Water changes- What is your method?

[SDReefer77]

I do however dose just a little bit. I've got enough sps growing in mine where I'll see alk swings over the course of 2 weeks. But I keep it simple here - 10ml per day of all for reef through a single cheap dosing pump. This seems to hold things steady, so water changes are almost 100% for nutrient removal and the things I don't know about that are building/depleting.

Yeah, me too, I'm pretty stocked in this little tank so I'm dosing 2 part. Same thing though, minimal, like 3ml twice a week of each. I'll probably move to all for reef when this stuff is out so I don't have to bother measuring 2 products and staggering days.

I also get the same alk swing, or for me it's a gradual drop in alk and ph over a couple week period, but that's why I'm rebuffering the NSW since it's naturally coming in a little lower than desired and I'm additionally cutting it with RO. This seems to be stabilizing though to where I'm buffering less.

I guess It's more the mindset of a lot of NSW users, also the nano crowd like you mentioned since it's sometimes just easier to manually do things with the small tank, and what I might hopefully be able to move toward as the tank matures. More frequent, small water changes to "hold things steady" like you said and balance nutrient/trace element removal & replenishment.

Do you like the results from the All for Reef?

 

[NkSde]

Tbh probably monthly 5 gal out and in on a 20 w about 16 gal water.
With nightly scrapings during feeding.

 

[Mppp]

Still doing it the old fashioned way. 5 gallon Buckets and I run 7 stage RODI into 5 gallon water containers for weekly water changes.

Lift Buckets and pour in after siphoning the tank water.

To add, I have a 100% Acropora SPS system with a Derasa Clam.

Same here w/ old fashioned way and 7 stage RODI except I have a flight of stairs from basement (good exercise!) What percentage are you changing weekly for your acro tank?

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Same here w/ old fashioned way and 7 stage RODI except I have a flight of stairs from basement (good exercise!) What percentage are you changing weekly for your acro tank?

I have a Red Sea Reefer XL 300 G2 that they say is 80 gallons, 65 display, 15 sump. I think the display is more like 75 based on measurements, but you get the idea.

I'm changing 15 gallons a week. I've experimented with every 2 weeks as well, but I find weekly to be the best for overall Acro health and stability.

 

[52728299]

This is green hair algae. Pull off as much as you can by hand and reduce white light intensity and number of hours of white lighting and add some snails such as :
Astrea
cerith
turbo grazer
trochus

A Pencil urchin

8-10 Caribbean blue leg hermits

This is what I ordered. Some will be going to the big dt but like 16-20 snails and the crab will be going in this small gha tank.

 

[cmaxwell39]

~30 gal a week. Have 2 55 gal drums, one is RO, other for NSW. Plumbed together via a pump.

On water change day, clean glass and stir sand blow out rocks. After tank clears, drain QT's via siphon to utility sink in basement fish room. Clean skimmer. Then I can use the pump on the mixing station to transfer NSW from the mixing barrel directly into the return chamber of the sump while at the same time I have a tee in the drain line from the tank on the main level that allows me to turn a few valves and drain water from display tank to the QT's, or to the sump pump in the basement. Don't even shut return pump off. Do all of this once a week.

Not having to touch a bucket to do water changes.... priceless.

 

[DarkReefer]

262L tank and due to multiple dino outbreaks my water changes have been few and far between over the past 6-9 months.

I've just started making my own RO/DI water last night and did my first water change in probably 3 months after having another bout of dinos show up about a month or 2 back.

Did a 17-ish% water change today with my first ever salt mix.
Ideally I'd like to do these every 2-3 weeks I think. We'll see how this one plays out and go from there.

Anyway, my method previously was to utilize 2x 220L food grade drums (old olive barrels I think it was), and pump directly from the drum into the tank manually (ie. set up a pump etc whenever I need to waterchange).

Going forward I believe I'm going to store RO/DI in the drums and then pump it out into a large bucket or container to mix what I need for the change as and when I need it so the saltwater doesn't go bad if I leave it for extended periods.

 

[Pistondog]

3 liters per day, 250 ml per 2 hours awc with dilute phyto.

 

[I never finish anythi]

75g system. I just change out 10g every Sunday . Mix it in a brute trash bin for few hrs . Not to difficult.

