Water changes, do you love them or hate them?

[hsosa]

i typically do a 5 gallon water change once a month . about 65 total gallon volume. i recently did a ATI ICP test and i got a 3x 20% weekly change which i think its too much and im just doing 10% and twice a week . only to level out my parameters , my calcium and potassium were elevated nothing hurting . im ok with the water changes it takes about 30mins i spend about 1hour with water change and cleaning the glass. it is relaxing to me i have had periods of 3 months with no water change just adding elements. then ill do a icp test to make sure im in the range and make any corretions if i need to . my corals are doing great growing and im running out of space in the tank !

 

[Slocke]

I generally don’t mind them except that the jugs I use will at some point decide to skin my knuckles. They are evil!

 

[Kristopher Conlin]

Wow... That is beautiful! Zoa's don't get harassed by euphyllia? Maybe my sense of depth is off and they're underneath them. Either way... This is an awesome garden!

They are touching my hammer and are just fine in my tank. However in another tank I have a torch and frogspawn that will sting zoas. Maybe it depends on the specific euphyllia.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I thought this may be an interesting topic to talk about.
Water changes, do you love them or hate them?

Do I have to do either?

I think they are useful and desirable, but like exercising and eating healthy, doing it doesn't mean I have to like it. lol

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Eh, I don't mind changing water but I make my own RODI water, use cheap salt and don't pay for water.

Been doing this long enough that it was the only way to do it and the new no water change deal takes a LOT of time, effort and money to automate, dose, test, etc....

 

[TopClamSkoo]

I love it, its like meditation for me, it takes my mind off of the nonsense of life.

My fish and corals like it too, so its win win. But my tanks are all smaller than 32 gallons, I know I couldn't do this with a large tank.

I hear ya!
In the past, my 40 and 80 we're a big pain.
Now that I'm a lot older.. I don't think my back can take it. Early 2000s in my 20s I can hang! Now, my back starts to hurt the bigger the tank.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Love them because they're good for the tank, hate them because I'm lazy. Two things can be real.

 

[TopClamSkoo]

Eh, I don't mind changing water but I make my own RODI water, use cheap salt and don't pay for water.

Been doing this long enough that it was the only way to do it and the new no water change deal takes a LOT of time, effort and money to automate, dose, test, etc....

Wow! You do it up like I do! I have a small nano with lots of live rock. I think there's only 6 gallons of water cuz of the rock, so each time I do a 3 gallon water change, I literally replenish 50% volume so everything soaked up by the corals is filled back up!
in The past I used to test, dose manually (automation did not exist), and do a 10% water change.. that sucked big time.. esp testing water. Even tho only happens once I month.. I still hated it.
Btw. How does growing sps work out for u? I mostly had success with sps in larger tanks I had in the past. But that was when I tested and dosed a lot.

 

[Reefer911]

I don’t mind them and actually enjoy the process.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Wow! You do it up like I do! I have a small nano with lots of live rock. I think there's only 6 gallons of water cuz of the rock, so each time I do a 3 gallon water change, I literally replenish 50% volume so everything soaked up by the corals is filled back up!
in The past I used to test, dose manually (automation did not exist), and do a 10% water change.. that sucked big time.. esp testing water. Even tho only happens once I month.. I still hated it.
Btw. How does growing sps work out for u? I mostly had success with sps in larger tanks I had in the past. But that was when I tested and dosed a lot.

No sps my man 'not in current sense' but my corals was fine 10+ years ago.

 

[dstockwell]

Doesn't hurt to do one per month.

This the schedule at a minimum I’m going with

 

[maroun.c]

Love them as imthey reset many things that can go off in the tank at the same time. People hate the labor needed for those but having a clever system to do semi automatic water changes is a great thing imo.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I simply dont do them. Maybe twice a year

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Because I was just reading…as @brandon429 would call it…a ‘rip clean’ thread, I’ll take it a step further.

As a big fan of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, and knowing that coral reefs are designed to be shaken up from time to time, every couple of years I like to take everything out of my tanks, save ~90% of the water, and then flush the sand bed out in the remaining water, remove the dirty water, and then put it all back together.

The coral loves it.

 

[killer2001]

As a big fan of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, and knowing that coral reefs are designed to be shaken up from time to time, every couple of years I like to take everything out of my tanks, save ~90% of the water, and then flush the sand bed out in the remaining water, remove the dirty water, and then put it all back together.

The coral loves it.

The ole Hurricane Gregg huh? Sounds like a good idea, maybe a more casual approach to this is crank up all powerheads to 100% and watch the madness ensue.

 

[brandon429]

I'm fascinated how reef rules for procedure works

If we posted this recommended action in 2005 any forum would ban us for heresy

You can't rinse a sandbed, duh, you'll kill the tank. With tap water? We'll ban you, your kids, and your grandkids for the mere inclination/ any site would

Give it a decade or so and any reef rule might be found completely false

Up next: the claim that reef cycles get stuck

I need a mere six more years on that one. If seneye will lower their price to 49.99 we'll have that rule rescinded in 6 mos

 

[brandon429]

The firmest rule set i ever saw in reefing was the minimum gallonage rule of 2001, which was fifteen heh.

 

[steveschuerger]

I try to do 5-10 gallons, sometimes weekly sometimes bi-weekly in my 60 gallon SR. Recently had a problem with bryopsis and a small amount of dinos. Ended up doing 3 water changes of about 8 gallons with sand cleaning and rock scrubbing for the first 2 . Not fun but necessary. That being said I have a total of 3 aquariums (60 salt, 90 and 16 fresh) and find doing changes rather cathartic.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[rtparty]

I’ve been camp no water changes for the last 2 years and now willing to admit it isn’t as great as it’s made out to be. You have to test and dose a TON and nobody can even tell you what exactly is going on. It’s a giant game of chess and eventually you’re gonna lose.

Give me 100 reefers who do water changes from day 1 and 100 reefers who rarely/never do them and I can guarantee you which camp will be more successful with longer living systems.

No amount of testing can tell us everything going on. There are things building up in our tanks that can’t be tested for and eventually they’re gonna bite ya.