Water changes, I know, I know, but...

[Lavey29]

I know this is often discussed and everyone has their opinion. Seems some tanks do better with frequent changes even small daily amounts while other tanks can go without ever changing water. My first 8 months I did weekly 10g 15% changes. Now the last 5 months I have gone with 10g every 2 weeks. I will say that my tank has matured and is doing very well presently. I dose alk, cal and mag. I also dose Red Sea trace weekly. Chaeto is huge and green, corals and fish happy and numbers have stabilized pretty well.

I am considering going to monthly water changes now. Not because I'm lazy but I would like the ecosystem to balance itself out even more without my involvement. I see water changes as a means to replenish and balance certain areas of the tank which I am already doing now with dosing. My nitrate is holding well around 10 to 13. Phosphate bumps a little depending on how much coral food I add.

What would be the negatives to this approach? I know some will say if your tank is doing well then why change the schedule? I can agree with this however things seemed to improve when I went to biweekly changes versus weekly so I am wondering if monthly changes will allow the tank to handle its own chemistry and balance itself rather then my hand in the water. Would like to hear some thoughts especially from those who transitioned from weekly to monthly water changes....thanks

 

[blaxsun]

I'm not necessarily the best to comment, as I haven't done any real water changes in over a year (maybe three 10% changes over 13 months). I have a 200-gallon mixed reef with 42 fish and my nitrates are around 20ppm with phosphates around 0.15ppm. Everything is happy and healthy.

 

[Lavey29]

I'm not necessarily the best to comment, as I haven't done any real water changes in over a year (maybe three 10% changes over 13 months). I have a 200-gallon mixed reef with 42 fish and my nitrates are around 20ppm with phosphates around 0.15ppm. Everything is happy and healthy.

Did you transition to this point over time?

 

[Dburr1014]

I know this is often discussed and everyone has their opinion. Seems some tanks do better with frequent changes even small daily amounts while other tanks can go without ever changing water. My first 8 months I did weekly 10g 15% changes. Now the last 5 months I have gone with 10g every 2 weeks. I will say that my tank has matured and is doing very well presently. I dose alk, cal and mag. I also dose Red Sea trace weekly. Chaeto is huge and green, corals and fish happy and numbers have stabilized pretty well.

I am considering going to monthly water changes now. Not because I'm lazy but I would like the ecosystem to balance itself out even more without my involvement. I see water changes as a means to replenish and balance certain areas of the tank which I am already doing now with dosing. My nitrate is holding well around 10 to 13. Phosphate bumps a little depending on how much coral food I add.

What would be the negatives to this approach? I know some will say if your tank is doing well then why change the schedule? I can agree with this however things seemed to improve when I went to biweekly changes versus weekly so I am wondering if monthly changes will allow the tank to handle its own chemistry and balance itself rather then my hand in the water. Would like to hear some thoughts especially from those who transitioned from weekly to monthly water changes....thanks

Every tank is different and every tank will be different as the changes happen.
I used to do weekly water changes, always in the range of 5 to 10%. Then life happens, get lazy, or whatever. I went to doing monthly changes usually 10%. Then I got more lazy and was doing Maybe 10 to 20% every 6 months. I think the biggest thing that I noticed was is my sand was getting dirty. I would Stir It Up Before water changes and it helped. I would also get sand stirrers which also helped.
But since I got my Apex last Christmas this year I setup my AWC with a DOS. Now I don't have to worry about being lazy. Once a month I mix up my water and be done with it. I'm doing 5% weekly which adds up to 20% monthly. My tank seems to be doing better and no water changes at all. But, every tank is different.

 

[X-37B]

After many years I do 10% WC a month on my 3 systems systems.

 

[blaxsun]

Did you transition to this point over time?

Nope. Started with a new tank and decided after maintaining a pair of smaller 25-gallon tanks that I abhor water changes. So I made the conscious decision not to do them. The three water changes that I performed were sump maintenance where I sucked out a bunch of crap along with ~10% of the water that accompanied it.

