OUR FAVORITE THING!!! Water Changes!

[Glenner’sreef]

Doing a 40g water change today on my 180g and a10g change on my frag tank. Thinking about my new “Mixing Station” that’s presently in the planning stage.

1. How are you doing it? And your plans for an easier water change.

 

[blaxsun]

It's most definitely not one of my favorite things, I'm doing it as little as possible (only replenishing to maintain salinity) and I plan to even automate that aspect of things down the road.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

I've water changes

 

[PeterC99]

I have my water change station in the basement. Automaticity keeps RODI full, automaticity tops off tank with the RODi, and I hit a switch and change 10% of the saltwater weekly. Pumps take old saltwater out and push saltwater up one floor to my living room.

Starts with 3 float switches in my sump that go downstairs to my basement controllers. First float switch (low) tells RODI or Saltwater to replenish depending on settings. 2nd float switch off. 3rd float switch is emergency off.

Have 2 controllers downstairs connected to float switches upstairs. When low float switch hits bottom, RODI starts pumping from first controller. Second controller manages RODI auto fill.

2 pumps downstairs manage pumping water to/from upstairs. Leave RODI connected to fill pump for auto top off. When changing water, switch to saltwater containers and turn on switch for drain pump. When 1st float value gets low, pumps up saltwater through auto top off. Pumps take out and replace saltwater at same pace. When done with saltwater change, turn off drain pump and wait till auto top off fills with rest of saltwater. Then switch auto top off back to RODI. Takes 10 minutes to change 10 gallons in my 90 gallon aquarium every week.

 

[jhuntstl]

I saw a post sometime ago where someone plumbed a 44g brute into their system. Each WC they would disconnect it and swap it with a freshly mixed 44g brute.

I've been pondering implementing this into my basement sump.

 

[rtparty]

I eliminated routine water changes and have never had a better tank.

Reef Moonshiners method for the win

 

[Jeffcb]

Doing a 40g water change today on my 180g and a10g change on my frag tank. Thinking about my new “Mixing Station” that’s presently in the planning stage.

1. How are you doing it? And your plans for an easier water change.

I do very few water changes on my 250L Reef Tank. I shame myself into doing one every 3-4 months.

I do change 38 gallons every 2 weeks on my 900L fowlr. I don't enjoy but... I mix the water in a 65 gal mixing station in the garage and pump it to a Brute . I then roll the Brute to the tank.

Something I am doing in the next couple of weeks is to run R/O line from my mixing station in the garage threw the attic to the 20 gal and 4 gallon ATO reservoirs in each tank so I don't have to carry numerous 5 gal jugs to fill. Gong to use a couple of Eshopps floats incase I forget to turn the manual valves off.

I would like to look at some sort of automatic water change system eventually.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

I do a 90% water change a week on my 0.75 gallon pico reef.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

I have a 20l jerry can with saltwater I mixed by myself and a 5l jerry can with fw for top offs. When I do water changes I simply siphon out 90% of the water volume then replace it with sw ro, that's the good thing about picos, easy to maintain, but I do have large freshwater aquariums but there water changes are a whole different story.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I do a 90% water change a week on my 0.75 gallon pico reef.

How’s your back doing with all those water jugs you have to drag around?

 

[4davegill]

I've done several iterations in 20 years, but recently bought 2 thirty gallon barrels from ULine. I run one as DI, and one as my mixed reservoir. The nice thing about the barrels, is that they are very easy to clean if you get a batch of salt (cough....cough.... Tropic Marin) that has clay in it. The other fancy containers were near impossible to clean.

I do 10% per month, and use a DOS pump to perform 1/2 Gal water changes at night. The salt I use stays in suspension, so It lasts me 2 months. In that I live in CA, I don't worry about the water temp and my main tank can condition or heat as needed.

Im curious to see what you do!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Change water ? What is that?
As part of stability , I change water 2-3 times per year. Additionally, I let test kits determine my need to change water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Let me ax you somthin mauury, what test finally tell you to change water up

 

[2000se]

Stenner dual head pump. First pump takes water out and down the drain, the other pump head pulls water from the mixing station back to the tank. Can do a 50gallon water change over a 24hr period.

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[ZoWhat]

1st and 15th of every month. Got it down to a 20min process. I actually don't mind d it bc I do it in my fish room. Sorta a man cave, play the radio. Private away time

No doubt my zoas, palys and Acans would NOT be as colorful.and fleshy if I only did a WC every 3mos. Who's fooling who here? Do the dang WCs

Can't be in the Corvette Club without promising proper maintenance. Just sayin'

 

[Sean Clark]

I have kids for this sort of thing.

 

[jhuntstl]

I'm not sure who to be influenced by.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Weekly water changes, not because I like to, because I'm supposed to, apple a day keeps the doctor away. 10% Weekly to the salt man easy mix it, heat it, repeat it next week.

Its a quick process made easier by producing my own water, storing large amounts of r.o, getting salt as cheap as I can , and simplifying the process of mixing it up and changing it out quickly.

I dont store s.w I make it as needed for w.c's
Usually 40g at a time

 

[ColoredRock]

Is it the water change or the maintenance that goes with it. I just did a 20 on an 80 g system.... as type this .. there is something.. like it has no flow..