Am I overdoing the water changes?

[Kmore1219]

Hey everyone, still fairly new to the hobby. I have a Nuvo20 with only two clowns in it and a clean up crew. I've been doing water changes every week but was wondering if I would be able to get away with doing it every 2 weeks since I have such a small bio load. I'm also running Chemi pure in the back.

 

[sa6hir]

I don't think you need to do water change that often your tank as very little bio load. Just don't over feed and have a skimmer setup 2 weeks is fine, I would personally go 3-4 weeks but that's me.

 

[Michaelriccs]

Hello, from the research I've done I don't think you are over doing it, but I don't think you need to do it every week. I do mine every two weeks, in my nuvo 20, regularly with ro/di water and clean the filter socks. My bio load is much bigger then yours so you should be fine. Just don't make the mistake I did and make sure the water is not over the top of your filter socks. Like a dope I just figured that out after about three months.

 

[inetjnky]

The reason we do water changes is to replace nutrients like Alk, Calc, Mag and to remove harmful things like Nitrates. If you aren't growing any coral you don't have to worry about replacing the nutrients. You can probably go longer like once a month or maybe longer. You should really invest in a test kit and test your water which will tell you when you should change it out or not.

 

[mike007]

I have found that doing regular water changes every two weeks has worked great for me. I do have lots of corals and i find that when i follow this regiment i do not have to add any additives to maintain my parameters. Overfeeding in my opinion is what really causes the water quality to deteriorate. Test your water often and that will tell you what your quality of water is so that you can adjust if needed.

 

[meir]

It rly depends on you what u wanna do. Personally I don't do many water changes I do one every couple months or as needed

 

[harryball69]

Hey everyone, still fairly new to the hobby. I have a Nuvo20 with only two clowns in it and a clean up crew. I've been doing water changes every week but was wondering if I would be able to get away with doing it every 2 weeks since I have such a small bio load. I'm also running Chemi pure in the back.

every two weeks is perfect. chemi pure is good. use chemi pure elete if your not. next time.

 

[Kmore1219]

Thanks for the help everyone, iI think I'm going to switch to every other week and then just see how that works out for me. I was getting tired of having to mix all that water every week!

 

[4FordFamily]

I let my parameters tell me when to do so WC. Really all I test is nitrates. IMO water changes without real purpose is an unnecessary risk for several reasons, one of which is human error.

I'm a firm believer in "if it ain't broke..."

 

[genetao]

Hey everyone, still fairly new to the hobby. I have a Nuvo20 with only two clowns in it and a clean up crew. I've been doing water changes every week but was wondering if I would be able to get away with doing it every 2 weeks since I have such a small bio load. I'm also running Chemi pure in the back.

If that's all you have in a Nuvo 20 with NO corals, then you really don't need to do a water change every week. I'd be more inclined to doing larger water changes once a month, from 25- 50%. This will dilute the nitrates to a healthy level, and really reduce the amount of effort involved on your part. Buy a nitrate test kit to see how much you have. If it's less than 20PPM in a FOWLR, then I'd skip the water change for another week. Almost all clown fish are captive bred these days, and are pretty hardy. So even a large water change shouldn't stress them out.