A Water Change A Day...
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OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Welcome aboard!
I would make sure there's no mechanical filtration in the cannisters, or if there is, rinse the mechanical media out in your water change water either daily or weekly.
-Matt
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Not at the moment. Between the tank looking nice and having great momentum (mission accomplished) and an even-more-severe lack of regular free time, my situation pretty much dictated it.
What's got you considering it? Anything in particular?
If you have a fast, easy way to swap 10 (or even 15 if you wanted, given the size of your system) gallons a day, I'd still heartily recommend it.
Let me know if you have any good ideas on the "fast, easy" part of the water changes. I'm always on the lookout for more ideas and might be able to add an idea too. Two that may or may not be obvious to start with: Don't over-complicate it or make it take more time than needed. If you're doing it right, mixing water should take around five minutes from the time you add salt.
Good luck!
-Matt
What's got you considering it? Anything in particular?
If you have a fast, easy way to swap 10 (or even 15 if you wanted, given the size of your system) gallons a day, I'd still heartily recommend it.
Let me know if you have any good ideas on the "fast, easy" part of the water changes.
I'm always on the lookout for more ideas and might be able to add an idea too. Two that may or may not be obvious to start with: Don't over-complicate it or make it take more time than needed. If you're doing it right, mixing water should take around five minutes from the time you add salt.Good luck!
-Matt
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Not at the moment. Between the tank looking nice and having great momentum (mission accomplished) and an even-more-severe lack of regular free time, my situation pretty much dictated it.
What's got you considering it? Anything in particular?
If you have a fast, easy way to swap 10 (or even 15 if you wanted, given the size of your system) gallons a day, I'd still heartily recommend it.
Let me know if you have any good ideas on the "fast, easy" part of the water changes.
Good luck!
-Matt
I just can't whip my nitrates. That's really my reasoning. So basically I'm looking to the basics to help me (water changes) battle nitrate. Skimming wet, food cut backs, vinegar dosing (only been 3 weeks so might be too soon), diy upflow scrubber (not the best design) didn't help. My nitrates are still at 20, so back to basics using water changes and supreme Rodi water.
I will admit that I've slacked on water changes and I feel like I'm paying for it now. So as of last night I decided water changes (as many as it takes or using the daily method) was the best approach (tried and true method) for me. I also used your method to sterilize my Rodi unit using bleach.
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
If you do one really far water change and don't see nitrates budge, it could be time for an episode if Detritus Hunt. Check all the usuals - sand bed, in and under rocks, sump, et al.
Vinegar dosing should goose up your biofilter's denitrification rate and deal with it pretty handily too. Like you said time may be the factor there.
If you slacked on water changes before you may want to consider taking some steps to make this round easier on you. Just doing these smaller water changes may be enough, but brainstorm and see if there's anything else that would make sense too.
How big a tank and how old is it?
Seeing ammonia could be a bad thing that water changes might not help with.
-Matt
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Matt, I removed all the rock in series, sun baked them for a week then recycled them in a livestock vat (last set of rocks is still cycling). I'm also 90% bare bottom too. This is leading me to my water supply and water changes. Sound right to you or am I going crazy, lol?
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Holy C***, you already went nuclear! LOL (I must've missed a chunk of
Does your TDS meter appear to be working correctly (e.g. an expected reading on tap water), and are you getting zero-TDS water from your makeup system?
-Matt
P.S. Going crazy? See you there!
Last edited:
Saltgator
Tang Keeper
Lol. I posted my craziness in my thread. I'm not leaving anything unturned, lol. My tds is working, but I bust thru di resin like no tomorrow. Without di resin, my tds is about 10. With is zero. Prior to all (well water in swfl) it's roughly 450+.
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Dunno why I said that (fixed!)...meant your thread, but typed something else! LOL.
You might consider running dual-DI stages for the assurance of never blowing out your DI cart.
I think AZDesertRat has posted somewhere here about this a few times...might be in Spectrapure's instructions for their dual-DI upgrade too.
-Matt
You might consider running dual-DI stages for the assurance of never blowing out your DI cart.
I think AZDesertRat has posted somewhere here about this a few times...might be in Spectrapure's instructions for their dual-DI upgrade too.
-Matt
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Water change #114!
Five gallons as usual.
Tank is holding steady, even without water changes - big coral colonies still getting bigger! Next time I clean the glass I'll get some pictures for size comparison.
I wish I still had time to do the daily water changes...or spare budget to equip an auto-change system of some kind.
Since I have neither, I'm just glad the corals don't seem to mind that all I'm keeping up with are daily feedings (very small pinch of flakes) and daily two-part editions (150mL/day of Recipe #2) and the occasional skimmer cleaning. Na+Cl levels are probably getting up there.
-Matt
Five gallons as usual.
Tank is holding steady, even without water changes - big coral colonies still getting bigger!
Next time I clean the glass I'll get some pictures for size comparison.I wish I still had time to do the daily water changes...or spare budget to equip an auto-change system of some kind.
Since I have neither, I'm just glad the corals don't seem to mind that all I'm keeping up with are daily feedings (very small pinch of flakes) and daily two-part editions (150mL/day of Recipe #2) and the occasional skimmer cleaning. Na+Cl levels are probably getting up there.
-Matt
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My Tank Thread
Water change #114!
Five gallons as usual.
Tank is holding steady, even without water changes - big coral colonies still getting bigger!
I wish I still had time to do the daily water changes...or spare budget to equip an auto-change system of some kind.
Since I have neither, I'm just glad the corals don't seem to mind that all I'm keeping up with are daily feedings (very small pinch of flakes) and daily two-part editions (150mL/day of Recipe #2) and the occasional skimmer cleaning. Na+Cl levels are probably getting up there.
-Matt
Ok...I admit I missed a big chunk of this thread. Last I checked in, you were doing daily changes...now you're changing once in 4 months??? Was the change deliberate--is this part of the experiment? Or did you run out of steam? I'm betting it's a comparison of sorts, but my curiosity is definitely peaked!
Please don't hate me for not rereading the thread to connect the dots...
OP
OP
mcarroll
10K Club member
Just life.
I was getting a steady slot of time in the mornings for a good while and that's just not happening now. (Doin' everything I can to make this tank sustain itself.) I do hope to get back to daily changes...just dunno when. For now, it's "when I can".
-Matt
I was getting a steady slot of time in the mornings for a good while and that's just not happening now. (Doin' everything I can to make this tank sustain itself.) I do hope to get back to daily changes...just dunno when. For now, it's "when I can".
-Matt
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