Water changes

[lisa.gregory11]

So I know we should do water changes often with new aquariums but should I still do one even if my nitrates, phosphates, nitrites, ammonia ect are all super low? I finished my cycle 2 weeks ago. I added a pair of clowns last week. This week my parameters are as follows:

Calcium 480
Kh 9
Ph 8
Temp 78 f
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate 0

Still do a weekly water change or leave it alone?

 

[William Morris]

How big is your tank and what test kits do you use?

 

[Pistondog]

Leave it alone until nitrates > 20.
If that takes a week, then start your weekly changes.

 

[vetteguy53081]

As long as we are talking about monitoring parameters, What test kits are you using as there are a lot of zeros here ?

 

[Jeffcb]

Its impossible to do too many water changes. Its up to you.

 

[Spare time]

Its impossible to do too many water changes. Its up to you.

If nitrates of phosphate bottom out then yes it can be hurting the tank (mainly in the form of dinos or cyano)

 

[1guydude]

^ i do not believe in this.
I dont do wcs until i need to
D

 

[DaddyFish]

My vote is leave it alone, test water at least once per week, when nitrates reach 20 do a 25% wc.

 

[Jeffcb]

If nitrates of phosphate bottom out then yes it can be hurting the tank (mainly in the form of dinos or cyano)

Plunge on down about 30 feet into a reef. The waters change about every 2 seconds

 

[Spare time]

Plunge on down about 30 feet into a reef. The waters change about every 2 seconds

2 things

That "water change about every two seconds" is constantly bringing particulate foods and nitrogen+phosphorus sources to the corals

Also, our tank water is practically sterile compared to actual reef water, especially freshly mixed salkt water.

 

[Spare time]

^ i do not believe in this.
I dont do wcs until i need to
D

You do not believe what about my comment? That 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate can lead to dinos or cyano? Or that water changes remove nitrate and phospate?

 

[1guydude]

The dino cyano part.
D

 

[mike550]

@lisa.gregory11 welcome to the hobby! If you only have two clowns I might wait for nitrates to rise a bit (15-20) as higher nitrates really aren’t going to affect anything in your tank. Think of water changes as a way to freshen everything up and replenish things that get consumed. As you add more fish, corals, inverts, etc to the tank then the value and stability of your parameters will become more important.

Just my opinion but for now I would do 10-15% water change every couple of weeks. But still check your parameters on a regular basis.

 

[Spare time]

The dino cyano part.
D

Cyano is able to get nitrogen from the atmosphere, therefore ultra low nitrate in a tank does not bother them while it will have negative effects for their competition. Dr Tim from Drt Tim's aquatic mentions this in his MACNA talk. Dinos pop up extremely frequently when phosphate hits 0. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of threads on this and it is pretty well known in the reefing community that hitting 0 phosphate can lead to dinos and that they go away when phosphate is dosed. I can also back this with the numerous cases of customers I have dealt with who had dinos, people seeing dinos whenever they dose too much nitrate and phopsphate removing bacteria, and having had and solved dinos for my tank too.

 

[yababo]

I don't do much water changes only if dire.