Is there a general rule on how long to wait between water changes?

[TinyCoralReef]

Is there a general rule on how long to wait between water changes?
Like, what duration allows corals to get the most out of the new water?
I know a week is sufficient but is there any benefits to doing it or not to doing it any sooner? (Not all the time more frequent but sometimes.)

 

[Jekyl]

Is there a general rule on how long to wait between water changes?
Like, what duration allows corals to get the most out of the new water?
I know a week is sufficient but is there any benefits to doing it or not to doing it any sooner? (Not all the time more frequent but sometimes.)

I do one every couple months. Your parameters dictate timing

 

[lapin]

Changing water replenishes elements. As stated above the tank dictates what needs to be done.
However things like DOC'S , that are hard to measure, get removed with water changes. I stick by the 10% per week.
If you have only coral you prob can get away with less.

 

[dank reefer]

I am in the no water change group. I dose my tanks to replenish Alk,Cal,CAL,, and trace elements.

Will only do a water change/correction is to keep salinity where I want it at.

 

[Doctorgori]

I do em sorta on feel but basically every month or 2 I do larger ones 10 - 33%
….those smaller daily 5% might help replenish the “good elements” but do nothing for dilution of the bad elements…math is math

 

[X-37B]

10% every 2 months now.
Tank just looks better after one. Going a year with none and dosing trace worked well for me too.
With a heavy bioload in my 120 now, 15 fish, and 95% sps, I believe it removes things we can not see or test for.

12 gallons every 2 months is not much but even my wife noticed and commented that the tank just looked better after one.

I run heavy in/out an over sized skimmer, carx, carbon, gfo, and dose trace daily.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there a general rule on how long to wait between water changes?
Like, what duration allows corals to get the most out of the new water?
I know a week is sufficient but is there any benefits to doing it or not to doing it any sooner? (Not all the time more frequent but sometimes.)

In my auto water change system, the delay was about 1 h between changes. i changed about 0.05% each time, 20 times a day.

IMO, the question does not have an answer since it presumes somethign that isn't true: that "good water" added takes time to "go bad". As soon as it mixes in, it takes on the characteristics of the new mixture, which may still benefit from another change.

 

[Screwgunner]

10% every two weeks

 

[Gtinnel]

I do water changes daily with an AWC but I do it all at once. So I go 24 hours. I do water changes to help remove anything from the water that could slowly build up over time.

 

[Goaway]

I just watch my parameters, haven't changed my water in over a month now. I keep my levels

Salinity 1.026
alk 8.4-9 dkh Dose soda ash once per week.
ph 8 - 8.15 No need to dose, this is done with soda ash
magnesium is over 1500.
calcium 460-500. This is why I stopped changing water. Trying to deplete calcium on its own. This is going down slowly along with magnesium consumption.

Phosphates I struggle to keep around .1 and nitrates at 10. It's my biggest fight since I have few fish.
I dose amino acids along with trace elements. Everyone is well and no signs of discomfort. Kept a green goni for almost a year now. My little frag will be a year old at the end of the month.

 

[innovusaquaculture]

In my auto water change system, the delay was about 1 h between changes. i changed about 0.05% each time, 20 times a day.

IMO, the question does not have an answer since it presumes somethign that isn't true: that "good water" added takes time to "go bad". As soon as it mixes in, it takes on the characteristics of the new mixture, which may still benefit from another change.

I was in the no or limited water change mind set group. I think mainly because I though either my tank had reached that stage in its maturity or I was so lazy that I could/would just not do water changes.

One week I decided that I would experiment with doing a 5% water change every day for the entire week just to see if it made any difference in the tank. At the end of the week I had successfully done a total of one 5% water change. Lazy/Busy had struck again. But either my imagination or desire to see a change made me believe my tank looked better.

I got off my but and implemented an auto water change system I had already designed and purchased that changes about 1% of the water every day. 1/24 of 1% every hour or 250ml every hour. That has been running now for several months.

The results: I have never had a better tank in my entire time in the hobby. I can grow coral I never could grow before. Could it be that it is because I am not paying more attention to my tank? That could very well be. I used to detest the idea of doing a water change. I had designed a system that made it super easy for me to do and I would even do it consistently. Some times it would make me not want to even look at the tank because I knew I should be doing a water change not looking at the tank. I'm retired. I have all the time in the world. I can watch TV or look at my tanks. I've found that now, after setting up the auto water change on all my tanks the TV is off and I spend my time watching my fish (and even some time watching coral grow). Maybe it doesn't do any good for the tank to change out that much water. Maybe I'm flushing good water down the drain. (We'll discuss my plans for a solar powered distilled waste water recovery system in another post) But I can tell you this: It sure has done me a lot of good in causing me to spend a lot more time enjoying my reef. I'm now firmly in the water change group, automatically.