water changes

[machome79]

hello reefers,

the topic of reef tank stability came up yesterday in conversation with a few fellow reefers. everyone had there own viewpoints. from sand bed vacuuming to media changing, etc. but once the topic water changes was talked about it raised a question that made me really think. so I would like to take a poll and see what a larger community of reefers think.

 

[Floyd-]

I dont change my water unless there is an issue.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I was team no water change for a long time and had multiple years of success with it, but I believe the buildup of detritus and toxic nasties over time caused the beginning stages of "old tank syndrome" in my tank making it less resistant to an eventual power outage related crash.

If you aren't doing water changes, I'd say it's still important to aerate sandbed and remove detritus.

 

[Miami Reef]

How about all of the above?

I want my nitrates and phosphates as low as possible, organic removal (that aren’t removed by skimming), dilute toxins, increased water clarity, trace element additions, removing certain trace elements that tend to accumulate, and restore the balance from ionic shifts from using two parts.

It’s a no-brainer for me. Some people don’t like water changes, but I’m not one of those people.

 

[JC1977]

I was team no water change for a long time and had multiple years of success with it, but I believe the buildup of detritus and toxic nasties over time caused the beginning stages of "old tank syndrome" in my tank making it less resistant to an eventual power outage related crash.

If you aren't doing water changes, I'd say it's still important to aerate sandbed and remove detritus.

Agreed! I’ve always been a firm believer in weekly water changes in all my tanks whether reef or fish only and especially if you have substrate as stated above.

 

[olonmv]

I’m with @Floyd-. Unless needed I don’t do them.

 

[vetteguy53081]

hello reefers,

the topic of reef tank stability came up yesterday in conversation with a few fellow reefers. everyone had there own viewpoints. from sand bed vacuuming to media changing, etc. but once the topic water changes was talked about it raised a question that made me really think. so I would like to take a poll and see what a larger community of reefers think.

I generally dont change water but twice a year and I was just at a seminar for reef manangement and it was suggested that best practices were either auto water changer or manual change every 3 days of 5% to restore traces and keep levels at Bay. Ive been doing this three weeks and its the best my corals have EVER and mean EVER looked over almost 4 decades of doing this
Im not going to blow up this thread but here are some:

 

[Cthulukelele]

I generally dont change water but twice a year and I was just at a seminar for reef manangement and it was suggested that best practices were either auto water changer or manual change every 3 days of 5% to restore traces and keep levels at Bay. Ive been doing this three weeks and its the best my corals have EVER and mean EVER looked over almost 4 decades of doing this
Im not going to blow up this thread but here are some:

Beautiful corals.

I feel like the path for water change opinions for reefers goes:

-I'm new I should do a bunch of water changes
-I don't need water changes things look good and I can just test and monitor
-Hmm maybe this water change thing is a good idea look how happy everything is.

Obviously if you're doing something like reef moonshiners or cleaning your bed but not changing water to do 100% icp based dosing this is different, but that's definitely the outlier to the usual "eh I don't want to do a water change today and why do I need to" that is a lot more common.

 

[machome79]

I generally dont change water but twice a year and I was just at a seminar for reef manangement and it was suggested that best practices were either auto water changer or manual change every 3 days of 5% to restore traces and keep levels at Bay. Ive been doing this three weeks and its the best my corals have EVER and mean EVER looked over almost 4 decades of doing this
Im not going to blow up this thread but here are some:

very beautiful, how interesting. makes sense though. due to the fact a glass box of sea water has a limited supply of these trace elements and the ocean has unlimited. plus amount of coral demand as well. makes one rethink things.

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

I can't remember exactly, but I had a daily water change done (either 5 or 10 gallons) by the DoS.

Not sure why I did it, but felt like it was "good" for the system.

The water taken from the tank was put in my coral / invert QT tank (20 gallons), which was then drained.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I won’t respond to this poll since it lacks what I consider to be the best reasons to do water changes:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com



Conclusion

---

Water changes are a good way to help control certain processes that serve to drive reef aquarium water away from its starting purity. Some things build up in certain situations (organics, certain metals, sodium, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, etc.), and some things become depleted (calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, strontium, silica, etc.). Water changes can serve to help correct these imbalances, and in some cases may be the best way to deal with them. Water changes of 15-30% per month (whether carried out once a month, daily or continuously) have been shown in the graphs above to be useful in moderating the drift of these different seawater components from starting levels. For most reef aquaria, I recommend such changes as good aquarium husbandry. In general, the more the better, if carried out appropriately, and if the new salt water is of appropriate quality.
Calcium and alkalinity, being rapidly depleted in most reef aquaria, are not well controlled, or even significantly impacted by such small water changes. In order to maintain them with no other supplements, changes on the order of 30-50% PER DAY would be required. Nevertheless, that option may still be a good choice for very small aquaria, especially if the changes are slow and automatic.

 

[rtparty]

What Randy said.

A lot of people are team no water change until they aren’t. And most of them just disappear and we never know what happened.

I was team no water change for over 2 years. Tank did great as I was ICP testing 8-10x a year and dosing 84 bottles of elements! Okay, 84 is a slight exaggeration but I think it’s seriously close to 20 something. 5-6 of those are every single day. Almost 3 months ago I stopped dosing all those bottles and have a water change every 7-10 days. Comes out to like 7% each time. Guess what happened? Tank looks better now than it ever did. Haven’t sent off an ICP in quite a while. Maybe 3 months ago? No clue what all my trace elements are at.

Things build up that can not be tested for and a water change is the only way to help with them. It’s simply a matter of time for most of our tanks. Those that go a decade plus with no water changes are the exception and should be patted on the back. It’s not worth the risk any longer for me especially after my own results

 

[vetteguy53081]

very beautiful, how interesting. makes sense though. due to the fact a glass box of sea water has a limited supply of these trace elements and the ocean has unlimited. plus amount of coral demand as well. makes one rethink things.

And considering consumption coral use up

 

[vetteguy53081]

Beautiful corals.

I feel like the path for water change opinions for reefers goes:

-I'm new I should do a bunch of water changes
-I don't need water changes things look good and I can just test and monitor
-Hmm maybe this water change thing is a good idea look how happy everything is.

Obviously if you're doing something like reef moonshiners or cleaning your bed but not changing water to do 100% icp based dosing this is different, but that's definitely the outlier to the usual "eh I don't want to do a water change today and why do I need to" that is a lot more common.

I have entire reef moonshiners but see this method producing better results

 

[Cthulukelele]

I have entire reef moonshiners but see this method producing better results

That's interesting. I'm not surprised necessarily, but do you have any theories on as to why?

 

[vetteguy53081]

That's interesting. I'm not surprised necessarily, but do you have any theories on as to why?

Restoration of elements appear to be more effective than addition of elements- Just a hunch.

 

[Heres_doe_]

I have entire reef moonshiners but see this method producing better results

How long did you use reef moonshine vs this

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Restoration of elements appear to be more effective than addition of elements- Just a hunch.

Not being argumentative, but what's the difference between "restoring elements" and "adding elements"?

 

[vetteguy53081]

How long did you use reef moonshine vs this

I’m on year 2 with moonshine

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I try to do water changes and other tank maintenance on a regular (usually weekly or twice a month depending on the task) basis, so that if I get off track (i.e. don't do anything with the tank for a while besides feed the fish and refill the ATO reservoir) at least it's not been TOO long and the tank inhabitants won't be negatively affected.
I guess it's kind of an insurance policy.
But, things do look happier after a WC. Plus, I enjoy tinkering with the tank so WC's give me an excuse to get my hands wet ;)