How often and what Percentage water do you change

[vetteguy53081]

 

[92Miata]

Nuvo.40 - has about 30 actual gallons.

I do 1-2g every couple of days when I see detritus.

 

[NashobaTek]

Once in 8 months. I only have 1 easy coral, so I see no need to keep changing the water. As long as it's stable and tests are spot on, why spend money on salt to constantly dump it down the drain.

 

[wvfeefkeeper80]

Ok, I have multiple tanks. Some get changed more often than others but my main DT in the house hasn’t had any water changed in over a year. Also no additives. It’s fish only and pretty amazing at keeping nitrates at “0” due to the amount of Marinepur in the sump. I also used Vibrant for the first year (weekly) so the glass stays pretty clean. Only maintenance is about 4.5 gallons or RODI added to the ato reservoir every week. This pic was just taken for the sicce pump drawing entry.

Mind officially blown.

 

[JasonK84]

Mind officially blown.

Tank is 2 years old in October and most fish in the tank have been in it from the beginning. The 3 yellow tangs are the youngest at 1 year old. Sump is in need of a cleaning to remove the detritus down there but the display stays very clean.

stocking list:
Koran angel 6.5” ish
Powder blue 6”
Picasso trigger 4”
Blue spot puffer 3.5”
3 blennies 4.5”, 4”, 3.5”
3 yellow tangs 4”

Media in the sump:
4 MarinePur plates
1 box MarinePur spheres
4 liters of pond matrix
Matala mesh between baffles

There is no live rock in this tank. There was about 5 pounds in the beginning but it’s been removed and put in other tanks.

 

[stanleo]

I say 20% bi weekly but my system is roughly 150 gallons with tank and sump and I do 20 gallons every two weeks because the tubs for my mixing station only hold 23 gallons max. I am having a minor algae issue right now so if the fixes I have done don't work, I am going to change to 10% weekly.

 

[Dr. Jim]

1.5% daily with AWC (GHL) for past 7 months with latest tank. Prior to that (40-50 years) I've tried everything, from no water changes to mostly once a month (about 30%).
Honestly, I have no opinion as to what has been best.....(too many changing variables along the way).

 

[najer]

No water changes unless required, about 6 years ago it dawned on me that I couldn't see the point and I am very lazy.

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

25% every 3-4 weeks.

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

30% once a month. Mainly because that's a convinient amount of water to mix up at once. Works well for me

 

[ScubaFish802]

I've been doing just under 10% weekly. . but my N+P are never outside of normal parameters when I preform the changes.. have been thinking of doing less . . (which is what led me to this thread lol)

 

[brandon429]

i only do 100% water changes on mine since the tank is small. for the reasons we do water changes, 100% makes the most efficient use of time if the tank permits based on gallons/access etc. in no way does it harm, inconvenience, stress, or cause param issues and it wouldn't do that if we did it in all the big tanks here (leaving room for fish)

What is claimed to cause instability drastically changes decade to decade in the hobby. it used to be simply not having a deep sand bed made the tank terribly unstable. large water changes are great, they're only inconvenient, there isn't a chemical reason not to do large water changes as corals adapt to crashing waves in the wild and they adapt to all new water fine for us, if we dont kick up filthy waste when pouring back in which is the real issue in big water changes, its not the new water. my tank isn't cloudy in the rocks and sand, big water change= works great and i feed heavy right before, to maximize the in/out

 

[sam2110]

I change 5 gallons a week just because its a simple easy water change, 5 in 5 out

 

[Chuk]

I do about 15 gal every 2 weeks on my 90. Total water volume is ~110 gal with the sump. Nitrates stay between 0.5 and 1 ppm and phosphate has been solid at 0.02 ppm.