Water changes...how much....how often...and what's your process???

[jfoahs04]

Almost never. None of my numbers say a water change would benefit anything.

A lot of people need to step back and find the root reasons they are doing a water change. Does your tank actually need one? What are you accomplishing with a water change? You certainly aren't replenishing elements unless they are at zero and your salt happens to contain that trace elements. If that's the case, you should be dosing it. Not relying on a water change to add it back.

Remember, those who encourage water changes the most are salt companies and the companies selling salt

I use natural seawater I collect myself. I'm not spending money on salt, and I can absolutely see immediate benefits from my water changes.

1. The removal of visible waste/detritus during the change. I could reposition powerheads, move around rock work, and add filtration to try to get my flow just right so that this stuff doesn't collect in certain spots. But I'm running a nano and don't have a ton of room to play with. The water changes are a much easier way to handle this.
2. The micro flora and fauna in the water I collect triggers a pretty wild feeding response from all of my tank's inhabitants. The coral in particular fully extend during each change and are growing rapidly considering how young this tank is (by far the best of all of the reefs I've ever run). I realize that adding reef roids or something similar could have an equivalent effect, but that costs money and the NSW doesn't trigger nearly the same nutrient explosion that overfeeding does.
3. 35-40% (5 gallon bucket) biweekly water changes are enough to have an impact on nutrient export in a 13.5 gallon tank.
4. I enjoy going to the beach to grab my water. And even if the 3 points above didn't make a difference, it'd still be worth it for me.

There are often multiple means to a single end in this hobby. You can easily go through my list, point by point and talk about how changes to flow, rocks, and filtration could fix the detritus buildup, how I could use different foods to get a similar response and that I could dose to add elements, and tell me how better filtration (I don't run a skimmer) could eliminate the need to do big water changes for nutrient export. You'd be right. But what I'm doing also works and I enjoy it a good deal more than I do dosing, fidgeting with flow/rocks/filtration, or cleaning out skimmers. It's a hobby, if you enjoy what you're doing and it's working for you (or at the very least, not causing harm), then keep doing it.

 

[Gtinnel]

I do around 1.5% daily. I have it setup as an AWC and it pulls water out of a 32g brute mixing station. All I have to do is dump water from my freshwater brute into the saltwater brute and add the salt. I have to mix new water twice a month.

 

[homer1475]

This is completely false. Water doesn't get "old" in any way. We have hundreds of ways to filter and clean our water. Socks, fleece, bacteria, coral, algae, skimmers, etc

If you think your fish are swimming around in a septic system, 10% a week isn't doing squat for that. Would you be okay swimming in your septic system and someone just replaced 10% of that mess every week??? That's what you're saying.

Truth is, that's 100% wrong. I'll say it again, people need to actually look at the WHY we do water changes. Once you realize we've been lied to by these companies, you'll figure out weekly water changes are a waste of time and money.

It's my opinion, and thats your's, and were both entitled to it.

There are a million ways to accomplish the same end goal in reef keeping. What works for you, may not work for me, and vice versus.

Were all here to share and gain information, not rip each other opinions apart. Cause in the end opinions are like ******s, we all have them, and they all stink.

 

[Gtinnel]

Almost never. None of my numbers say a water change would benefit anything.

What number are those exactly. There are a lots different elements and compounds that can build up in the tank that we dont (or possibly cant) regularly test for.
If you are doing the triton method then maybe I understand but if it just comes down to cost I'd guess that just doing water changes is probably cheaper anyway.

 

[Dkmoo]

I think its more important to understand what water change is and what isn't.

In relation to nutrient export:

If you are just doing water change by taking out old water and dumping in new water, it will actually do very little for nutrient export. 10% WC still means 90% waste. Some simple math will tell you that if your tank produce 5 PPM of nitrate a week, if you only change 10% week, your tank will have to climb to 50PPM nitrate before your export can equalize waste generation.

In this regard, doing more frequent smaller WCs is even worse bc of the multiplicative impact that math will tell you.

If you are doing water change not to hit a certain %, but instead to just to syphon out your sandbed for detritus and loose algae that you scrubbed out of the rock, then wc is going to be exponentially more effective.

In relation to replenishing major and minor water chemistry/elements

Similar to above, using WC to replenish spent elements is ineffective in all except very light consumption rate tanks. A 10% WC still means 90% of you "consumptuon" not replenished.

Ie, if your standard salt mix gives you 450PPM calcium, and your corals consume 10PPM a week. With a 10% weekly water change, math will tell you that your tank will equalize consumption and replenishment between 350PPMto 360PPM. Is that too low? Maybe maybe not, depending on your corals, but it's pretty far from where you started off with, and any sudden large water change will cause shocks bc of the swing in the calcium level.

Math will tell you that the higher the consumption rate, the further the levels have to be from the starting point before your 10% wc can equalize the consumption rate.

I guess my point is, its more important to monitor your parameters and have a clear picture of how much your tank consumes, how much waste it generates and how much or how little WC is actually impacting your tank by looking at the math, than to just assume that if you are diligent and keep up with your 10% weekly WC that the rest will take care of itself.

Reefing isn't just about being diligent for the sake of the "quantity" of the tasks you are doing. Its more about being smart with the "quality" of the task you are doing.

