Water changes...how much....how often...and what's your process???

[mindme]

I don't do water changes on my 180g. Unless you count the water I have to replace because of sock changes(I have 6 socks, so they bring a decent amount of water with them), and that water from the skimmer cup. I add about 1 gallon of salt water every month on average I would guess. So 1g every month technically.

On my 29g anemone tank, I'll do a 30% water change about once every 3 months. It's a tank with RBTA, 2 mated clown fish, some big green poly's that I didn't want in my DT that an online coral seller gave me for "free" and dont' care if the anemones eventually take over them, and also a lot of pulsating xenias that are growing like crazy on the back wall, I just put them in a few months ago. For nutrient export I just let algae grow all over the rocks, and I have 5 urchins in the tank. Tons of algae, but it doesn't bother anything. I remove it when I do a water change and let it grow out again. I don't have to worry about alk/calc etc in that tank. Some coraline will grow after a water change, the urchins will eat it, and then it will stop growing because it uses it up. But I do dose iodide.

 

[WVNed]

6 gallons a day with an AWC on a 400 gallon system.

 

[torombolo]

Im doing a little less than 10% a week on my 75 gallon. Havin a little imbalance between Nitrate (close to 0) and Phosphate at .41 trying to stabilize little by little

 

[Floyd-]

Wow seems im not "normal" I change when it calls for it. Maybe 10-20% every month or two. I have a 45gal reef setup and a 175gal fish only tank.

 

[Paul B]

I back my Jeep up to the sea, throw a bilge pump into the water and pump seawater into vats or containers.

I change about 40 gallons of water in my 125 about 4 times a year.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

400g system, I'm changing 40g a week religiously.

 

[jfoahs04]

I change about 35% biweekly in my nano. I use NSW, so my process is pretty straightforward:

• Fill a 5 gallon bucket at my collection site (a jetty nearby).
• Drive home (5 minutes), pour contents into a separate bucket using a filter sock to weed out any macro items.
• Put cheap heater and powerhead in the bucket to circulate and let the water get up to temp
• Siphon old tank water into a 5 gallon bucket (using the bucket helps me accurately gauge how much water I'm taking out/putting in) and "vaccum" some of the detritus from the sand bed.
• Siphon new water from the bucket into the tank.

I almost always complete the whole process within a few hours of collecting - 24 hours max. I don't want the water to sit for long. I'm also aware of tides (I collect within an hour or so of high tide) and rainfall (never collect right after heavy rain). The first few changes I added some salt mix to get the SG up to 1.026. By my NSW is right around 1.024 and I think that's fine. I'm no longer adding anything to the water.

 

[nhendrix]

Tank is 240g
Sump has about 50g
Change 80g every 2weeks

 

[ReefRusty]

This is my water supply. Pure bliss 200L will last me 4 weeks or so of waterchanges

 

[Tired]

Pico tank, 4.5 gallons, maybe a gallon of water changed every month or so. Pretty intermittent, I mostly have soft corals and they like the nutrients. I mix it by putting a gallon's worth of salt and half a gallon of water in a plastic jug, holding the lid on tight, and shaking the hell out of it. Mixes up pretty quick, then I just fill the jug up the rest of the way and give it a couple swirls, and voila. One gallon of freshly mixed saltwater.

 

[RedReefer]

My normal. 10% weekly water changes

 

[sergifed91]

I have been doing 25 gallons every two weeks but fell of due to reasons out of my control. Fixing the yard up and the folks and other stuff around the house that has b3n neglected and once I thought I'm done I now have a ant problem again. But I hope I nipped that now. Got to get more salt ànd mix and do the wc this week before my upgrade starts.

 

[rtparty]

Almost never. None of my numbers say a water change would benefit anything.

A lot of people need to step back and find the root reasons they are doing a water change. Does your tank actually need one? What are you accomplishing with a water change? You certainly aren't replenishing elements unless they are at zero and your salt happens to contain that trace elements. If that's the case, you should be dosing it. Not relying on a water change to add it back.

