Water changes. . . . What is your method?

[TheNative192]

I currently have three tanks that I regularly do water changes in. I do around a 15-20% water change every other week in my Redsea desktop 18.5 gallon, 25 Gallon lagoon, & 8 Gallon IOAOI tank. I mostly have soft corals & just Duncans for LPS at the moment due. For my office tank I do a ~50% 2 gallon change (it is only 5 gallons total with rock & sand every two months). I just have one clownfish & an anemone which has done surprisingly well. I do have Macro algae in the tank that grows like crazy & around 100 tiny collonista snails (lol)

I am planning on shifting the 25 Gallon Lagoon into an Auto water change system with Hydros. I have a Hydros Control X4 & XP8. Since it is so small I plan to use two hydro's dosing pumps for now & will rely on the tri level sensor & the sensor for the ATO kit to monitor the level going down & up. I use the Tunze ATO for top off which is plugged into the XP8 which I will turn off automatically when doing the auto water change. I will post about my experiences on my thread as I try & figure it out lol although after talking to some smart people like BriDroid & others I think I have a solid idea of how to do it safely & controlled. I am currently waiting on some final supplies so we will see how that goes! :D

 

[vlangel]

When I answered this question the last time I had a 9yr old 56g display with 30g sump that wasn't needing water changes. However, in September I transferred both the former display and sump into a standard 75g display with a canister filter. Although all the rock, sand and coral were transferred, it is still a big disruption to the stability of the biological processes in the tank. So I am back to doing 10% weekly water changes. I use the tried and true siphon hose and 5g bucket to export out of the tank and a brute can of freshly made saltwater with pump to import back into the tank. Its old fashion but has worked for folks for decades. I am hoping as the tank stabilizes to decrease water changes eventually.

 

[n2585722]

I currently have three tanks that I regularly do water changes in. I do around a 15-20% water change every other week in my Redsea desktop 18.5 gallon, 25 Gallon lagoon, & 8 Gallon IOAOI tank. I mostly have soft corals & just Duncans for LPS at the moment due. For my office tank I do a ~50% 2 gallon change (it is only 5 gallons total with rock & sand every two months). I just have one clownfish & an anemone which has done surprisingly well. I do have Macro algae in the tank that grows like crazy & around 100 tiny collonista snails (lol)

I am planning on shifting the 25 Gallon Lagoon into an Auto water change system with Hydros. I have a Hydros Control X4 & XP8. Since it is so small I plan to use two hydro's dosing pumps for now & will rely on the tri level sensor & the sensor for the ATO kit to monitor the level going down & up. I use the Tunze ATO for top off which is plugged into the XP8 which I will turn off automatically when doing the auto water change. I will post about my experiences on my thread as I try & figure it out lol although after talking to some smart people like BriDroid & others I think I have a solid idea of how to do it safely & controlled. I am currently waiting on some final supplies so we will see how that goes! :D

I use the Hydros for AWC and ATO. I also use it to control my mixing station in the garage. My ATO and AWC pumps are also in the garage. The tank is 35ft away so the pumps are dosing pump and the tubing is run through the attic in insulated PVC conduit. I currently use two Blenny pumps for AWC but I did split it into 4 times a day. The ATO pump is a Sole. Since I have all three pumps as Hydros I use the built it AWC output which controls the AWC and ATO together. You cannot use that output if you are using another ATO since the output has to have control of turning it on and off for it to work correctly since the Hydros water level sensor uas to be wet for the AWC to start and has to be wet at the finis and for a while after the finish.

 

[The Ugly Phase]

2.5 gallons a day in a 94 gallon tank with a AWC

 

[AUSXMD]

I keep 75 gallons of rodi fresh and 75 gallons of rodi salt at all times. My tank is 230 gallons. I do about a 10 to 20 percent w/c weekly. I just had my knees replaced which makes it much harder, but I just take my time.

I forgot to mention I have about a 30 gallon ATO in the sump I fill weekly

 

[TheNative192]

I use the Hydros for AWC and ATO. I also use it to control my mixing station in the garage. My ATO and AWC pumps are also in the garage. The tank is 35ft away so the pumps are dosing pump and the tubing is run through the attic in insulated PVC conduit. I currently use two Blenny pumps for AWC but I did split it into 4 times a day. The ATO pump is a Sole. Since I have all three pumps as Hydros I use the built it AWC output which controls the AWC and ATO together. You cannot use that output if you are using another ATO since the output has to have control of turning it on and off for it to work correctly since the Hydros water level sensor uas to be wet for the AWC to start and has to be wet at the finis and for a while after the finish.

