Water Changes: Where do you stand on water changes for your reef tank?

[maceto]

Every week 25% for my Pico tank

 

[RoyinSpain]

So, I live in Arizona, and especially in the summer, it’s very dry. I have a 150 gal, and lose roughly 15%-20% to evaporation each week. I have a 10 gallon auto top off, and refill it twice a week. That suffices for a “water change”, right.

No, what evaporates is it only the 'pure' water, all salts, contaminants etc stays in the tank.

 

[Neil S.]

Pretty simple today. I think it's been a while for a site-wide poll on water changes so let's do it! Let's talk about water changes and where you stand concerning your tank!

1. How often do you "change out your water" in your reef tank, what percent and how many gallons is your system? Or do you even?

2. How important or not important do you think water changes are for your reef tank?


@CMO no water change reef! Thread here.

I'm running the Triton Method. It has stabilized now and has not had a water change for about 6 months. Parameters are all good.

 

[ahiggins]

I only use filter floss in my smaller tanks. They get a water change when the nitrates get over 10 which is usually about 3 weeks or so.

 

[SMB]

Sunday mornings are my tank maintenance time. 15% WC, fill the ATO with RO, work on pumps/PS/reactors and sump cleaning as needed. I like the routine and the tank always looks happy afterwards!

 

[goldslinger]

No water changes on my 56 or My Wife’s 26 for going on 7 years now. Hers is softie, lps, mine is sps dominant mixed. Use ESV 2 part which is way before its time keeping everything ironically balanced. Did My first ICP test a few Months ago out of curiosity, and was surprised that everything that mattered was spot on. I recently started manually dosing some elements like Potassium, Iron and manganese. I had To dose nitrogen and phosphorous up until very recently, as I trimmed the macro way back and lessened the photoperiod. Now, levels are good. Sandbed is 1 to 3.5 inches depending on where. Apex system on mine. I remember being flamed a lot a few years back for ‘admitting’ never doing water changes. That was about the time most Europeans weren’t doing them either.

 

[Mark Novack]

Looking at the photo I see very few fish. I prefer a little (or heavily) overstocked but I MUST do large and regular water changes to keep nitrates under 20 to 30ppm. I have hit off the charts nitrate levels because I got lazy and my rocks became so fuzzy it looked like the Muppet show. I really like fish, at least for the moment. If I go back to SPS I'll probably do like this and keep a very low fish stock. I must confess to using brute force to keep things in check.

 

[reefpatrique]

I'm giving the Triton method a good college try on my new 75g, so here's to hoping for very, very few water changes. I have a 20g sump with mass of chaeto for nutrient uptake.

 

[Arabyps]

20% every 2 weeks. Add beneficial bacteria after the water change (Microbacter 7).

 

[Lasse]

Looking at the photo I see very few fish. I prefer a little (or heavily) overstocked but I MUST do large and regular water changes to keep nitrates under 20 to 30ppm. I have hit off the charts nitrate levels because I got lazy and my rocks became so fuzzy it looked like the Muppet show. I really like fish, at least for the moment. If I go back to SPS I'll probably do like this and keep a very low fish stock. I must confess to using brute force to keep things in check.

In this post you see my tank 300 l (80 G) . started 48 months ago. First WC every 14 days 20% WC. Stop WC 38 months ago. 5 * 50 L WC during one week around 30 months ago (caused of SI concentration of 20 ppm) - after that one WC 24 months ago (40 l - start of a new aquarium). I use Triton Core 7 - and it is a daily take out of 0.6 l sea water (get in 0.6 l RO water) caused of salinity rise. 30 months without WC. How small is my stock? it is stocked with 40 + fish. Feeds with 7 cubes of Ocean Nutrition frozen food/day. Nitrates around 4. Refugium - 10 %. Last ICP - all green with exception of Ca (420 -> 440 ppm); Li (140 -> 200 ppm) and PO4 (0,06 -> 0,018 ppm)

QUESTION OF THE DAY Water Changes: Where do you stand on water changes for your reef tank?

Pretty simple today. I think it's been a while for a site-wide poll on water changes so let's do it! Let's talk about water changes and where you stand concerning your tank! 1. How often do you "change out your water" in your reef tank, what percent and how many gallons is your system? Or do...

