Inquiry: Water Changes In Large Tanks

[Buckeye Hydro Verified Sponsor]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-gapper-400gpd-light-commercial-ro-from-buckeye-hydro.290479/

 

[Elton20]

Typical is 15% every 2 weeks with your drain sump plumbed to a floor drain. Your mixing station is plumbed to your sump so then you open a valve and drain out however you need them open another valve and fill up. Pretty simple and can be done in about 10 minutes.

 

[N1Husker]

I have a 100 gallon tank and a 55 gallon sump and I change 25 gallons every month, sometime every 5 weeks and no problems.

 

[Brian Mountain]

No. You really don't have to change that much water. I change about 100% of my water a year. That comes to about 20 gallons five times a year in my 100 gallon tank. No problems yet. I probably should change a little more but I am not a big advocate of too many water changes as I feel it is detrimental.
My tank is running 46 years.

So, what is your weekly/monthly/quarterly routine?

 

[Brian Mountain]

I have a total volume of 400g and I don't have a set water change schedule I test my salinity every sun and base on result I will add appropriate salt to keep my salinity at 1.026 otherwise I dose everything to keep up parameter

stupid question....how do you add salt without water change?

 

[Syntax1235]

You: 46 years, 100% a year, that is 4600% over the life of your tank.
Me: 4.6 years, 1% a day, that is 1679% over the life of my tank. You still have done more water changing than me and I do 1% a day!

Ummmm, his tank is 39 years older than yours? This comparison lacks any reasonable sense of logic. You will perform at least 15x the amount of water changes over 46 years.... Paul's tanks current age.

 

[Forsaken77]

No. You really don't have to change that much water. I change about 100% of my water a year. That comes to about 20 gallons five times a year in my 100 gallon tank. No problems yet. I probably should change a little more but I am not a big advocate of too many water changes as I feel it is detrimental.
My tank is running 46 years.

46 years?!! Do you have one of those old school ones with the slate bottoms, lol?

 

[bif24701]

I have a 300 gallon system and change at least 50-55 gallons each and every week using IO and the very best RODI I can. One 200 gallon box of IO gives me just about 3 full 55 gallon Brutes of mixed water at 35ppt.

Both Brutes are on Rubbermaid can cart and once they are filled and mixed I move them a few feet and pump the water into my sump. I use a Python to remove water first. Easy street.

I would not ever consider not doing water changes. There are too many problems and variables that water changes can help/assist or even solve not to do them.

I was away for two weeks and changed 100 gallons.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

stupid question....how do you add salt without water change?

Replace losses from cleaning reactors, water pulled by skimmer, even a little detritus removal. That is why I feel no one is 100% free of water changes, just amount and frequency is so little compared to set schedules.

 

[Carlos Danger]

In that size range, a couple 44g Brute cans on casters makes it so easy. Make new water in one, then syphon the same amount from the display into the other, then empty new water into display. A large submersible pump makes it fast. [emoji39]

+1
Exactly the way I do it in my 300. Can't go wrong with this method.

 

[Robert Scott]

500 gal. SPS dominant. I have done 120 gal/week water changes for over three years. Maybe overkill but I would assume if you're investing in a large system why would you consider cutting corners anywhere? I committed to this schedule from the beginning and it has worked great for me. Colors and growth are fantastic. Parameters are relatively stable (obviously other items at work ie. calcium reactor). I now do a monthly Triton test and had only the need to tweak Potassium and Strontium. Reducing the water change may be ok but I'm not willing to deviate from what's been working.

 

[Robert Scott]

500 gal. SPS dominant. I have done 120 gal/week water changes for over three years. Maybe overkill but I would assume if you're investing in a large system why would you consider cutting corners anywhere. I made the decision to follow this process from the beginning and it has worked great for me. The colors are amazing, I have colonies that have grown to soccer ball size that I am now removing to give my tank a new look, since I have confidence in coral growth. There are obviously many other factors to success and they all work together. Isolating one element such as water changes is difficult.

The cost of my current wc plan is significant, maybe I could go to a less costly approach, but I don't want to mess with what is working for me.

 

[ycnibrc]

stupid question....how do you add salt without water change?

Lol u add to your filter sock and the water run through it mix it up. I'm changing my sock every 3 days and I don't wait for the salt water to drain off the socks so over time I need to add some salt back to keep the salinity at 1.026

 

[Sharvey103]

I have a total of 360 gallons and do 30 gallons twice a month.

 

[Rob's Reef]

500 gal. SPS dominant. I have done 120 gal/week water changes for over three years. Maybe overkill but I would assume if you're investing in a large system why would you consider cutting corners anywhere. I made the decision to follow this process from the beginning and it has worked great for me. The colors are amazing, I have colonies that have grown to soccer ball size that I am now removing to give my tank a new look, since I have confidence in coral growth. There are obviously many other factors to success and they all work together. Isolating one element such as water changes is difficult.

The cost of my current wc plan is significant, maybe I could go to a less costly approach, but I don't want to mess with what is working for me.

Awesome Tank!

 

[Laith]

I'm currently planning an upgrade from a 250 liter (about 60g) SPS reef tank to an 1'800 liter tank (about 400g, also SPS reef). At the moment I do a weekly water change of 10% (20l of net volume) using the bucket method.

I don't see why just because I'm going larger that I would stop water changes. I want to continue the same water change that I'm currently doing but of course when you go for large tanks you HAVE to automate as much as possible. 180 liter water change every week using buckets just doesn't make sense and would very easily make me decide that water changes are not necessary. So I'm going for a Litermeter type setup that will continuously do a water change during the day, at about 10% a week. Initially I will have a fresh SW reservoir that will hold one weeks worth of water change but I hope to be able to upgrade that eventually to a larger capacity.

I've done a lot of planning and thinking for this upgrade and the conclusion I've come to regarding cutting corners is that if you do start cutting corners because of cost then you need to rethink going larger.

Just my two cents!

Laith