Is it not possible to have it turn off the ATO since its plugged into the XP8 and then lower the water down to the hydros sensor under water and then re-add water to a different hydros sensor next to the ATO sensor (although it will likely be higher since I will also see if I can turn off the pumps in the AIO). I currently have the ATO sensor & pump not in use and then I got the triple level sensor as well. My plan was to use the ATO sensor below the water and it will drain water down to that level while the ATO is turned off and then fill the water up to the Triple sensor & the top sensors will be a safety sensor. I assume you can program in the AWC to turn off pumps & such as well.

 

[n2585722]

Is it not possible to have it turn off the ATO since its plugged into the XP8 and then lower the water down to the hydros sensor under water and then re-add water to a different hydros sensor next to the ATO sensor (although it will likely be higher since I will also see if I can turn off the pumps in the AIO). I currently have the ATO sensor & pump not in use and then I got the triple level sensor as well. My plan was to use the ATO sensor below the water and it will drain water down to that level while the ATO is turned off and then fill the water up to the Triple sensor & the top sensors will be a safety sensor. I assume you can program in the AWC to turn off pumps & such as well.

You may be able to do what you want but you would have to come up with your own outputs to do it instead of using the built in output. I used to use a dosing schedule since I was using dosing pumps that were smart pumps and at the time they could not be used in the built in AWC output type. I programed an output to use in the depends on of the ATO to stop the ATO during the AWC. I setup a schedule to first run the drain pump to dose a certain amount the one minute later run the fill pump for the same dose amount. As long as you keep the dosing pumps calibrated they should remove and refill the same amount. I did have my ATO max on time and max off time setup so if there was an issue it would usually trigger an alert either way but I was using the built in ATO output type. I have a build thread and it has all the info on the different AWC and ATO setups I have used with the Hydros. Since you are now able to use the smart pumps with the AWC output type I went back to using it. Click on the "My Tank Thread" Banner to get to my build thread. I don't remember the pages and post number for when I was using the dosing pump setup but I think it was within the last year or so. I will see if I can find it when I have the time.

 

[ReeferMo]

Living in a flat on the the 7th floor of a condo

I did 150 gallons of total water change the past 7 years :(

It Averages to 0.0430137 gallon per day or 15.7 Gallon per year

 

[kynan]

I do one 60 gallon change once a month on my 265g system. Been doing 1x monthly changes like this with my SPS dominant systems for the last quarter century.

 

[Freenow54]

You may be able to do what you want but you would have to come up with your own outputs to do it instead of using the built in output. I used to use a dosing schedule since I was using dosing pumps that were smart pumps and at the time they could not be used in the built in AWC output type. I programed an output to use in the depends on of the ATO to stop the ATO during the AWC. I setup a schedule to first run the drain pump to dose a certain amount the one minute later run the fill pump for the same dose amount. As long as you keep the dosing pumps calibrated they should remove and refill the same amount. I did have my ATO max on time and max off time setup so if there was an issue it would usually trigger an alert either way but I was using the built in ATO output type. I have a build thread and it has all the info on the different AWC and ATO setups I have used with the Hydros. Since you are now able to use the smart pumps with the AWC output type I went back to using it. Click on the "My Tank Thread" Banner to get to my build thread. I don't remember the pages and post number for when I was using the dosing pump setup but I think it was within the last year or so. I will see if I can find it when I have the time.

Everyone talks about dosing please for those of us who are ignorant and are trying to learn what exactly do you all Dose ?

 

[TheNative192]

Everyone talks about dosing please for those of us who are ignorant and are trying to learn what exactly do you all Dose ?

All for Reef is what I dose but it is only required if you have SPS or LPS corals or a large amount of them. You can also dose separate liquids that add Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Trace Elements, Nitrates, Phosphates, etc. All for Reef just combines + Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Trace Elements together in one liquid which you can not do with other individual supplements. It is not something you have to worry about until you get hard corals like Torch, Hammer, Duncan LPS corals (Hard category) or SPS corals (very hard category). Those corals have a skeleton structure and absorb those elements from the water to form more skeleton. Soft corals do not have a skeleton and just use trace elements and are much easier. Outside of water changes you usually do not have to dose anything for soft corals. You do not have to dose with your current tank setup until you get corals though!

 

[Brad Wilkins]

I hook up the trailer once a month with my 1000l / 264.17 gallons ICB and pump NSW in Albany Western Australia where the water is supper clean. I match Alk and temperature over 24hrs and then pump the old tank water out at one side of the tank and new in on the other side. I run the full 1000L through my 600L/158.5 gallon tank to flush everything out. Takes around 35 minutes and the inhabitance love it.

