Water Change Schedule

[Fishcrazy06]

I am going to have a total of aroudn 310gallons total system volume when my system is fulling up and running. I would like to get into a regular water change schedule. My question is would I be better off doing some many gallons per week or per month? Are there that many more added benefits to every week? How many gallons would you suggest per change? Thanks in Advance.

Eric

 

[MikeB]

What's a water change?

 

[Fishcrazy06]

Thats kind of the way I am now but I want to try something new and see if there really are added benefits to it. I have seen some gorgeous tanks with minimal water changes and I have seen some gorgeous tanks who swear by their water changes. So I was wondering what would be a good starting ground and how much.

Eric

 

[Dave3112]

I used to do weekly water changes and things did pretty well. Now I do them about every 3 weeks and have much better growth and colors. I change just over 10% of total volume.

 

[FaviaFreak]

10-20% every 2-3 weeks should work provided you have good nutrient export

 

[beaslbob]

I am going to have a total of around 310gallons total system volume when my system is fulling up and running. I would like to get into a regular water change schedule. My question is would I be better off doing some many gallons per week or per month? Are there that many more added benefits to every week? How many gallons would you suggest per change? Thanks in Advance.

Eric

FWIW

Water changes will limit but not prevent the build up of anything.

What happens is that things build up such that just before a water change that thing is:

before water change=(buildup between changes)/(1/fraction of water change) + amount in new water.

So if say nitrates are increasing at 1 ppm/day and and you are doing a 10% water change every 10 days and there are 20ppm in the reaplcement water:

nitrates before water change=(1ppm/day*10 days)(1/(1/10))+20
=100ppm+20=120ppm.

Larger less frequent will result in after water change ppms being lower. So more frequent small changes will result in larger after water values for more constant values. For instance, with water changes at 1%/day above but with a constant flow water changes at that rate, the nitrates would be a constant 120ppm nitrates. But a 100% water change after 100 days would result in the same 120 ppm before the change but 20ppm after the water change. Then to rise to 120ppm before the next.

To me what is important is to balance out the tank (in this case with macro or other algaes) do that the change between water changes is a low as possible. In this case you could get a case where nitrates are constantly unmeasureable regardless of what water change schedule is being used.


my .02

 

[heliguy71]

i do a water change every two weeks rather than once a month:wink:

 

[Ike]

I do one when I feel like it, sometimes that's every 3 week or every 3 months, but probably averages out to about 8 a year of about 20% each.

 

[Paul_N]

What year is this? I may be due for one.

 

[Znut Reefer]

I have a total of 650 gals. I do bi-weekly water changes of 20%.

 

[acanman]

i have a 135 gallon fowlr and i only change 5 gallons per week.. i could prob get away with less but the tank is pretty new.. and i have my 46 lps dominant and i do 5 gallons weekly on it...

 

[DML08]

10% weekly, which for me is only 7G....

 

[thewackyreefer]

I have a 40G and change out 20% every 2 weeks.

 

[Fragged_it]

I have a 180 mixed reef and I change 10 gallons a week. I think this maintains some of the trace elements that I do not dose. I also have a refugium and a sulfur denitrater. My nitrates stay unmeasurable.

 

[thomasp]

I have a 75 gallon tank and 20 gal sump/fuge and I do 10 gallons a week. I also clean and fuss things each week as well. The water change arguments go on forever but I feel that we know that some components of the water get used up faster than others and so we supplement calcium and carbonate iodine etc. We cant know all the items we need to supplement so it stand to reason that water changes will help replace the missing components and help dilute the bad ones. For me that is about 10% per week so you still need nutrient export with fuge, skimmer and perhaps a phosphate reactor. I have all three and also use pura complete in the reactor so I can get rid of any trace amounts of toxic material that sneaks in with the calcium, carbonate and Magnesium and foods. The real advice is do what works for you! I have seen tanks with no sump or skimmer that look great. I have also seen tanks where the owner spent tons of money on the best equipment but was lazy and so the tank looked really bad. If your corals are growing and fish are happy then you are doing it correctly!

 

[JNye]

i plumbed in a 55 drum and use that for changes every 2 weeks, highly recommended if you can afford the space.