125% Water Change??

[SaltEpidemic]

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm in the process of setting up an auto water change system using the DOS pumps and some very large water vats.
I'm still relatively new to the hobby and green to auto water changes in general, but thought it might be easier just to do the auto thing with my system.

My question and concerns, and mostly curiosity, would be what others might think about doing a large monthly water change and what effects that might have. When I say large, I'm saying 6 to 7 gallons per day on a 150 gallon system. So roughly more then 100% water exchange over a months time, assuming a portion of that water being removed is simply new water added over the months period from the daily exchange.

Would this run into any problems? Thanks in advance!

 

[Jasonak]

I dont see a problem with it. As long as your not doing much over 20 percent a day which is the standard your safe pretty safe and im sure you could dig deeper and find out excatley how far you could go with that.
Your doing about 5 percent a day so to me thats pretty stress free. Fish or reef tank ?

 

[SaltEpidemic]

I dont see a problem with it. As long as your not doing much over 20 percent a day which is the standard your safe pretty safe and im sure you could dig deeper and find out excatley how far you could go with that.
Your doing about 5 percent a day so to me thats pretty stress free. Fish or reef tank ?

It'll be both, fish and reef. I'm actually in the process of restarting the tank after a move.

The idea here was to keep the water pristine, and rely on a heavier feeding/ fish waste to feed the coral, instead of a nitrate/ phosphate range to chase.

I suppose I wonder to if this would replace most of the parameters as well, like mag/cal/alk..

Basically the whole idea is to try and minimize the work of everything else by going heavy on great water quality/ exchange of new water. This is all new to me though, only been in the hobby two years and haven't gone this route before.

 

[Jasonak]

It'll be both, fish and reef. I'm actually in the process of restarting the tank after a move.

The idea here was to keep the water pristine, and rely on a heavier feeding/ fish waste to feed the coral, instead of a nitrate/ phosphate range to chase.

I suppose I wonder to if this would replace most of the parameters as well, like mag/cal/alk..

Basically the whole idea is to try and minimize the work of everything else by going heavy on great water quality/ exchange of new water. This is all new to me though, only been in the hobby two years and haven't gone this route before.

I dont know of a salt mix that has the parameters that I want for my reef but you could dos up your exchange water and get it where you want it and then you would be good to go. Some corals are more tolerant than others fish of course are always going to want the want the cleanest water you can give them.

 

[Troylee]

Not problems at all but expensive lol.. in reality you’re not changing 100% of the water as the new salt water goes in its contaminated.. Randy I believe had a chart showing the break down over time with a continuous water change. I’d imagine it’s about a 50% wc over the course of a month even thou you changed 100% of it.

 

[SaltEpidemic]

Not problems at all but expensive lol.. in reality you’re not changing 100% of the water as the new salt water goes in its contaminated.. Randy I believe had a chart showing the break down over time with a continuous water change. I’d imagine it’s about a 50% wc over the course of a month even thou you changed 100% of it.

Yeah i was thinking about bucket a month, or roughly 200 gallons, which is over the 100% change, maybe 133%?

I dunno lol Just tossing the idea out there to see what others might of thought. I'm rarely home, so wanted to make maintenance minimal for the wife!

 

[JayM]

The only problem I can see is making your wallet considerably lighter. I don't know that you'd see much benefit with changing that much monthly.

 

[Jasonak]

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm in the process of setting up an auto water change system using the DOS pumps and some very large water vats.
I'm still relatively new to the hobby and green to auto water changes in general, but thought it might be easier just to do the auto thing with my system.

My question and concerns, and mostly curiosity, would be what others might think about doing a large monthly water change and what effects that might have. When I say large, I'm saying 6 to 7 gallons per day on a 150 gallon system. So roughly more then 100% water exchange over a months time, assuming a portion of that water being removed is simply new water added over the months period from the daily exchange.

Would this run into any problems? Thanks in advance!

I used to work out of town, sometimes gone 9 weeks. If your just trying to make things easy on the wife. I would say biggest thing would just be sure to have good monitoring system that would be most important. I also had a buddy that if things went really south could come over and fix it.

 

[Spare time]

I think it would be far more cost effective to simply run stronger and more filtration methods.

 

[SaltEpidemic]

I used to work out of town, sometimes gone 9 weeks. If your just trying to make things easy on the wife. I would say biggest thing would just be sure to have good monitoring system that would be most important. I also had a buddy that if things went really south could come over and fix it.

I'm not gone that long, but often a couple weeks for sure.

The idea was to keep the animals not only alive but as healthy as i could get them, with the most minimal work. I've heard over and over that water changes generally mean a healthy system. Obviously there are nuances to this overall.

A hundred bucks for salt and fifty for water a month isn't a concern to me, especially if there could be a huge benefit in the tank with both fish and coral. I guess I curious if a constant state of clean and fresh water could eliminate most of the issues we run into, like having to dose, higher parameters, or water toxicity. The idea was to cheat it all, put in clean water with the parameters you're after constantly.

Maybe I'm over thinking it lol

 

[SaltEpidemic]

I think it would be far more cost effective to simply run stronger and more filtration methods.

I've ran filter socks, skimmer, and refuge.... maybe I was trying to find a way to get out of having to maintain these, when generally it's the wife while I'm away. The water change idea was more a set it and forget it idea.

I do appreciate everyone's input on this!