How often do you water change if nutrients controlled and you dose?

[Buckster]

Having a 180 gal I change 35 gal's every 2 weeks.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I suppose I just have to heavy of a hand with feeding. I will never understand how people have to add phosphate or nitrate to a tank.

I utilize the following for nutrient control:
- GFO in media controller (Small amount)
- Protein skimmer rated for 20 gallons higher than my tank
- Dose 5 ML of NoPox to hold nutrients in place
- Grow Fern Caluerapa in Refugium and have tons of live rock plus ceramic media balls in bottom of refugium

Phosphate - .05 - .07
Nitrates - 5-10 PPM

I feed heavily too. At least 4 feedings per day. Fish are all fat and growing.
Can't keep any N/P in the tank.
I recently turned my skimmer towards more dry skimming vs wet, so maybe they will bump up a bit now.

 

[Plandauesq]

On a 250, after every 100g of top off used a 50g change is done. It has only a single function, to disturb and clean the sand bed thoroughly.

Are you saying you stir up the sand bed and then do a water change? Asking because I have a similar size tank.

 

[Jbell370]

I have about 300g tank/sump, AWC does 5g per day, I use ATI essentials 1 and 2. Has been almost a year now with the same schedule and I couldn't be happier.

 

[Sshannon]

I dose 2 part, have a cryptic refugium. Nitrates stay at 0~5ppm consistently with biweekly water changes of 25%. I could probably go a month between changes if I wanted. I do it for 2 reasons.

1. I clean do a partial cleaning of the sandbed

2. The ammonium from fish excrement is converted to nitrate eventually and is used up by inhabitants, but there are more byproducts than just urea. I wouldn't want to swim in my own filth, tbh.

 

[CreatiVe2]

Let me throw a little more curve into the mix.

What if you're dosing everything that needs to be replenished including trace elements. Then what? Are water changes just a waste of time and money at that point?

I dose All for Reef and I do 20% water changes every 7-10 days since I tend to feed my fish quite a bit.

TM All for Reef and no water changes.

I have a ~250Gal System setup and I have been using all-for-reef for over a year with 0 water changes.
Full mixed reef. Sand sifters are a must! I also heavy skim (more wet), have a 20 gal fuge, and run bio pellets, Marine pure Bio Media - this combo has blessed me with FAST coral growth, and an incredibly stable system.

 

[Arego]

Are you saying you stir up the sand bed and then do a water change? Asking because I have a similar size tank.

Yes I destroy through it all sucking up anything and everything resembling detritus. I do not rely on my sand for anything functional, never have never will..

I've had a sand bed mishap once and won't allow it to happen again and I like the sand visually.

 

[Mbritt]

10% weekly water changes.

1. Add .5ml of iodine.
2. Dose with Red Sea AB
3. .5ml of Nopox daily
4. Add Kalkwasser to ATO water.

 

[ClownSchool]

Absolutely agree with you. But you do see a ton of reefers that don't do a single water change and have an absolutely stunning show tank full of corals. It really is a catch twenty two and it will always be one of the most debated topics in reefing lol.

I bought my tank used off of a guy that claimed he didn’t do water changes. A months later, I went back to get some free chaeto, and he was bragging about the new R/O system he just installed in his garage with a mixing station. So, I’m thinking, it’s easy to claim you don’t do WCs until you need to do WCs.

 

[EakTheFreak]

I feed heavily too. At least 4 feedings per day. Fish are all fat and growing.
Can't keep any N/P in the tank.
I recently turned my skimmer towards more dry skimming vs wet, so maybe they will bump up a bit now.

What size tank do you have? What type of food and how many fish are in your DT?

 

[LeftyReefer]

What size tank do you have? What type of food and how many fish are in your DT?

45G w/ 6 fish, lots of snails, a conch, an urchin, peppermint shrimp for CUC.

I feed at least four meals daily of frozen foods; LRS nano reef frenzy, Rods original and breeder, PE mysis, various other frozen foods like frozen eggs, blood worms, brine shrimp, formula one, etc..
I do have a smart feeder loaded with a few different varieties of pellets like TDO chromaboost, Thera-A, Thera-Red, PE mysis pellets, and a few flake foods too. that I use for extra feedings or if I'm gone and miss a feeding.

I dose live phyto daily, along with a few various bacteria products like PNS probio and Eco-Balance every few days. I feed corals with AB+ or AcroPower a couple times a week and will throw in a pinch of Benepets or ReefRoids every now and again too.

Can't keep Nitrates up. Phosphates pretty much stay at .04 ppm.

 

[EakTheFreak]

45G w/ 6 fish, lots of snails, a conch, an urchin, peppermint shrimp for CUC.

I feed at least four meals daily of frozen foods; LRS nano reef frenzy, Rods original and breeder, PE mysis, various other frozen foods like frozen eggs, blood worms, brine shrimp, formula one, etc..
I do have a smart feeder loaded with a few different varieties of pellets like TDO chromaboost, Thera-A, Thera-Red, PE mysis pellets, and a few flake foods too. that I use for extra feedings or if I'm gone and miss a feeding.

I dose live phyto daily, along with a few various bacteria products like PNS probio and Eco-Balance every few days. I feed corals with AB+ or AcroPower a couple times a week and will throw in a pinch of Benepets or ReefRoids every now and again too.

Can't keep Nitrates up. Phosphates pretty much stay at .04 ppm.

I’m guessing the PNS probio is what drives the Nitrates down. It removes ammonia, nitrite & Nitrate and since I’m guessing you have a cycled tank its probably just eating away at Nitrate but I would much rather have your problem then mine!

 

[scubaReef002]

ummmm - when my settling pond section of my sump looks like it needs vacuuming...

What do you use to vacuum your sump?

 

[Trouble1375]

What do you use to vacuum your sump?

1/2" tubing that runs down to my laundry room in my basement. I start the siphon with the pump for my ATS, disconnect it from the ATS and use the tubing to vacuum. It siphons through a filter sock at the other end into my laundry sink. When I decided to do the tank I use the same set-up but send it out into the yard instead of through the filter sock because the sock clogs too fast when vacuuming the sand-bed

 

[Laith]

Every 60 minutes or so, changing 0.04% each time.

Changing 110ml every 9.6 minutes, 16.5 liters per day or about 1% a day ;Happy.

 

[StewL6]

Dose All for Reef and change 4 - 5 gallons of Reef Crystals every week. My tank/corals look great quite proud and happy. Tank is 13 months old and very stable for last 6/7months. Going to submit my first ICP test in a couple of weeks we shall see. Is pretty much like I imagined it.

 

[J1a]

I do not water change. However I do clean my sand bed regularly to fluidize the detritus, so that the corals and filter feeders gets another go at those, and the mechanical filtration takes them out.

To minimize imbalance of major ions, I dose only all for reef to supplement kH and Ca.

I run my aquarium at 7.5dkh and 35ppt. Most salt mix give too high dkh for my salinity. So that adds on to my decision of not water change.