When did you adjust / stop water changes

[crabgrass]

I am curious on when people modified their water change habit. Skipping a week or going cold turkey.

I recently moved from a 20g to 100g. In my 20g, i did 15-20% WC weekly religiously unless I was traveling. I am sure it helped a lot in the beginning, but almost seemed to make things worse towards the end (upsetting the stability).

in my 100g, I have 85lbs dry (precycled), 15 lbs ocean rock. Slightly oversized skimmer, bio bricks, large fuge, etc. Parameters after month 1 have beginning to level out. 3 N, .08 P, 8.3 alk (dosing AFR). Large CuC.

I’ve been doing 10% WC so far, and outside of the expected diatoms and a little neon green, no algae in the display (fuge is another story)

I’ve dumped a couple of rounds of pods into the tank, plus seeded it from some stuff at ipsf. Correline is starting to spread to the dry rocks, etc.

I know I am still far away from 0 WC territory being so new. However, I am also in the zone of not wanting to lower nutrients much lower (eg considering actually dosing a little N).

What are the markers to skip a WC? I would almost like to be able to say: do water change if X is needed.

When would you modify your schedule.

 

[Marquarium]

Personally I try to do 10% weekly and only increase the % if nitrates get out of hand. I don't have a ton of corals either so water changes are more than enough to replenish calcium, magnesium, etc

 

[vetteguy53081]

I am curious on when people modified their water change habit. Skipping a week or going cold turkey.

I recently moved from a 20g to 100g. In my 20g, i did 15-20% WC weekly religiously unless I was traveling. I am sure it helped a lot in the beginning, but almost seemed to make things worse towards the end (upsetting the stability).

in my 100g, I have 85lbs dry (precycled), 15 lbs ocean rock. Slightly oversized skimmer, bio bricks, large fuge, etc. Parameters after month 1 have beginning to level out. 3 N, .08 P, 8.3 alk (dosing AFR). Large CuC.

I’ve been doing 10% WC so far, and outside of the expected diatoms and a little neon green, no algae in the display (fuge is another story)

I’ve dumped a couple of rounds of pods into the tank, plus seeded it from some stuff at ipsf. Correline is starting to spread to the dry rocks, etc.

I know I am still far away from 0 WC territory being so new. However, I am also in the zone of not wanting to lower nutrients much lower (eg considering actually dosing a little N).

What are the markers to skip a WC? I would almost like to be able to say: do water change if X is needed.

When would you modify your schedule.

After about 3-4 months or when tests are consistent with favorable results you can go every 3 weeks and eventually 3 weeks

 

[crabgrass]

After about 3-4 months or when tests are consistent with favorable results you can go every 3 weeks and eventually 3 weeks

So like:
- 10% WC Months 1-4
- if parametes are stable and favorable / acceptable, shift to WC every 2-3 weeks
- after another 3 months validate and move to every 4-6 weeks
- etc

Thrown in some ICP test along the way to create a baseline for changes.

?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So like:
- 10% WC Months 1-4
- if parametes are stable and favorable / acceptable, shift to WC every 2-3 weeks
- after another 3 months validate and move to every 4-6 weeks
- etc

Thrown in some ICP test along the way to create a baseline for changes.

?

You got it add occasional liquid bacteria

 

[JoJosReef]

Trying to change water (10%) once every month or so but sometimes go a few months between. Struggling to keep nitrates up and PO4 holding steady at 0.05, so water changes aren't exactly helping me with nutrients. I already feed heavy, so not an issue there, just fast growing stuff consuming rapidly. I stopped trying to stay on schedule when everything started growing and looking nice and the tank itself started keeping nutrients down. I don't run a skimmer and change filter floss once every 2-3 weeks--yeah, it's pretty gross ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Ernie Mccracken]

I've gone the other way throughout the years. I want more frequent water changes, continuous daily water changes being the ideal.

 

[crabgrass]

I've gone the other way throughout the years. I want more frequent water changes, continuous daily water changes being the ideal.

Yeah, if I had the space to do this that would be the preferred (like 1% a day). Unfortunately I don’t, and running drainage pipes through the house isn’t an option.

 

[Doctorgori]

disclaimer:
there is a cartoon somewhere of bugs bunny testing bombs with a hammer ….
going without water changes is just like that, it works until it doesn’t…
…soapboxing out of the way
but yeah I’ve been on the no water change wish list, and generally speaking I’ll start skipping weeks when I see coralline algae (or that hard green stuff) dominating/replacing the soft brown green stuff on the glass …
not a absolute or even scientific but glass algae is sorta a sign balance & stability is setting in or not

 

[DanyL]

I never changed the routine - for 16 years it’s been always a weekly WC, except for rare occasions when I really couldn’t.
Only changes were the amounts, between tank upgrades.