The case for frequent water changes....Again.

[Stemick]

I have been doing 5g every week on 50g. I think I'm going to start doing 2.5 g twice a week. The key will be to get my wife to continue to do it while I'm gone.

:usa2:

 

[McAllyn]

Challenge accepted! Been doing 10% weekly on all my tanks, but since the RODI membrane shot, I've slacked off a bit and the tanks are suffering. Instead of getting back to where I was, I'll try the 5% twice a week and see if it'll take things beyond where they were.

Mac

 

[exonn]

Need some advice. I have 160 gal reef. It's still a young one, only 6 months old, for now am doing about 3% water change every week. It's not heavily stocked system. My fishes are:
1 zebrasoma veliferum
1 Paracanthurus hepatus
4 chromis viridis
2 nemateleotris magnifica
1 ocellaris clownfish
My SPS are lacking colors, po4 is 0,00 (salifer and lab tests); NO3 is 2,5 (Salifer). I feed 2 cubes of frozen (one in the morning and one in the evening), some dry food and sushy during the day. For export i have refugeum with cheatomorpha and grape caulerpa (50w LED for refugeum on revers), and aquamedic turboshorty 5000 skimmer.
I have some diatom and ciano in display and it doesn't go away.
For lightening i have 2x250w MH phoenix 14k (5 hrs/d) 4 months old, 2xT5 ATI Blue+ and ATI actinic(10 hrs/d) 2 months old, 64w RB LED strip .


So my quastion is:
is it worth for me start doing 10% water change every week (or two 5%)? Will it help with my algae problems and sps colors?

 

[exonn]

Other parameters:
Kh 8.0 (Salifer)
Ca 400 (Salifer)
Mg 1350 (Salifer)
K 420 (Salifer)
PH 8,0 (Salifer)


Am dosing DIY Kh, Ca, Mg and K. For now i see slight drop in Kh and Ca over past few weeks, so i'll increase Kh and Ca dose.


Auto top off with TDS 003, same water is used for WC.

 

[uniquecorals]

Need some advice. I have 160 gal reef. It's still a young one, only 6 months old, for now am doing about 3% water change every week. It's not heavily stocked system. My fishes are:
1 zebrasoma veliferum
1 Paracanthurus hepatus
4 chromis viridis
2 nemateleotris magnifica
1 ocellaris clownfish
My SPS are lacking colors, po4 is 0,00 (salifer and lab tests); NO3 is 2,5 (Salifer). I feed 2 cubes of frozen (one in the morning and one in the evening), some dry food and sushy during the day. For export i have refugeum with cheatomorpha and grape caulerpa (50w LED for refugeum on revers), and aquamedic turboshorty 5000 skimmer.
I have some diatom and ciano in display and it doesn't go away.
For lightening i have 2x250w MH phoenix 14k (5 hrs/d) 4 months old, 2xT5 ATI Blue+ and ATI actinic(10 hrs/d) 2 months old, 64w RB LED strip .


So my quastion is:
is it worth for me start doing 10% water change every week (or two 5%)? Will it help with my algae problems and sps colors?

Other parameters:
Kh 8.0 (Salifer)
Ca 400 (Salifer)
Mg 1350 (Salifer)
K 420 (Salifer)
PH 8,0 (Salifer)


Am dosing DIY Kh, Ca, Mg and K. For now i see slight drop in Kh and Ca over past few weeks, so i'll increase Kh and Ca dose.


Auto top off with TDS 003, same water is used for WC.

Hi exonn,

On the surface, it looks like your aquarium is following a "routine", with you in control of maintenance and doing a nice job of knowing what's going on. I think that there are a few potential things you can investigate. First, when you indicate that you're having some algae issues, I'd bet that at least part of it is that here may not be as much flow in the system as you might need. Also, the undetectable phosphate reading doesn't surprise me, as it probably is undetectable in the water column, yet bound up in the substrate, where I'll bet a lot of the cyan is growing. The pH reading of 8.0 seems a bit on the low side, especially if you took the reading during the daylight period. I am nota big proponent of radical changes, so my answer may surprise you..I'd tell you to just continue what you're doing. Perhaps, I'd verify if my source water was of high quality (RO or DI pre filtered, with the membranes maintained regularly). I'd embrace a twice weekly water regimen; can only help, IMHO. If nothing else, it will further dilute some organics that the algae might be utilizing, and at least replenishing your trace elements a bit for the corals.

As far as the pallid colors in your SPS, I'd attribute at least part of it to there being not enough nutrition for them. I'd consider utilizing some form of amino acid supplementation (Salifert makes a good one that is probably available in your country), and I'd also consider potassium supplementation as well.

In the end, very minor adjustments to your system and regimen are all that is needed, IMO. Just make gradual changes and observe. Nothing will happen overnight; rather, you'll see the improving trend over weeks. Just stay calm and keep observing your reef, even more than looking at the numbers on the test kits...The coral health will be a great "barometer" to tell you what's going on in there! You'll get this tank in great shape; just give it a bit of time!

Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!

