Smaller water changes more often

[John3]

I know this was discussed a bit before but I wanted to get some feedback from some people who have done this or are still doing it.

I was considering doing a smaller 1 gallon water Change every other day. I normally do a 5G change every week. For me this would be a little easier because I think I could do this without using a siphon. Maybe there are some other positive or even negative things about doing water changes this way.

 

[Crabs McJones]

This is sort of the concept behind automatic water changes. Instead of changing out a certain amount once a week, users will use dosing pumps to change out little amounts every day

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I have genesis reef systems auto water changer. I have set it to do 2 gals per day. It automatically does 1 gal in morning and 2nd in evening.

(No factual proof) but my thought on doing smaller more frequent water changes is that it doesn't shock the system as it would if you were to do large change at once. There are too many elements in saltwater that we dont/cant test for and some of these are depleted and changing large amount of water at once can bring the levels up really quickly that can be shocking to livestock.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I have considered this also as I have a pretty small system. 0.7 gallons would be a 2% change for me daily. I would do it manually. I believe Randy had an automated system and changed daily for a while. Here were some of his thoughts and charts on water changes

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

 

[hbrochs]

My buddy set up his build with daily auto water changes, and I’m in the process of doing this on my tank. Using the Litermeter III peristaltic pump to change a gallon of water every day. Will change small increments throughout the day.

 

[Tikosyn]

I have genesis reef systems auto water changer. I have set it to do 2 gals per day. It automatically does 1 gal in morning and 2nd in evening.

(No factual proof) but my thought on doing smaller more frequent water changes is that it doesn't shock the system as it would if you were to do large change at once. There are too many elements in saltwater that we dont/cant test for and some of these are depleted and changing large amount of water at once can bring the levels up really quickly that can be shocking to livestock.

I also have the Genesis, love it. I change out 15 gallons a week and it divides it up evenly over the course of 7 days. So many ways you can do it. Did you go with the renew ATO as well?

 

[BigAl07]

I'm planning to use this unit to satisfy ATO and AWC functions in the same unit.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auto-water-changer-autoaqua.html

 

[jkapit]

I use an Apex DOS for 2 gallons per day water change. Works great. No spike in temperature or salinity and it’s totally integrated with the Apex.
Only downside is it is not good for large bulk water changes but I handle that with a remote pressure rated pump when needed.