Water changes. . . . What is your method?

[Usarmy227]

I do about a 30 gallon water change every 3-4weeks. I dose AFR every other day. Doing that everything has been stable since December
. My alk stays at 10.5-11.5
My nitrates are between 15-20
My salt stays at 1.026

 

[big_G]

20% weekly in my nano AIO. 15ltrs syphoned into a bucket and 15ltrs fresh mix poured back in (4gallon) , keeps it simple.

 

[n2585722]

I use AWC to change out about 770ml 4 time a day in a 42 gallon tank. The controller does a alkalinity test then the water change and then doses All For Reef and a KH buffer. All done every 6 hours. The KH buffer is a dynamic dose depending on the alkalinity test results and time of day. I normally do not do any manual water changes.

 

[Evil1]

The only time I do water changes is when my salinity level drops below 35 ppm due to skimmer clean out and salt creep. (This takes months) 5 gallons out 5 in with a slightly hire salinity to bring back up to 35 ppm. T

 

[chadhender]

I do weekly changes in my 180 gallon and 25 gallon Lagoon. In my 180 I hook a hose up to my sump discharge manifold and pump it out to the back yard while pumping new water in to the display at the same time from my mixing station in the garage. I do roughly 30 gallons and it take 5 minutes or so. In my lagoon I siphon out 5 gallons into a bucket and refill from the mixing station. After that’s complete I flush out the line with RODI and then fill up my ATO containers. All takes less than 20 minutes a week.

 

[jcusmarine]

I change 1% daily by automatic water change.

Same here.

 

[BryanM]

I started this journey to not do water changes, and accept for the initial setup, and adjustments, I don't do them.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

current one is 400 gallons and this little amount makes a huge difference when done daily

hey Just wanted to say thank you, and that I did my first 2 gallon WC last night! I will do another tomorrow night. After a week, I will test and compare results. I am really looking forward to maintaining this moving forward.

 

[vetteguy53081]

hey Just wanted to say thank you, and that I did my first 2 gallon WC last night! I will do another tomorrow night. After a week, I will test and compare results. I am really looking forward to maintaining this moving forward.

I believe you will see a difference especially with corals and readings. You will also be maintaining trace elements

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I believe you will see a difference especially with corals and readings. You will also be maintaining trace elements

Yeah the trace elements are definitely a big plus. And the small WC was so easy. Thank you again.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I believe you will see a difference especially with corals and readings. You will also be maintaining trace elements

I also have a hope this will slow my BTA's down with all the splitting! I started with one, have given away 5 and still have about 20 or more! I am thinking the larger WC's may be why they are splitting like crazy.

 

[Dannyboy402]

I do automatic water changes through my DOS. 2 gallons a day on my 200 gallon.

 

[Freenow54]

As we all know, one of the requirements for owning a reef aquarium is the need for maintenance including water changes, at least for most of us.
Some of us simply siphon the water while many also utilize automatic water change units and some simply replenish lost water from Evaporation.

How often do you perform water changes and by what means?
What is your frequency of water changes?

I do a 2-3 gallon water change every other day and my reasoning is to keep phos and nitrate in check while maintaining traces and elements. It was a method used by a few aquarist friends in the industry and I've seen a huge difference with both fish and coral health

Yes I do weekly water changes. About one third. Oddly I am talking with "FUNGI " in regard to my new tank. He does not . Then you state every other day. Also" All For Reef " additives mentioned. A little tough for me not to do water changes. I might try it to see. Same with your method pretty simple experiment . When doing weekly I have to replenish, One thing I stopped doing was when I tried to grow Cheato in my sump I left a small led grow light on 24 hours . Tons of Algae and Cheato died ? So I will see.

 

[Freenow54]

By the way I am going to post my Tank Build progress shortly if you are interested. Feel free to critique

 

[MONTANTK]

My philosophy has changed over the years. I used to do 20% every week or two.

Once I got a 7 gallon tank that I wanted to try acros in, I was doing half a gallon a day or every other day. It could be done in a few minutes and really helped establish a routine. Surprisingly, it was the most success I ever had with acros.

When I went to a 20 gallon, I was doing water changes every week, sometimes twice a week.

I think going forward for tanks between 20-75 gallons I would do water changes twice a week to try and build a better routine.

For tanks sub 10 gallons or maybe up to 15, I’d do them every other day.

Eventually I want to do a 250g+ build and my goal is to try and create a tank where I can do very infrequent water changes but that build is still a while away.

I think the biggest perk of doing water changes very frequently (multiple times per week) outside of stability is building a regular routine. If you do them every two weeks, it’s easy to skip one. By doing it every day or every other, you’re doing something more manageable on a regular basis.

 

[BTDBunch]

Ight I want yalls thoughts on my methods I do sometimes. I do regular 15% water changes on my 80 gallon weekly. However, if my phosphates were high or I just have some spare salt water from acclimation fish coral etc, I will put the end of the tubing from my protein skimmer into a bucket, increase the bubble rate, and submerge my protein skimmer further in my tank (it’s on a tank).

This lets me passively remove water from my tank at a super slow and controlled rate and my thought process is remove excess Organic from the water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My philosophy has changed over the years. I used to do 20% every week or two.

Once I got a 7 gallon tank that I wanted to try acros in, I was doing half a gallon a day or every other day. It could be done in a few minutes and really helped establish a routine. Surprisingly, it was the most success I ever had with acros.

When I went to a 20 gallon, I was doing water changes every week, sometimes twice a week.

I think going forward for tanks between 20-75 gallons I would do water changes twice a week to try and build a better routine.

For tanks sub 10 gallons or maybe up to 15, I’d do them every other day.

Eventually I want to do a 250g+ build and my goal is to try and create a tank where I can do very infrequent water changes but that build is still a while away.

I think the biggest perk of doing water changes very frequently (multiple times per week) outside of stability is building a regular routine. If you do them every two weeks, it’s easy to skip one. By doing it every day or every other, you’re doing something more manageable on a regular basis.

Same experience I have with daily changes which is 10-15 minutes and I do it while watching the news, which I otherwise sat down and watched- now two birds with one stone

 

[JayM]

I started doing AWC's about a month and a half ago. Roughly 1.5 gallons daily on a roughly 100 gallon total volume system via 2 AC Infinity peristaltic pumps. They run simultaneously for about 18 minutes a day. One pulls from the filter sock chamber, and the other fills in the return chamber.

Interestingly enough, and perhaps coincidentally, nitrates have dropped from the high 20's to the high teens, and phosphate has dropped from the high .2's to the mid-high .1's compared to when I was doing manual 10 gallon weekly changes.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I started doing AWC's about a month and a half ago. Roughly 1.5 gallons daily on a roughly 100 gallon total volume system via 2 AC Infinity peristaltic pumps. They run simultaneously for about 18 minutes a day. One pulls from the filter sock chamber, and the other fills in the return chamber.

Interestingly enough, and perhaps coincidentally, nitrates have dropped from the high 20's to the high teens, and phosphate has dropped from the high .2's to the mid-high .1's compared to when I was doing manual 10 gallon weekly changes.

Great to hear and it has kept my levels too at bay as I had High phosphate at one time

 

[MONTANTK]

Same experience I have with daily changes which is 10-15 minutes and I do it while watching the news, which I otherwise sat down and watched- now two birds with one stone

I would do it during a break at worked when I was remote. I had a small mixing tank on the shelf below the tank. Would mix once or twice a week and would do 3 or 4 changes a week. Took all of 5 minutes.