Water Changes, Daily or weekly?

JimmyV · Mar 31, 2018

I will be starting daily 1-1/2 gallon water changes. But I'll be doing them the old fashioned way. Bucket out bucket in. The way I see it, it will take 10 minutes tops.

lbacha · Mar 31, 2018

I have two 50ml/min BRS dosers coming to setup a daily water change system. I have a nano and I feel it will be the best way to add trae elements and keep parameters stable

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 3, 2018

lbacha said:
I have two 50ml/min BRS dosers coming to setup a daily water change system. I have a nano and I feel it will be the best way to add trae elements and keep parameters stable

How much do you plan to change? It may not be enough if the value is on the low side (say, 1% daily).

lbacha · Apr 3, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
How much do you plan to change? It may not be enough if the value is on the low side (say, 1% daily).

I really haven't decided on an exact amount yet. Is there a recommended amount when you do daily. I'm doing 20% every other week right now. My main reason for water changes is trace element replenishment since my system is only 18g and I don't want to dose trace elements.

I like the idea of daily changes to reduce the big swings in Alk I see with the biweekly changes. I'm sure trace elements are swinging the same way I just don't test for them

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 3, 2018

lbacha said:
I really haven't decided on an exact amount yet. Is there a recommended amount when you do daily. I'm doing 20% every other week right now. My main reason for water changes is trace element replenishment since my system is only 18g and I don't want to dose trace elements.

I like the idea of daily changes to reduce the big swings in Alk I see with the biweekly changes. I'm sure trace elements are swinging the same way I just don't test for them

I did 1% daily, which is good from the standpoint of having some moderating effect on things accumulating and things depleting, but wasn't enough to keep all trace elements maintained at NSW levels (although I also didn't dose them). It won't maintain alkalinity.

lbacha · Apr 3, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I did 1% daily, which is good from the standpoint of having some moderating effect on things accumulating and things depleting, but wasn't enough to keep all trace elements maintained at NSW levels (although I also didn't dose them). It won't maintain alkalinity.

I don't plan on using it to maintain Alk I just don't want it to spike Alk up like it does right now when I do a water change.

I maintain my Alk around 9-9.25 and I use IO salt. When I do a water change of 20% my Alk shoots up to around 10. I know there are some brands of salt that have lower Alk but I figured it wouldn't really matter with the daily changes.

I dose ESV with dosing pumps once an hour so I don't really need it for Alk and cal although mag additions will be nice.

FaithKlim · Apr 11, 2018

I ordered an AutoAqua Smart AWChanger yesterday, which also includes an ATO built in. Looked much simpler than the genesis system:
https://www.marinedepot.com/Smart_A...Gw6j0tNiJLe2nGq0_kz7nPt9RsyQQMK8aAtRbEALw_wcB

SantaMonica · Apr 13, 2018

I tell you the choices of dosers nowadays is far beyond just a few years ago.

IanMauger · Apr 27, 2018

Indo Nano said:
So I've been doing 25% water change weekly on my 50g custom build. Because of my busy schedule, I was think of just doing daily water changes, if my math is right I could meet the needs of a weeks worth if I did one and a half gallon water change daily.... I just want to ask what R2R community advise would be on this topic, please give me your input. If you do daily water changes please tell me how it works for you. Thanks to those that will help!

My methods are not the norm. I rarely if even change my water. Maybe a 10% once a quarter. Why? Because why mess with what isn’t broken? The way I look at it is this. We spend countless hours maintaining our water chemistry, using many methods to export nutrients (skimmer, fuge, ATS. I use all of those methods). Once your reef is matured and stabilizes that biome changing the water to me alters that stability. Barring any catastrophes, as long as corals are growing and colorful, your fish are fat and happy, why bother? (My opinion) I also do does trace elements and 2 part.

Mikey2985 · May 10, 2018

I do 5g of oceanwater and 2g of RO/DI on my 46g everyweek to keep my salinity between 1.24-1.26. Sometimes i do 10-15gallon weekly if i see and feel that theres something wrong with any of the corals. If they stressed out, i myself is stressed out too. Daily dose of calcium and alkalinity. Weekly dosing of magnesium and strontinum.

O'l Salty · May 12, 2018

p7willm said:
One advantage that stands out for me is how easy it is to do daily changes. I have a DOS and Apex so actually doing it happens all by itself. I don't have to carry water up from the basement. Nothing spills on the floor. Once every 10 days I make new salt water, right next to my RO/DI water, and check salinity. So on a normal day I spend no time worrying about water.

Does your DOS do the water change all at one time or does it do it slowly over the day. Does your DOS develop air bibles in the lines?

manilaboy1vic · May 23, 2018

BlennyKravitz said:
Oh man. I went from 15G/weekly (10%) to 1G every 12 hours via automated system... obviously it's a lot better than bailing water every Saturday morning, but the coral is SO much happier. Less dosing all around, nitrates and phosphates easier to control. Total no brainer.

Regardless of what your schedule is, I think everyone would benefit from daily changes.

you got me thinking.. i have a DOS by apex.. should i just do daily water changes instead of dosing two part

, if i could NOT dose two part and just do small daily W/Cs that would be incredible.