-Scott

 

[exonn]

Than you Scott for your answer. I forgot to mention about dosing of Prodibio products. I dose BIOPTIM, BIODIGEST and REEFBOOSTER. And just few days ago i have ordered some ACROPOWER. Whaiting for it to arive.


I'll try to do more water change (same amount, but twice a wek) and see what happens.
I have few small tunze powerheads around, so i'll try to use them for better flow in some areas.
In general i have 3 JEBAO WP40 on a wawe mode and 10 tons Jebao return.


P.S. great articles, i have great time reading all of them. Keep them comming. And yes, write a book

 

[11f150]

I really got into WC about 3 months ago since I had a really bad bubble algae outbreak. I was doing a 20 gallon water change in a 120 gallon system about every month. Now for the past 3 months Ive been doing 3 per month, 20gallons at a time. It has really changed how everything is looking and growing. WC to me are the most important thing.

 

[Mhsbrian]

I've never seen a tank suffer from doing a water change of my own, so how can it possibly be a bad thing!

Coral always seem to be happy when they get "fresh aqua" to thrive in.

 

[markh792]

What about siphoning the substrate? Are you for or against that? Should I incorporate that into my 10 gallon water change twice a week?

 

[uniquecorals]

What about siphoning the substrate? Are you for or against that? Should I incorporate that into my 10 gallon water change twice a week?

I'll occasionally stir up the very top 1/2" or so of substrate, to get up any gross particulate matter, but I'm not a fan of going too deep, as I think it will actually disrupt the very processes that we're trying to foster in a substrate.

-Scott

 

[JVI90gREEF]

Scott, this is the best advice for anyone that isn't already practicing this could AND should ever take! I've been doing 5Gal WCs every other day on my 90 for almost 8 months now. My system is just HEALTHY, there really is no other way to put it! I've probably tested my water 3-4 times in the past 6-7 month span. <-- (Might be frowned upon by some or most) My eyeballs are my test kit. **DISCLAIMER** My refractometer is on overdrive!!! LOL, but seriously, once I knew that Red Sea Coral Pro continually tested the same for weeks straight, it was set it and forget it at that point. My 2 yr old daughter helps me put the "coops" of RSCP in the RODI to mix AND she holds the siphon tube in the bucket to remove the 5gal from the tank. I have pics to prove it! :nerd:

Once again...your write-up is pure gold!

Thank you and I look forward to ALL of your future write-ups!

 

[uniquecorals]

Thanks for the kind words...It's really the single best advise I can give any aquarist: just get in the habit of changing water....

Looking forward to popping out some new stuff..Been taking a few days off of writing; just gathering some new inspiration for a bit...Be back real soon!

-Scott

 

[rbrusletto]

I use two BRS dosing pumps to do ~2.6 Gallons of water every day in my ~110 reef setup, 4' 75Gallon tank, sump, plus plumbed in 14 Gallon Biocube. Programming is done by an Apex controller, with a 32 Gallon saltwater mixing station in the basement. Works great!

 

[fishes2889]

I've been doing 5g WCs on my 75g every 3 days using reef crystals. All I dose is acro power and feed fairly well. My Sps are loving it. Here are my params:
Salinty: 1.026
Ph: 8.15-8.25
Alk: 10
Cal: 500
Trates: 5-10ppm
Mag: 1480
Phos: .02

Keep on reefing!!!

 

[TarHeelReefer22]

5g on 75 once a week dose A and B every other day

 

[YHSublime]

10% a week, like clockwork.

 

[Nate_Bro]

I have a 40 breeder with a 29g sump, and running about 50 gallons. I like to do 5g once or twice a week (RO/DI and regular IO salt), but three weeks ago I did a frag swap and had an extra 15g of water on hand ready to go so I did a 15g water change and the monti's and acro's growth rate went up by about 5 times the following week.

I'm moving this week and I'll finally be able to setup my bare bottom shallow tank and have a fish room. It will have a cone settling tank, and will be setup to automatically change 1g of detritus laden water every 12 hours!

 

[uniquecorals]

Very Cool!

-Scott

 

[RonnieBlack]

I'm 43 years old and I didn't have the options and tech. thats available today when I was 10 years old..Your best options was weekly partial water changes, bare bottom tanks and a lot of hard work Live Rock was a thing of dreams..If you wanted it, you had to go get it lolz

 

[Chessmanmark]

Good post Scott. I have three tanks and have always mixed up 25 gallons of SW a month and changed 15 on my 90 and 5 in each of my two nanos; 20g and 14g. With your prescribed water change method I will theoretically change 40 gallons a month on my 90 and about 8 gallons each, more or less, on the two nanos. I'm a week and a half into the schedule and I have changed 15 gallons on my 90 with 2 1/2 weeks to go in the month. I have a bare bottom tank and so far I am keeping the bottom cleaner which will have a positive impact on my tank. Also, I carry buckets of dirty saltwater down to the street to dump in the sewer. It's much easier carrying 7 to 8 gallons with each change rather than 25 gallons which was a back breaker. I'll keep you posted on the effect all this has on my tank.