Awc not effective?

[Notsolostfish]

Im doing 5G 6 days a week water change with neptune dos. Before i used to do one 30G a month for 150G. But i figured it will be easier to do 1 5G a day for 6 days. And then repeat that every 30 days.. but now thinking about it its not effective as one big 30?

 

[Waters]

Im doing 5G 6 days a week water change with neptune dos. Before i used to do one 30G a month for 150G. But i figured it will be easier to do 1 5G a day for 6 days. And then repeat that every 30 days.. but now thinking about it its not effective as one big 30?

Why do you think it isn't as effective? It keeps the water parameters much more stable doing smaller more frequent water changes. You might not notice a big reaction from coral compared to doing a large one time change that you sometimes see but that is only because the smaller frequent changes keeps them in higher water quality all the time opposed to right after changing a bunch of water out at once. Now if you are doing a large change to remove a toxin or something, then yes, the larger change would be beneficial.

 

[Miami Reef]

But i figured it will be easier to do 1 5G a day for 6 days. And then repeat that every 30 days.. but now thinking about it its not effective as one big 30?

Mathematically speaking, you are correct. One larger change would have a bigger impact than several smaller ones because the smaller ones would also be changing some new water.

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php

 

[Notsolostfish]

Mathematically speaking, you are correct. One larger change would have a bigger impact than several smaller ones because the smaller ones would also be changing some new water.

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php

So should i forget about it u think?

 

[Miami Reef]

So should i forget about it u think?

Depends on your goals. Loads of people use AWC because it’s convenient and gradual.

I personally wouldn’t, but that’s just my preference and reefing style.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The difference is small, and IMO, more slower water changes can be better for many reasons including less stress on organisms from changes and no need to heat or otherwise match the new salt water to the tank (if, say, you want to adjust salinity or calcium or whatever).

6 x 5 gallon changes is identical to one 26.5% change.