Dumb thought….. water change routine?

[NeMoo]

I moved into an apartment and broke up the 75 gallon into two 25 aio and a rimless about 40 gallon breeder sized. Might sound dumb but just a thought when I had the 75 I feel like sometimes the tank looked better right before I changed water then after, but knowing smaller tanks can go south quicker, and for stability, would it be a bad idea to just change a gallon a day vs say 5 gallons every week or two? The two aios seem rather stable already with all the rock I had from 75 and some of the old water other than a little low nutrients which I was already sitting at .03 as a high phosphate reading and nitrates avg 5-15 in the 75

 

[Fish Fan]

You're fine to change 1 gallon/day rather than 5 gallons each week. Many who setup automatic water change systems do just that; change a small volume of water frequently, instead of a relatively larger volume weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly.

I hope that helps!

 

[NeMoo]

You're fine to change 1 gallon/day rather than 5 gallons each week. Many who setup automatic water change systems do just that; change a small volume of water frequently, instead of a relatively larger volume weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly.

I hope that helps!

Thank you, I’m going to give it a try starting this weekend and see how it goes for a few weeks!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I moved into an apartment and broke up the 75 gallon into two 25 aio and a rimless about 40 gallon breeder sized. Might sound dumb but just a thought when I had the 75 I feel like sometimes the tank looked better right before I changed water then after, but knowing smaller tanks can go south quicker, and for stability, would it be a bad idea to just change a gallon a day vs say 5 gallons every week or two? The two aios seem rather stable already with all the rock I had from 75 and some of the old water other than a little low nutrients which I was already sitting at .03 as a high phosphate reading and nitrates avg 5-15 in the 75

I do 2-3 gallon water changes daily and it maintains trace elements and keeps nitrates and phosphates in check

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you believe the tank looked better before than after a water change, then not changing water for a while and see what happens is a logical experiment, IMO.

While I do think water changes are useful and do change 1% daily, there are scenarios where changing water is not preferable, such as if there are impurities in it, or if nutrients in the tank are very low.

 

[SantaMonica Verified Sponsor]

An easy way to continuous change is to peri-pump water in slowly, and have it overflow a special section of the sump into a holding area.