Remember, those who encourage water changes the most are salt companies and the companies selling salt

 

[Danroo]

Not so cost effective doing water change. I understand people enjoy doing water changes even if there isn’t anything wrong with their tank. I like to keep things as natural as possible. If I see elevated levels of no3 and po4 or lack of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium.

 

[Paul B]

A lot of people need to step back and find the root reasons they are doing a water change.

I like to do a water change because while I am collecting water, I jump in and take a swim.

No other reason.

 

[ReefRusty]

Almost never. None of my numbers say a water change would benefit anything.

A lot of people need to step back and find the root reasons they are doing a water change. Does your tank actually need one? What are you accomplishing with a water change? You certainly aren't replenishing elements unless they are at zero and your salt happens to contain that trace elements. If that's the case, you should be dosing it. Not relying on a water change to add it back.

Remember, those who encourage water changes the most are salt companies and the companies selling salt

Unfortunately due to limited space in my sump trying to keep my Nitrates down is hard and by doing a WC this accomplish in me reducing my Nitrates. Feeding every 2nd day. So not my over feeding

 

[homer1475]

Almost never. None of my numbers say a water change would benefit anything.

A lot of people need to step back and find the root reasons they are doing a water change. Does your tank actually need one? What are you accomplishing with a water change? You certainly aren't replenishing elements unless they are at zero and your salt happens to contain that trace elements. If that's the case, you should be dosing it. Not relying on a water change to add it back.

Remember, those who encourage water changes the most are salt companies and the companies selling salt

I liken this no water change to taking a bath in your sewer. Fish, and your corals poop all the time, essentially making "old" water like your sewage tank. You wouldn't take a bath in that, so why make your inhabitant do it? While your not removing all the waste, your removing some of it.

I change 10% weekly on my 90G system. Simply run a hose I made up from my kitchen sink to a fitting in my sump area. Turn off the return, let everything drain down, turn on a pump that empties the first compartment of my sump(roughly 15G).

Then simply run another hose from my mixing station to the sump, grab the remote, go back out to tank and turn the pump on from the remote. Pump in 15G, rolls hoses up for another day. Takes me all of 10 minutes once a week.

 

[t5Nitro]

A sewer doesn't have a biomass of coral and algae to consume the waste. Reef tanks do. Most people also run many forms of mechanical and/or chemical filtration despite no water change.

 

[rtparty]

Unfortunately due to limited space in my sump trying to keep my Nitrates down is hard and by doing a WC this accomplish in me reducing my Nitrates. Feeding every 2nd day. So not my over feeding

There are ways around this. Increase your filtration. I run a skimmer on my 120g tank. That's it. No socks, no floss, no reactor of any kind. I'm not over stocked on fish but if I was, I'd dose a little vodka to fight nitrates.

Water changes to fight rising nutrients gets harder and more expensive as time goes on. A 10% water change does very little. If you start at 50ppm nitrates and do a 10% change, you dropped to 45ppm nitrates. Not enough to bother with

 

[rtparty]

I liken this no water change to taking a bath in your sewer. Fish, and your corals poop all the time, essentially making "old" water like your sewage tank. You wouldn't take a bath in that, so why make your inhabitant do it? While your not removing all the waste, your removing some of it.

I change 10% weekly on my 90G system. Simply run a hose I made up from my kitchen sink to a fitting in my sump area. Turn off the return, let everything drain down, turn on a pump that empties the first compartment of my sump(roughly 15G).

Then simply run another hose from my mixing station to the sump, grab the remote, go back out to tank and turn the pump on from the remote. Pump in 15G, rolls hoses up for another day. Takes me all of 10 minutes once a week.

This is completely false. Water doesn't get "old" in any way. We have hundreds of ways to filter and clean our water. Socks, fleece, bacteria, coral, algae, skimmers, etc

If you think your fish are swimming around in a septic system, 10% a week isn't doing squat for that. Would you be okay swimming in your septic system and someone just replaced 10% of that mess every week??? That's what you're saying.

Truth is, that's 100% wrong. I'll say it again, people need to actually look at the WHY we do water changes. Once you realize we've been lied to by these companies, you'll figure out weekly water changes are a waste of time and money.