% water change in the past 3 months, but that was only because I had pulled out some rock, creating a low water level due to displacement. In fact, I just added 3 more items today and after a being in bags for 2 hours, I acclimated them, placed them in my tank, and they all opened up within an hour. All my levels are solid and stable. I thought my ammonia was high, but it turns out that it was my test kit that was a little off. Good luck with your setup and Happy Reefing

 

[iReefer12]

I don’t do water changes . It’s working okay for me for 6 years, 220 Gallon SPS. Here is my tank for reference.

 

[LesPoissons]

Argh. I have a 220g for 5 years. My tank seems very stable so I tried to get away from my routine biweekly 20% (50g) water changes for 6 weeks and things seemed to go downhill. Apparently (for my tank) it’s the routine that keeps the stability. But man would I love to get out of them.

 

[Fourstars]

I change water hourly 24/7.

 

[Spydersweb]

I did no water changes for 3 years on my old tank no supplements outside of traditional 2 part. My fish were fine, simple corals were okay.

New tank.. weekly 10-20% water changes since Feb2020 and everything is running perfect..

At this point it’s so easy there really isn’t a reason as to why someone wouldn’t do it

I agree. I do a 15-20% water change on a 125 every two weeks. It takes a grand total of 20 minutes to do the actual water change. It’s just not a hassle, so in don’t see why I should stop doing them. I guess it’s different if you’ve got 300+ gallon aquarium, but otherwise why not? Besides, it’s actually stress relief for me to do tank maintenance.