Too much water change a bad thing?

[psumms]

Is there such a thing as too much regular water change? Apart from the cost consideration, is changing 20% weekly, split over 7-days, better or worse that than say 10% once a week?

 

[Shinte122305]

it can be too much. my reef tank thrives with decent nutrtion 10 ppm nitrates and 0.07 phos. colors are bright everythings happy. if i were to start doing 20% weekly i would over clean my tank and annoy everything. so yes depending on your reef tank 20% weekly can be too much.

If your like my best friend who super overly did it with fish in his 75 gallon lol and struggles to lower his nitrates under 25 HE definitely needs 20% weekly changes or more.

 

[Waters]

Is there such a thing as too much regular water change? Apart from the cost consideration, is changing 20% weekly, split over 7-days, better or worse that than say 10% once a week?

It entirely depends on your nutrients in the tank. There are nano tanks that do almost 100% water changes without any issues. If you have a lot of excessive nutrients than you might need the 20% weekly. Some don't do water changes at all.

 

[Bramzor]

Auto water change 2-3% every day. Key is stability so it’s better to do it automated and every day. Also because it is less efficient than doing a waterchange once a week, in theory you are doing a smaller waterchange.

Stability is key

 

[Paul B]

There is such a thing as to much water changing as water can get a little better as it ages, especially if it's ASW. It also annoys the fish.

 

[Silent]

Some people dose their tank with many different things to increase coloration or growth and new saltwater may reduce those wanted levels.

 

[AZMSGT]

Auto water change 2-3% every day. Key is stability so it’s better to do it automated and every day. Also because it is less efficient than doing a waterchange once a week, in theory you are doing a smaller waterchange.

Stability is key

+1

 

[MichaelReefer]

Is there such a thing as too much regular water change? Apart from the cost consideration, is changing 20% weekly, split over 7-days, better or worse that than say 10% once a week?

I normally do about 10%

 

[Neo Jeo]

I do a 20% every month. I used to do it every week. Soon as I went to every month my tank has started to thrive!

 

[krbshappy71]

Great Question, @psumms ! So how do we find the "sweet spot"? By testing parameters before and after the changes? (listen to me throwing around the word parameters...poser!)

 

[MichaelReefer]

I do a 20% every month. I used to do it every week. Soon as I went to every month my tank has started to thrive!

Sometimes I do as little as 5% a week, I have smaller fish for my tank size so normally not too bad. Never really ever have algae problems. I run extra fine socks too, so swap out every few days but crystal clear water.

Orange Spotted Goby
Melanurus Wrasse
Carpenters Wrase
(2) Small Clowns
Valentini Puffer
Fire Goby

 

[C. Eymann]

I dont like performing anymore than 15% at a time, generally only perform w/c on my own tanks if I'm trying to achieve something like detritus management. I believe that they have their benefits, I always noticed a nice bump in ORP for a few days following waterchanges, plus as a stick head that prefers bare bottom tanks, pulling out a bucket or two of grey looking detritus water and replacing it with clean fresh saltwater just feels good! lol

I will always caution those that are struggling with an issue, esp with delicate coral when they ask if they should do a 25% 50% W/C. Too much at once goes against Palettas golden rule "nothing good happens fast"

I believe each system is different, esp in the ways they are setup, parameters run, salt used etc that predetermine the best waterchange routine that works for whoever's doing the actual waterchange

 

[SPR1968]

Keeping a reef aquarium is all about trying to keep the water parameters as stable as possible. I think of myself to some extent as a ‘keeper of water’.

A 5-10% water change won’t affect things to much, but the bigger you go the more potential for issues.

I’m just designing a new system and the water changes will be small daily changes which will have no affect on the parameters at all

 

[Fishurama]

This was an older poll thread on here, 10 to 20 percent is the most common, and generally, if all your water is mixed properly, there is no such thing as "too much of a water change" as some people do a 6 month to yearly 50 percent change without issue. Just as long as what you are mixing/getting matches your tank all is good.

Poll: What Percentage of Water Do You Change During WC?

Yesterday’s poll topic was water change frequency, found here. The majority of people responding indicated they do weekly water changes, followed closely by every other week/twice per month. Let’s follow up with how much water you actually change, if you do in fact do water changes. Several...

www.reef2reef.com

Also weekly seems to be what most prefer.

Poll: Water Change Frequency?

Water changes - a topic discussed in great detail throughout R2R. Should we do them and why? How often? How much at one time? The questions go on and on. Well this thread/poll is meant to answer only one of those questions - How Often? I'm more curious as to the frequency of those that...

www.reef2reef.com

I personally do 20-25 percent changes on my 120 gallon weekly.

 

[Ashish Patel]

This idea we have to do frequent waterchanges to be successful is blasphemy. Find out the sweet spot for your animals. IME the best time to do a waterchange is every 2 months of at least 30% water change. In between that time I can really get to know what elements are depleted and to date the ones thats are vital are CA, ALK, SR, Iron, Iodine. These can easily be dose manually and far cheaper than salt and DI resin. I am against continuous waterchanges, weekly, or bi weekly waterchanges.

 

[psumms]

Currently I'm somewhere around 2.5% each morning using a DOS for auto-water-change. I'm dosing the Red Sea mixed reef recipe so that was going to be my follow-up question, does too much water change too often remove the expensive additives! Going to start reducing to an average 10% per week and test through to see what effect this has on parameters.

 

[brandon429]

150% water change + leave 13 yrs of coral in the air for 33 mins/tidal sim.


12 hours later, back open.
wc might hurt fish, but they are harmless to the filter bac, biosystem, live rock fauna (contrary to popular writing)


# of times Ive done this, uncountable. hundreds. The way I stumbled upon it was getting a phone call from an angry ex right during the drain. I thought, Ill just take this and set the record straight, quickly, and resume. They'll be ok 2 mins.

30 mins later mid stroke I remembered what Id done: forgot to refill. All my hard work, air jerky.

but what the heck lets just refill and see. next day, fine. At that point, I knew the 90s had been one big lie in more than one way. filter bac are so tough, they never need replenishing. we had been underestimating them tremendously.



12 hours later, every time

 

[brandon429]

also, you can change from any mix of salt to any other mix during this time and its harmless. I think the only corals that couldnt tolerate that would be extreme upper end sps/smooth flesh types/really rare items.

any coral in your lfs can handle this. my pods, brittle stars, sponges, large and small corals, vermetids, attached fanworms thats been on the rock the whole time, all adapt as they do in nature.

only fish and high end sps would care about this

 

[blstravler]

I do maybe 10% every 2 or so moths. Honestly it seems the longer I go the happier things are. Though this has always been my method dating back to the early 90’s. Then again if I’d get off my lazy butt and order a DOS I’d probably automate them to about 10% every 2 months.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

On my 24 gallon with only 3 fish, I started with 10% per week to 20% every 2 then I have had issues of 0 phosphates and nitrates of 10, which led to cyano. Now I siphon the water out through a filter sock, I then put then siphoned water back in the tank. I am currently manually dosing phosphates to try and get a reading aswel, my once dead montipora digi is growing again, and my pale frogspawn is now green again and colours are looking better. I filter the water out and put it back in every 2 weeks and top up what I have wasted with fresh NSW.

On my sons 7 gallon I only do a 20 % change every 3 months.

I think depending on the individual system you should only change water if needed, and not because a week has gone passed. Both tanks are now over 3 years old, no sumps or skimmers or refugiums, and the one I have had the least problems and do the least amount of work to is the 7 gallon.