Inquiry: Water Changes In Large Tanks

[Vegard Myrvang]

I guess it will depend on your goals with your tank, would be nice to see pictures from the tanks with varuis wc schedule.

 

[JasPR]

I get it lol. If your into water changes then yes you do. I dont do water changes. Reason being is water changes are to remove pollutants and or add missing things. But i remove pollutants with my ats/skimmer/carbon. And i add back all the things i test for, magnesium/cal/alk/ strontium/ iodine etcetera.

I only do a water change durring unknowns or emergencies

No such thing as a perpetual pure glass box of water! As you yourself said over time a closed systems profile is use up good things and build up bad things. There is not a filtration or combination in existence that can change that reality-- only elongate the decline on a graph. I look at it this way-- we start with as pure a condition as possible. The parameters then become our baseline readings-- as time goes by, we pull away ( either up or down) from ideal baseline parameters. The longer between intervals of water change, the further we get away from our baselines. you can cheat mother nature with speed bumps along the way but you can't fool here. Just was we can to too large a water change, we tend to adopt one philosophy or another-- monthly bigger changes or weekly ( or even daily) smaller changes. But we still change-- the rest is about the time interval between then and the baseline readings. IMHO JasPR

 

[Sharvey103]

I have a 300 and do a 60 gallon change every 2 weeks.

 

[mcola78]

I guess it will depend on your goals with your tank, would be nice to see pictures from the tanks with varuis wc schedule.

I agree! I'd love to see pics of the non-wc aquariums. It's one thing to not do WC, it's another thing to have a healthy looking aquarium with no WC!

 

[alanbetiger]

I have about 450 total volume. I do about 70-75 gallons weekly.
Depends on if you want Fish Only or a reef tank. I chose to do more frequent bigger water changes and not do any additives for my mixed reef that I heavily feed. Anthropomorphically I feel it's better to change out more considering the fish have to breath, eat, drink, poop and pee all in that same water over and over and over.

 

[Vegard Myrvang]

About 700liters/180gallon.
25-30% WC a month.

 

[Dom]

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

Why would you have to replenish salt? How are you losing it?

 

[ycnibrc]

Why would you have to replenish salt? How are you losing it?

When I change carbon and gfo I rinse about 2 gallon into the drain so over time I need to add some salt back into the system I don't do water change because it will be expensive for my system at 400g to do 20% water change monthly

 

[nport19]

Given my setup isn't a very large one but on my 30 gallon I change the water weekly. One 5 gallon bucket worth. Tried not doing water changes and it didn't work out for my setup.

 

[Brad Shook]

I do not do WC. I just dose ALK and CAL. 240g tank with 100g sump been running for 5 years. Last WC was about 18 months ago.
I have started seeing some algie but I changed my 110W UV bulbs and it seems to be going away.

 

[tyler1503]

My 120 fowlr never received a water change, however it was only set up for less than a year before unforeseen circumstances made me take it down.
I've always noticed healthier looking livestock after ~10% water changes each week. At one stage I was doing ~5% per day and my tank looked fantastic! I had great LPS growth and colour.

For all those who say no to water changes in a reef environment, do you ever notice salinity dropping over the years? Do you have to add regular salt water as a top off every so often?
I ask because every single tank I've ever owned that has had a sump has produced a lot of salt creep.
Between salt creep and skimming, you'd surely notice a drop in salinity eventually right?

 

[Brad Shook]

I have not noticed a salinity drop.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I agree! I'd love to see pics of the non-wc aquariums. It's one thing to not do WC, it's another thing to have a healthy looking aquarium with no WC!

Here are a few

quick phone pictures of mine. Have not enclosed stand yet. Has been set up since I moved Oct of 2015. No regular water changes. Between cleaning reactors and mostly skimming wet I have to make up water to keep salinity up maybe 10% every two months.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Just on a theoretical basis, how can that be true?

That only accounts for trace elements that are deposited into skeletons, which is not likely the main sink for elements such as iron which are used in coral, algae, and other organism tissues.

If I am wrong completely let me know. I feel if you are using old coral bones you would be helping to reduce some or most of the mineral and trace element needed to rebuild the skeletons. It will not replace all trace elements as many are used to build living tissue, algae and removal by skimming and carbon use. Some of these will be added back in through feeding and or supplementing along with what ever water changes a person does. If a person removes reactor to clean them, skims on the wet side occasionally siphons detritus they have to replace the water they remove with new salt solution to maintain salinity. They are at this point still doing some water change just not a set amount on a given schedule. So I think almost nobody is 100% no water change.

 

[clekchau]

I'm about 1200 gallons and I change 100 gallons a week with the flip of a few valves.

 

[Dom]

I'm about 1200 gallons and I change 100 gallons a week with the flip of a few valves.

A box of reef crystals is (5) 10 pound bags for a total of 50 pounds. The manufacturer indicates that 1 box (50 pounds) makes 200 gallons. Using my recipe, 50 pounds makes 150 gallons of water, as I like to keep salinity at 35 ppt... a bit higher than what Instant Ocean recommends.

It's $55.00 for the box plus 100 gallons of RO/DI water and consumption of RO/DI filters.

In NYC, tht is about $65.00 per water change. At 1 per week, that is about $3400.00 per year in water changes. Expensive!

 

[clekchau]

A box of reef crystals is (5) 10 pound bags for a total of 50 pounds. The manufacturer indicates that 1 box (50 pounds) makes 200 gallons. Using my recipe, 50 pounds makes 150 gallons of water, as I like to keep salinity at 35 ppt... a bit higher than what Instant Ocean recommends.

It's $55.00 for the box plus 100 gallons of RO/DI water and consumption of RO/DI filters.

In NYC, tht is about $65.00 per water change. At 1 per week, that is about $3400.00 per year in water changes. Expensive!

4 50 lb bags is $55 shipped amazon prime. 27.5 x 52 = $1430. I didn't factor in the water cost , my water bill is not too bad.

However the overall cost to maintain a tank this big is well over $3400 a year.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

4 50 lb bags is $55 shipped amazon prime. 27.5 x 52 = $1430. I didn't factor in the water cost , my water bill is not too bad.

However the overall cost to maintain a tank this big is well over $3400 a year.

One box of Reef Crystals for 200 gallons (makes about 160) is $53.98. For every 100 gallons of Ro/Di made, at least 300 gallons of water is used. Monthly electrical cost will exceed this cost. Larger tank everything is more money as expected, if monthly cost were not higher then more people would have larger tanks.

 

[Dom]

4 50 lb bags is $55 shipped amazon prime. 27.5 x 52 = $1430. I didn't factor in the water cost , my water bill is not too bad.

However the overall cost to maintain a tank this big is well over $3400 a year.

Agreed! I was just calculating the cost of water changes. Overall cost to operate a tank that size is much higher.

 

[Fabianslit]

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!

Yeah but over 10 years that'll put you at 16,790 gallons. Almost 4x