 

[Paul B]

IMO most people change way to much water. I think some water changes are beneficial and I do change some water but brand new tanks with all new water look lousy. Think about that.

 

[LAX Noob Reef]

Premix water and store to 6 5G water container. I have auto water change that does 5 gallon split to 16 times in 24 hours, which I usually change or either at night or morning. need a bigger container.

Auto Water Change will make your life easier and free up your time.

 

[rtparty]

What number are those exactly. There are a lots different elements and compounds that can build up in the tank that we dont (or possibly cant) regularly test for.
If you are doing the triton method then maybe I understand but if it just comes down to cost I'd guess that just doing water changes is probably cheaper anyway.

Using water changes to dilute toxins that buildup is a great thing to do. Does this need to be done weekly? My experience (along with thousands of others) says no. But 3-4x a year? Absolutely.

I follow the Reef Moonshiner method. The handbook goes over all the numbers we aim for, best we can.

 

[Mr Cypher]

14 gal a week alternating Monday and following Tuesday for change dates

 

[Gtinnel]

Using water changes to dilute toxins that buildup is a great thing to do. Does this need to be done weekly? My experience (along with thousands of others) says no. But 3-4x a year? Absolutely.

I follow the Reef Moonshiner method. The handbook goes over all the numbers we aim for, best we can.

Wouldn't how often to do changes be based upon how quickly those compounds are building up? I'd rather err on the side of caution in that situation.

I also assume that I replace trace and minor elements with my AWC, which is another thing that I can't reasonably test for.

 

[rtparty]

Wouldn't how often to do changes be based upon how quickly those compounds are building up? I'd rather err on the side of caution in that situation.

I also assume that I replace trace and minor elements with my AWC, which is another thing that I can't reasonably test for.

A little carbon will remove more toxins than a 10% water change.

Water changes don't replenish trace elements. The math is already posted above for this. An ICP test is $45 and tests trace elements. After a few tests, you can see patterns. Again, the Reef Moonshiner method goes over all of this and they are some of the most successful tanks out there. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

 

[Koty]

For me water change is only in case of emergency. My 420 lit tank is only 255 days old and went through about 5x20% water changes. IMO now that we have the ice tests (that costs almost like a salt bucket) we can monitor our tank water more safely. In my setup, water change is a hassle that i try to avoid. I replenish Ca/alk adding kalkwasser (half a tsp in 300-400 ml RODI every time the alkalinity goes below 9 and add the TLF elements, iodine and K once a week. I did two ICP tests during this time and they confirmed that no water change is needed.

 

[Oldreefer44]

About 20% every 6 months

 

[X-37B]

10%-12g's every 2 months on my 120.

 

[ReefRusty]

There are ways around this. Increase your filtration. I run a skimmer on my 120g tank. That's it. No socks, no floss, no reactor of any kind. I'm not over stocked on fish but if I was, I'd dose a little vodka to fight nitrates.

Water changes to fight rising nutrients gets harder and more expensive as time goes on. A 10% water change does very little. If you start at 50ppm nitrates and do a 10% change, you dropped to 45ppm nitrates. Not enough to bother with

Running a skimmer and filter socks that are changed every 3 days.

 

[LittleFidel]

I think its more important to understand what water change is and what isn't.

In relation to nutrient export:

If you are just doing water change by taking out old water and dumping in new water, it will actually do very little for nutrient export. 10% WC still means 90% waste. Some simple math will tell you that if your tank produce 5 PPM of nitrate a week, if you only change 10% week, your tank will have to climb to 50PPM nitrate before your export can equalize waste generation.

In this regard, doing more frequent smaller WCs is even worse bc of the multiplicative impact that math will tell you.

If you are doing water change not to hit a certain %, but instead to just to syphon out your sandbed for detritus and loose algae that you scrubbed out of the rock, then wc is going to be exponentially more effective.

In relation to replenishing major and minor water chemistry/elements

Similar to above, using WC to replenish spent elements is ineffective in all except very light consumption rate tanks. A 10% WC still means 90% of you "consumptuon" not replenished.

Ie, if your standard salt mix gives you 450PPM calcium, and your corals consume 10PPM a week. With a 10% weekly water change, math will tell you that your tank will equalize consumption and replenishment between 350PPMto 360PPM. Is that too low? Maybe maybe not, depending on your corals, but it's pretty far from where you started off with, and any sudden large water change will cause shocks bc of the swing in the calcium level.

Math will tell you that the higher the consumption rate, the further the levels have to be from the starting point before your 10% wc can equalize the consumption rate.

I guess my point is, its more important to monitor your parameters and have a clear picture of how much your tank consumes, how much waste it generates and how much or how little WC is actually impacting your tank by looking at the math, than to just assume that if you are diligent and keep up with your 10% weekly WC that the rest will take care of itself.

Reefing isn't just about being diligent for the sake of the "quantity" of the tasks you are doing. Its more about being smart with the "quality" of the task you are doing.

Without spending lots of time and money on testing, how can I become more efficient with my water changes? can You give me top three tips? I currently wait until my favia fails to extend its tentacles at night and then do a 25% water change.

 

[nhendrix]

Without spending lots of time and money on testing, how can I become more efficient with my water changes? can You give me top three tips? I currently wait until my favia fails to extend its tentacles at night and then do a 25% water change.

On avg. how many days does it take to get to this point. Then subtract a day and do it then