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Mikeltee]

Every other week I vacuum my sand. I replace what I take which is anywhere from 5-15gal in my 130dt. Every 6 months I clean my sump so theres another 20gal.

 

[Fishy Art]

I have a 65 gallon tank, 6 months new and still maturing. There is an additional 2 gallon HOB refugio and HOB protein skimmer.

I have a heavy bio load with 8 fish with eventual mature size of 3" each.

I have a lot of rock scape and figure minus sanded and rock a net of about 45 gallons of water.

I do a regular weekly 10% water change. My water is crystal clear. The soft and LPS corals I have begun adding are all looking good.

I started adding Brightwell Aquatics trace element twice a week and my corals responded very well to this.

Perhaps after a year if all is still looking good I may cut back on the water changes.

 

[Lizbeli]

Waterbox 70.3

Change 15gals every two or three weeks. But I only have three fish right now. Skim 12hrs a day and have a small refugium.

Running the Aquaforest Balling 123 to keep up on alk/cal/mg and trace elements between water changes. For me, water changes aren’t so important. Running 2ppm nitrate and .04 phosphate. Working so far.

My past tank which didn’t have a refugium ran at high nitrate. I noticed a big difference keeping up on water changes for that tank. Kind of weird how different all of my tanks have been. What worked for some wouldn’t work great for others.

 

[Mark Novack]

In this post you see my tank 300 l (80 G) . started 48 months ago. First WC every 14 days 20% WC. Stop WC 38 months ago. 5 * 50 L WC during one week around 30 months ago (caused of SI concentration of 20 ppm) - after that one WC 24 months ago (40 l - start of a new aquarium). I use Triton Core 7 - and it is a daily take out of 0.6 l sea water (get in 0.6 l RO water) caused of salinity rise. 30 months without WC. How small is my stock? it is stocked with 40 + fish. Feeds with 7 cubes of Ocean Nutrition frozen food/day. Nitrates around 4. Refugium - 10 %. Last ICP - all green with exception of Ca (420 -> 440 ppm); Li (140 -> 200 ppm) and PO4 (0,06 -> 0,018 ppm)

QUESTION OF THE DAY Water Changes: Where do you stand on water changes for your reef tank?

Pretty simple today. I think it's been a while for a site-wide poll on water changes so let's do it! Let's talk about water changes and where you stand concerning your tank! 1. How often do you "change out your water" in your reef tank, what percent and how many gallons is your system? Or do...

www.reef2reef.com

Sincerely Lasse

The photo does not show it. My mistake. The aquarium looks larger than 80usg, probably due to its coral density.
I have no noticeable denitrification with two blocks of marine pure, purigen, and an efficient skimmer. Nor do I have a clean up crew as they just get eaten. No refugium either although I'd love to put one in if I get enough motivation to redo the underworkings and find place. I do so much DIY around my home that I get burned out and when modifying the aquarium it's go go go until its done.
Mark

 

[palmer]

I have gone months without water changes on previous set up- my current set up running 5 yrs I have experimented with water changes from bi- monthly to once every two months to even once a quarter. Currently I do 15 % change every month which seem to be the best fit for my system..

 

[rob safron]

No water change unless there is an issue for years now. ICP test and dose what’s needed.

 

[Spieg]

I typically do regular water changes on a new tank, but after 6-8 months it's usually stable enough to stop... after that it's on an as needed basis (usually 20% once or twice a year to clean the sand bed). Been dosing ESV 2-part for many years and it does pretty good at major and minor/trace element replenishment.

 

[Thomthom329]

#nowaterchanges

 

[Aardvark1134]

Just keep in mind the water isn't the issue...the issue is what is or isn't in the water.

 

[Alistairn1]

Pretty simple today. I think it's been a while for a site-wide poll on water changes so let's do it! Let's talk about water changes and where you stand concerning your tank!

1. How often do you "change out your water" in your reef tank, what percent and how many gallons is your system? Or do you even?

2. How important or not important do you think water changes are for your reef tank?


@CMO no water change reef! Thread here.

I only ever dose Mg and do the rest with approx 10% water changes p/w (LPS tank) 480L EA1200 pro