What does your water change regimen look like?

Literallyhydro · Mar 2, 2018

So far, it seems to be the general consensus that frequent, small water changes are better than larger, infrequent water changes.

It's amazing how some tanks can be heavily stocked, fed twice a day, with only a large protein skimmer and frequent water changes can maintain nitrates and Phosphates.

Edit:

Day 3 of Nopox:

Dosing 7.5mL a day, nitrates went from being 25 borderline 50 to a solid 25, Phosphates dropped from 0.08 to 0.04.

At this rate, I may need to lower the dosage further. For now, I'll continue running the 7.5mL daily. If the Phosphates bottom out or nitrates drop below 5 I will cut the dose in half.

mdrobc13 · Mar 3, 2018

Swapped out to the Triton method over the Xmas holidays. No more 10-20% water changes regularly. Just ATO using RO/DI water from LFS or my RO/DI filter and then maybe adding 1-2 gallons fresh Salt water with fish additions due to losses when drip acclimating. So far...so good. Corals seem to love it so far after an initial period of adjustment and fish are doing fine. No deaths so far going on 90+ days and have stopped carbon dosing with Red Sea NOPOX supplements and other supplements. Now just dose Triton 4 part system. Do Triton water checks every 3-4 mos planned on schedule and initial check was pretty good. I do check my water parameters about once a month for Ca, Pho, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, etc and they are stable and consistently low to zero depending on feeding/stocking levels.

So far so good...and do not miss constant weekly changes to water and dosing chemicals and changes to maintenance which I was doing before religiously.

Literallyhydro · Mar 3, 2018

The Triton method definitely interests me, I just don't have a means to implement a refugium. Did you switch to the Triton method because of any issues running NO3PO4X or did you switch to get off the daily dosing?

mdrobc13 · Mar 3, 2018

Literallyhydro said:
The Triton method definitely interests me, I just don't have a means to implement a refugium. Did you switch to the Triton method because of any issues running NO3PO4X or did you switch to get off the daily dosing?

NO issues running NO3PO4X at all and found it pretty good at controlling my nitrates levels. Was doing daily dosing via my doser up to 6 channels at that point for my 210g tank and just was looking for a better way to simplify maintenance as well as dosing. Triton method I am using is the Core 7 stuff which seems to be a lot more concentrated and I go thru less than I was with my doser previously. I was already running a refugium in my Trigger 34 Amethyst sump so that wasn't much of an issue or problem.

Literallyhydro · Mar 3, 2018

mdrobc13 said:
NO issues running NO3PO4X at all and found it pretty good at controlling my nitrates levels. Was doing daily dosing via my doser up to 6 channels at that point for my 210g tank and just was looking for a better way to simplify maintenance as well as dosing. Triton method I am using is the Core 7 stuff which seems to be a lot more concentrated and I go thru less than I was with my doser previously. I was already running a refugium in my Trigger 34 Amethyst sump so that wasn't much of an issue or problem.

Thank you for your input [emoji4] it's neat seeing other methods of running a tank, and it gives me ideas for future systems.

Literallyhydro · Mar 5, 2018

Can I get a hand reading that nitrate result? It used to be a bit darker but my eyes can't tell if it's 25 or 10.. I want to hope for 10

Literallyhydro · Mar 7, 2018

I wanted to give a quick update on the situation. My phosphate currently reads 0.03PPM, with my nitrates still hovering seemingly between 10 and 25. Compared to my original readings, the numbers are definitely coming down.

I've been dosing 10 ml Nopox daily, should I cut the dosage to less, or should I continue the 10? I don't want to bottom out the Phosphates but the nitrate is taking its sweet time coming down.