recommended water change frequency?

[fish n chips]

hey guys,

i've got a 29g biocube with 2 astrea snails and some green mushroom coral. i've read that with minimal amount of coral and creatures you don't really need to do water changes as frequently, especially if your water parameters are good. what would you recommend in my situation? i'd like to gauge people's answers.

 

[Jesterrace]

Realistically as long as there is algae in the tank for the snails to feed on you could go without feeding other than maybe some supplements for your corals. Therefore other than water top offs you could probably change out 5-10 gallons of water once a month and have pristine water.

 

[SoftballReefer]

i have 32 led biocube and change 5 gallons every sunday. i have a few lps that dont like it going much longer than that.

 

[Waters]

Your water change schedule would be based on the nutrients in your water. If all of your numbers are under control (via nutrient removal and/or dosing), you can avoid doing frequent water changes. There are some successful tanks on here that haven't done a water change in over a year.

 

[PatW]

Like everything in reefing, it depends. The rule of thumb on water changes is pretty broad. Some people do never and make up for depleted elements with dosing. The usual seems to be 10% or more once a month or even once per week.

Water changes do 2 things. They export nutrients. But if you have a low bioload and not much feeding and say you have a skimmer, you might not even need nutrient export.

The second thing water changes do is replace depleted elements like ALK, Ca, Mg, and so on. If you have a bunch of fast growing hard corals, you will probably have to dose.

For you, you will probably have to do some large water changes at first. Cycling the tank can give you high nitrates and water changes will beat them down.

After you get that under control, 10% once or twice per month will probably do it if you have a decent skimmer.

Reefing is usually by guess and by gosh. Good luck to you.