 

[n2585722]

Everyone talks about dosing please for those of us who are ignorant and are trying to learn what exactly do you all Dose ?

In this case I was using one to remove a certain amount of tank water and the using another one to add back the same amount of fresh saltwater that was removed. So I was using it for AWC but I also use three to do automatic alkalinity testing in my iV. I also use one to dose All For Reek and another to dose a KH buffer. The one that doses the kH buffer is dynamic and the amounts dosed are dependent on the alkalinity test.

 

[lmfbs]

This is great timing because I've been thinking about an auto-water change using spare heads on my doser.

I don't have a huge amount of space near my tank so I'm thinking of using a 25L container and essentially changing 5l a day. This is a 490l system.

Since I don't have a huge amount of space, I've been thinking about changing out the water into the same container (pull 5l out of the reservoir into the tank, and 5l into the reservoir from the tank all at once). It's obviously less efficient than than 2 separate containers, but it also is easier maintenance-wise.

Is this a silly idea?

 

[PPBlimpy]

Is it not possible to have it turn off the ATO since its plugged into the XP8 and then lower the water down to the hydros sensor under water and then re-add water to a different hydros sensor next to the ATO sensor (although it will likely be higher since I will also see if I can turn off the pumps in the AIO). I currently have the ATO sensor & pump not in use and then I got the triple level sensor as well. My plan was to use the ATO sensor below the water and it will drain water down to that level while the ATO is turned off and then fill the water up to the Triple sensor & the top sensors will be a safety sensor. I assume you can program in the AWC to turn off pumps & such as well.

I plan on doing exactly this but with hydros when I get all switched over. 265g DT and 120g Water change station with all be controlled. Unfortunately I am looking at $2500 in controllers and equipment to implement

my plans are to have 2 sensors on the back wall of the tank. Top sensor will be at resting height with return pumps off and tank settled for approx 5 min. programmed after the 5 min wait to open a flow solenoid and turn on a small pump in the DT to remove 40G of water, or to the height of the lower sensor. then shut the solenoid, turn off pump. system hold for 1 minute and then activate solenoids on my mixing station to divert flow straight back to the tank and fill till it hits the top sensor.

Mixing station with have its own full controller with salinity probe and temp monitoring. need to figure out off the programming still but want the mixing station to have a ready state.

Thoughts are every Saturday morning while drinking my coffee with my wife, I push of a button the DT Controller, will initiate the WC only after if checks with a WC controller and basically it will need to read "IF" the salinity, temp and "full" height sensor on mixed tank all register "at an appropriate value" example - 34-35 ppt salinity / 77-79* / and full sensor active - it can proceed with the WC.

Once water change on the tank is complete, the mixing station will reset and pump from the rodi holding barrel to salt mixing barrel, kick on the flow for the RODI, and all I will need to do physically is go dump in a premeasured amount of salt, turn heaters and circ pump back on and be ready for the next week. The WC station reset will probably hold for a couple hours before it cycles in case I need rodi water for any of my other systems.

My mixing station drums are 60G each so I could do 50G WC like this. In case of an emergency I can do two back to back WCs of 50G within 2 hours of each other, or I am sure I can have a back up emergency water change, go dump the measured amount of salt in my rodi water barrel and let it mix and do 100-110G change if i have too.

Now this is all hypothetical at this point. I have most of it worked out and know what i will need equipment wise. i have seen similar things done on smaller scale.

What prompted this is I had my tank crash 2.5months ago. lost 95% of my corals and anemones. Didn't have water ready. I am not sure how I could make it all work together with my current nuptune system but I do in theory know the hydros collective would work.

wow that got long - but for now I am using my neptune to implement 2.5G daily and a 30G weekly to help after the crash and bring down nitrates and phos before i start stocking the tank again with corls.

once nutrients are where i like them to be again i will continue with the daily until i get the hydros up. if i get the hydros up. maybe the daily will be enough and i just keep it that way who knows

 

[PPBlimpy]

I have a 200 gallon poly tank in a separate room. I open a valve over the sump and pump about 20 gallons into my septic system. I then pump replacement ASW through a 1" poly line that runs through my crawlspace to the sump. I usually do this twice a week for a 40 gallon per week water change on a 320 gallon system.

no issues with the septic? i am on well / septic and always worried putting it down the septic would be bad.

 

[JulesH]

I change 1% per day via the Apex.