I've got an awesome cleanup crew. 5 black sea cucumbers, a dozen conches and about four dozen nassarius snails keep the sand relatively sparkly clean.

 

[Lavey29]

Nope. Started with a new tank and decided after maintaining a pair of smaller 25-gallon tanks that I abhor water changes. So I made the conscious decision not to do them. The three water changes that I performed were sump maintenance where I sucked out a bunch of crap along with ~10% of the water that accompanied it.

I've got an awesome cleanup crew. 5 black sea cucumbers, a dozen conches and about four dozen nassarius snails keep the sand relatively sparkly clean.

So you embraced the concept of letting your tank ecosystem find its own balance rather then manual input.

 

[Lavey29]

So tomorrow is supposed to be my biweekly water change. But all my numbers are good. Water is crystal clear in the tank. Every coral is happy and the sand is not to bad over all. I think I'm going to try and extend to a month to experiment a bit.

For those of you that do minimal water changes do you find you need to offset your salinity a bit due to skimming?

 

[Spare time]

I do very, very few water changes. Nearly all over these are maybe 1-3 gallons of me vacuuming the sump, overflow box, or a particularly low flow area in the tank. So maybe 15 to 20 gallons a year in my 75? Maybe? Probably less. Nitrate at 1.5ppm ish and phosphate at 0.07ppm last time I checked. I dose all for reef + brightwells potassium. I run carbon, refugium, and filter socks. I rinse the carbon in hot tap water after 2 weeks and swap it monthly. I also have a bag of seachem matrix leftover from previous tanks but I don't think it does much. No skimmer.

 

[blaxsun]

So you embraced the concept of letting your tank ecosystem find its own balance rather then manual input.

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, I do dose alkalinity, calcium and magnesium as well as trace elements every week because I'm not replenishing those through water changes. I think it's doing pretty good, but of course I'm biased.

 

[Lavey29]

I do very, very few water changes. Nearly all over these are maybe 1-3 gallons of me vacuuming the sump, overflow box, or a particularly low flow area in the tank. So maybe 15 to 20 gallons a year in my 75? Maybe? Probably less. Nitrate at 1.5ppm ish and phosphate at 0.07ppm last time I checked. I dose all for reef + brightwells potassium. I run carbon, refugium, and filter socks. I rinse the carbon in hot tap water after 2 weeks and swap it monthly. I also have a bag of seachem matrix leftover from previous tanks but I don't think it does much. No skimmer.

What does hot water do for carbon?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

i do daily small water changes and monthly large. since it works ive never second guessed it.

 

[Lavey29]

i do daily small water changes and monthly large. since it works ive never second guessed it.

On what size tank? Do you dose at all?

 

[dvgyfresh]

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, I do dose alkalinity, calcium and magnesium as well as trace elements every week because I'm not replenishing those through water changes. I think it's doing pretty good, but of course I'm biased.

Looks great!

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

On what size tank? Do you dose at all?

300 gallon reef + sump maybe 120 gallons or so. depends what you mean by dosing. i run calcium reactor and kalkreactor. i have a doser with reef roids, and phyto ,and nopox on occasion. I "dose" ozone and UV 24 /7.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I also do not waterchange , join us jimmy

 

[Spare time]

What does hot water do for carbon?

Basically I try to extend the life of it. From my understanding, carbon can get smothered in bacteria and crud which can shorten its lifespan. So I soak and rinse it in scorching hot tap water for a bit to try and remove that buildup

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

i think you can be successful with many methodologies as long as you have the right gear and put in the work required by the method . I certainly dont see any downside to doing daily small water changes or larger montly or weekly or whatever interval you pick.

 

[FoolishWizard]

Ive kept an LPS / Softie 20gal tank which I didn't do water changes for 3-6 months at a time with no noticeable issues... Only reason I ended up doing the changes was just because I would randomly think "meh, I should prob just do a WC"... The current tank of the month on here is 4+ years and counting without water changes... Success lies on both sides of the tracks.

 

[Lavey29]

Do you guys think certain corals do better with water changes versus limited or no water changes. SPS dominant system require more then an LPS system?