 

[UtahReefer]

Auto water change... 45 g cube and the system changes out about 1.3 gallons per day. I use the AutoAqua Smart WC. The thing works great.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I believe water changes are one of the pillars to long term success but man do they suck to do.
Therefore I’m running AWCs on my 1400L (ish) system. Changing about 100L weekly split up in to five stints a day.
I will go ever it in the tank and vacuum up the gunk in the sand-bed every month or so.
I waited ages for the ghl maxi doser 2.2 to be released as my old awc system couldn’t handle this tank and it stunk to high heavens doing them manually for over a year haha

 

[Kongar]

Do you like the results from the All for Reef?

I do, it holds everything steady, it's a simple one daily dose, and I haven't noticed anything wrong with it. I think there's two problems with it: 1) you can only add so much so it doesn't work for all tanks, 2) it's expensive. I make my own by buying the components in bulk and it's MUCH cheaper that way. You can youtube "diy all for reef" to see how. I'd recommend investing in a mixer though - it takes FOREVER for everything to dissolve.

 

[n2585722]

I do auto water changes with my Hydros. The ATO is also a part of the AWC output. In total I use 6 drive ports and 3 pumps. 3 of the drive ports drive relays that open the connection between the drive port and pump to do an emergency off for each pump. This is just a redundancy and is not a requirement for it to work. The three screenshots below are of the AWC output settings. I use three dosing pumps so I do not need the low level sensor. Once the schedule triggers the change if the high level input is not wet it will wait for a top off from the ATO to start the AWC. The drain pump runs for drain duration set. Then the fill pump runs till the high level sensor is wet. I change the duration depending on the nitrate level test. It is at 10 minutes at this time. The dosing pump has a flow rate of 60 ml a minute. I do this three times a day so at this time that would be 1800ml a day. While the AWC is in progress the ATO is disabled.

Below is the schedule settings for the AWC. There is an output that will halt the AWC schedule using the depends on settings. It will not stop a AWC that is already in progress. This output will come on if the fresh salt water reservoir is low or the AWC stop switch is on. So I can flip that switch if I want to stop the AWC from happening. Also if the fresh salt water goes low and the mix tank is not ready to refill it with the Hydros will halt any future water changes until the issue is cleared.

Here is a photo of my controller board in the garage. The three pumps in the bottom pump shelf unit is the two AWC pumps and ATO pump. The solenoids at the top control the RODI unit.

Below are my mix tank, fresh salt water and DI reservoirs. They are located under my workbench. All I have to do when the mix tank is refilled is add the salt mix and press a button when it is ready for use. Otherwise it is automated.

 

[zoomonster]

Fairly infrequent other than lately where refreshing an old 200g tank with 38g sump. Doing 40 every week or two until I use up 5 bags of IO RC. Sadly, it's the one thing I have not automated yet. Using Brutes pump 40g inside to mix for a day or two, pumping 40g out of tank through window to another Brute and pumping the 40g mix into tank. My outside RO container is a Brute too. Looking around for a decent vertical tank and a vinyl cabinet it and RODI unit will fit in. One of these days maybe an auto change system too. Sad thing is those "50g" bags of salt make exactly 35ppt at around 40g.

 

[tigre44]

I monitor my po4 and nitrate levels as long as they stay low I don’t do water changes as they rise I do s 6 gal change usually amounts to a water change per month sometimes two

 

[OrlandoAIOReef]

We all do water changes . Some do this manually, some do this automatically and some simply dont do it.

I utilize a water storage system and do daily water changes of 1-2 gallons. I also have a AWC unit I use bi-weekly when i'd rather not do it manually.

How often do you change your water and how do you do your water change?

10% twice a month

 

[t5Nitro]

I used to AWC 1 gallon daily.

I haven't done a water change in maybe 2 years. You guys make me feel like I should do one.

 

[PhishMonger84]

I don’t have any salt tanks ATM but I do fin level water changes in my freshwater tanks weekly- I use a utility pump out, which allows me to drain and fill 3 180’s in under 2 hours

 

[zoomonster]

I used to AWC 1 gallon daily.

I haven't done a water change in maybe 2 years. You guys make me feel like I should do one.

I've easily gone that long too at different time periods. Most recently during the whole covid dark ages I pretty much left my tank on autopilot for at least 2 years with no water changes and it did just fine. At most I added a little salt to make up for salt creep and kept the RODI going filling ATO container.

 

[vanguard]

I have a 25 gallon tank (advertised) so maybe it has 20 actual gallons? I change five gallons each week, like clockwork.

I have two five gallons buckets and I scoop the water with a pitcher from the tank into one for measuring. Next, I empty the new water into the tank.

The hardest part is making the new water.