Aquarium Water Changes: Why do you "change" a percent of your water?

[Reva_loution54]

This was what I was doing last year and I too found I was having the same issues. Always chasing nutrient numbers etc Sometimes they were up sometimes down etc.
The one good thing was being able to vac and clean the sand!
This time around after having to set up tank again I initially did water changes after cycling etc however, I don't think I've done a change for a month or two now and finding my parameters appear much more stable *touch wood*.
Will continue to monitor but at the moment, I'm leaning towards refraining from doing water changes unless absolutely necessary.


Livestock looks amazing, any tips/suggestions for those of us looking to do the same in terms of successfully doing no water changes ?

Honestly the only thing I can see that’s keeping everything the way it is would be the Tropic Marine All For Reef it has Alk, Cal, Mag and trace elements. It is a bit expensive but if you calculate what you spend on salt and all other dosing supplements it’s close to the same costs. I also dose 10ml daily of brightwell aquatics Koral color, restor and ammino each.

 

[B-RadReefer84]

I haven’t really done any water changes in well over a year now thanks to reef moonshiners. Sps tank doing amazing. Love it

 

[Reva_loution54]

This was what I was doing last year and I too found I was having the same issues. Always chasing nutrient numbers etc Sometimes they were up sometimes down etc.
The one good thing was being able to vac and clean the sand!
This time around after having to set up tank again I initially did water changes after cycling etc however, I don't think I've done a change for a month or two now and finding my parameters appear much more stable *touch wood*.
Will continue to monitor but at the moment, I'm leaning towards refraining from doing water changes unless absolutely necessary.


Livestock looks amazing, any tips/suggestions for those of us looking to do the same in terms of successfully doing no water changes ?

What size tank do you have??

 

[arivera747200]

I only started my tank about 5 months ago and have been out of reefing for many years. My question may have been asked before; however, this is related to the question of water changes.
Does anyone prefer automatic water or manual water changes? I currently do both. I have an Apex setup to change out about a 1/2 gallon a day. (80g approximately total water volume tank and sump). I also perform a 10g manual water change once a month.
My thinking is to continue refreshing the tank with "clean" water to replenish trace elements. Then I do the bigger water changes to remove any build up of any matter and to clean pumps, etc.

 

[Blknovass]

I do water changes we have a tendency to over feed everyone here.

 

[SBSCOTTY1]

25% to 30% once a week change using my own saltwater that I've made with a 6 stage rodi and io reef crystals at 1.026 and my tank always looks great! It's been up and absolutely flourishing with the same bonded pair of ocellaris clowns going on 6 years now. Honestly water changes are an absolute must. IMHO

 

[DarkReefer]

What size tank do you have??

It's a Waterbox 70.2. I think total system volume is 69.1gallon (262L) (minus rockwork etc).

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

I do it because it works. I think this has a great deal to do with what type of corals one has but I also believe that water changes are probably the easiest way for the vast majority of reefers to achieve success.
To those who are able to run without water changes, I wish I could, too. The mess alone is a major drawback, not to mention the time, effort, space and money!

 

[ChelseaPete]

My current tank is a 16 gallon biocube, and I do a five gallon change every month as part of my routine maintenance/cleaning. I'm not sure if it's necessary, but five gallons is easy enough to do, and I believe it helps.

 

[Spicy Reef]

If I lived in space, I would look forward to the shuttle bringing food and fresh air... I know most is recycled and produced via electrolysis or something...

 

[Ruben Sacramento]

In 2 years and 8 months I'm yet to find a reason to do a water change

New video by Ruben Sacramento

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[immaman2011]

I do water changes 25% every 2 weeks. Seems to work for me. Replacing those missing elements and taking wastes out of the water. I do clean my filter every 1 to 2 months. I also make my own water 0 TDS and no chloramines or chlorine. My tank has been running excellent besides for the bad batch of trochus snails I got that died after a few weeks. I have plenty of algae so that's not a issue lol.

 

[immaman2011]

This thread went dead really quick lol

 

[fish farmer]

The main reason now that I do water changes is to siphon out things I don't want like loose discoma mushrooms, ugly palys, other soft coral clippings, valonia, that pesky patch of red algae, some detritus, crusted over F-Aiptasia. I have various stainless straws and larger siphon tubes for these maintenance tasks.

I do approximately 10% (4 gallons) every two weeks, sometimes it is once a month. I've been slowly reducing the volume of WC's due to very low nutrients and with efficient siphoning I can probably accomplish above tasks with 3 gallon sessions.

If the added new WC gives a boost of trace, great! I feed heavy, dose kalk and occasionally Mag.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In 2 years and 8 months I'm yet to find a reason to do a water change

Or or to know if a water change would help your tank.

 

[Ruben Sacramento]

Or or to know if a water change would help your tank.

I've been able to fix whatever issues have crossed my path in this system without water changes basically because I applied the "right tool for the job" methodology. I avoid creating ionic unbalance by gathering information on what products do what, how they work and their pros and cons before applying anything. Same for what methods to use. I also rely heavily on biological filtration and try to keep it low tech.
So far it's looking good

 

[immaman2011]

I've been able to fix whatever issues have crossed my path in this system without water changes basically because I applied the "right tool for the job" methodology. I avoid creating ionic unbalance by gathering information on what products do what, how they work and their pros and cons before applying anything. Same for what methods to use. I also rely heavily on biological filtration and try to keep it low tech.
So far it's looking good

I guess with so much biological filtration here in that amazing looking tank you'd only need to dose alk, mag, and calc. How many gallons is that tank? Looks great. First time I've seen a copperbanded butterfly in someone's tank.

 

[flyingscampi]

I voted 'Reduce harmful waste and nutrients'.

I have a 13 gallon without a sump or skimmer so water changes are the only way to manage nutrient levels. If I change 10% of water per week and put a small amount of GFO in my cannister filter, I can maintain NO3 around 20 ppm and PO4 at 0.1.

I dose 2 ml of All-For-Reef per day to maintain Alk/Ca/Mg.

 

[Ruben Sacramento]

I guess with so much biological filtration here in that amazing looking tank you'd only need to dose alk, mag, and calc. How many gallons is that tank? Looks great. First time I've seen a copperbanded butterfly in someone's tank.

It's 500L total volume.
The copperband is actually one of my favorite fish and also one of the must have fish on any matured aquarium

 

[Mark Novack]

I only do it because my corals and tank look the best with regular changes. I tried a larger than normal change with a larger interval but it like smaller weekly changes. The tank is still young.