how do you change your water, and when?

[Diesel.]

Do you need to do a water change?

 

[Reefing Madness]

How long have you gone? I've seen several tanks stop doing water changes only to crash down the road (one of mine included).

I haven't changed my water in 12 months now, I only have softies though, and add the mins that are needed. No crash here.

 

[ronnie]

I haven't changed my water in 12 months now, I only have softies though, and add the mins that are needed. No crash here.

Mine was SPS. I think it's dependent on what type of tank you run. Mine lasted 8 months before it crashed.

 

[Reefing Madness]

SPS are definitely a bit different to take care of.

 

[leptang]

Mine was SPS. I think it's dependent on what type of tank you run. Mine lasted 8 months before it crashed.

By what do you mean by ''crashed'' what happened?

 

[ronnie]

All acros died

 

[TruRacr314x]

Prep a brute trashcan of RODI with salt mix to 1.025 SG with submersible old skimmer pump to stir and heat to tank temp. Turn off all tank pumps, heaters, reactors and ATO. Pump out an entire brute trashcan full from display (I have two Brutes) and pump in fresh prepared salt water. Turn on all equipment and discard old water. Brute cans both have wheel dollies attached for transport. I have a single level house, so this works well for me.

-g

+1...Almost exactly what I do. It comes out to about 20% or so...and I do it every couple weeks. I also throw in a 5g quickie when I have time and need to siphon out the frag tank.

 

[vlangel]

I do 5% twice a week. I syphon it out of the SH display/fuge and replace in sump. I only worry about salinity and temperature. An LPS tank is also connected to the system so I check parameters once/week or every other week for sure.

 

[Eckolancer]

How long have you gone? I've seen several tanks stop doing water changes only to crash down the road (one of mine included).

Tank was a direct swap of a standard 110 that was up almost 2 years. This tank has been up since March. Did a few water changes like 5-10 gallons after the switch. But tank is running good. I just switched to a cal reactor and trying to get it dialed in. Have some issues with it as I've always done dosing of 2 part. Trying to get used to lower PH levels. But think I've got it just about figured out.

 

[ronnie]

What is your logic behind not doing water changes?

 

[Eckolancer]

Some of the nicest looking sps tanks I have seen stopped doing them. Just try and dose what is depleted. Also, every time I did a water change I noticed that it took corals about 3-5 days to get back to growing again. Even if I checked ph, alk, cal, mag, temp and sal. It's like it shocked the system. Now I get a lot better growth from all corals.

 

[ronnie]

I would say look at the tanks that do them and you'll find a much higher ratio of tanks that are impressive and have great growth long term. It's hard and/or impossible to succeed with an Sps tank without water changes.

 

[Eckolancer]

Time will tell.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I change 8g a week on my 75g. I take 8g out of sump then replace 8g in sump.

 

[Av8Bluewater]

I do 44 Gallon brute about every two weeks. 215 gallon tank.
Mix a few hours or day before. Match temp in winter.
If I'm feeling lazy I drain tank to a line I marked on the tank.
Normally I put vortechs on high and powerhead the rocks to stir up as much gunk while I drain into another brute can.

 

[darrell7456]

I change 5gal every 2wk in my 29gallon just drain out 5gal and pour in 5gal very slowing

 

[Grizzle]

I am with the auto change crowd. I use a stenner dual head pump and my Apex to change just over 1% per day in my 180 gal.

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Siphon out 20 from my sump, then pump 20 back in. Everything to the sump is off, including skimmer. Turn everything back on, wait on skimmer about a half hour or so.

Is there a reason to wait on the skimmer restart? I'm new to this (set up my first tank, a 75g, a fee months ago). I'm finding I'm tinkering with my RO skimmer a lot... This could be why, I'm thinking

 

[DrBoxedWine]

Siphon out 20 from my sump, then pump 20 back in. Everything to the sump is off, including skimmer. Turn everything back on, wait on skimmer about a half hour or so.

Is there a reason to wait on the skimmer restart? I'm new to this (set up my first tank, a 75g, a fee months ago). I'm finding I'm tinkering with my RO skimmer a lot... This could be why, I'm thinking

 

[mikellini]

I'm changing 5 gallons from about 95 gallons of total water volume every two weeks. Much less than some but still more than I ever did before. Well, that's not true, I used to do 10 gallon changes once per month on a tank about a third the size, but this feels like more for some reason