I change 90 gals every fortnight, without fail. My water is mixed with salt and heavily aeriated and vigerously turned over, for around 5 days before use. This lessons the impact on the redox level. I believe that i probally could get away with changing less, but i think it's not worth the risk in a high loaded reef tank.
How often do you change your water?
- Thread starter Len
- Start date
My livestock got stressed as heck getting too frequent water changes. I have backed it down to about 1x a month to 1x every 2 months. I was previously doing it every other week (10%)
About 2 Gallons goes out 1x month when I clean my fluval (around 3.5% of the water volume) and this is not included in the other changes of around 5 Gallons (10%) that I do every 4 to 8 weeks.
Low by most standards for a stocked tank but I dont know what else to say, I watched the live stock and the more I screw with the tank, the less healthy they seem. Eating goes down, swimming goes down, hiding goes up, fighting goes up, color gets poor, etc etc.
I can only surmise that my water quality is very very poor even with the DI tap filter Im using.
I know nutrients/junk has to be exported from the tank...but how should someone like me do it effectively??
About 2 Gallons goes out 1x month when I clean my fluval (around 3.5% of the water volume) and this is not included in the other changes of around 5 Gallons (10%) that I do every 4 to 8 weeks.
Low by most standards for a stocked tank but I dont know what else to say, I watched the live stock and the more I screw with the tank, the less healthy they seem. Eating goes down, swimming goes down, hiding goes up, fighting goes up, color gets poor, etc etc.
I can only surmise that my water quality is very very poor even with the DI tap filter Im using.
I know nutrients/junk has to be exported from the tank...but how should someone like me do it effectively??
I'm of the belief, from many instances with individual reefkeepers, that (in general) tanks are much healthy... well lets clarify that a bit... SPS and clam tanks are much healthier with regular water changes. All corals produce toxins of some sort, many to prevent competition in a localized environment... those toxins in some cases mean little as they break down quickly, in some cases they don't. A really good skimmer helps alot, but water changes do even more. Water changes, a good skimmer, and using activated carbon, I believe are key to a healthy reef tank. Unless you are trying to grow goniopora and other lagoonal species, in which case you need non-toxic, higher organic water.
Wade
Wade
good points wade. for those reefers that believe they are in actuality doing water changes when they are topping off the evaporation........are you serious? 
the only thing that evaporates is the h2o, you still have all the nasty organics left in your water. this is why it is necessary to suck out water and replace with fresh salt water. i doing so you are also replacing the trace elements that are absorbed by your tank inhabitants.
my 2c
the only thing that evaporates is the h2o, you still have all the nasty organics left in your water. this is why it is necessary to suck out water and replace with fresh salt water. i doing so you are also replacing the trace elements that are absorbed by your tank inhabitants.
my 2c
I am not sure if replacing trace elements is really the point. When I go without doing a water change, I still have to add fair amounts of salt to the tank (presumably because of salt creep). And if this were the only issue, one could simply use trace element additives.
I think the real issue is physically removing a % of your water and replacing it with fresh and presumably exporting nutrients/wastes/etc in the process. Without this a tank has to be very ligthly stocked and very heavy in substrate areas for denitrifying bacteria (both aerobic and anerobic) to keep up.
This no doubt accounts for why SOME are able to get by with little to no water changes while others are not...
I think the real issue is physically removing a % of your water and replacing it with fresh and presumably exporting nutrients/wastes/etc in the process. Without this a tank has to be very ligthly stocked and very heavy in substrate areas for denitrifying bacteria (both aerobic and anerobic) to keep up.
This no doubt accounts for why SOME are able to get by with little to no water changes while others are not...
When I started my 415 almost 2 years ago I waited about 4 months before adding any corals. Then I started with several 2" frags and moved over the corals from my 120 gallon tank. I did a couple 50 gallon (12.5% or so) water changes and things were doing AWESOME. Unbelievable growth rates on my SPS. After about 1 year up and running the tank was doing tremendous. I did a 100 gallon water change (25% or so) and then didn't do any more for about 9 months. I started to get tissue recession at the tips of my SPS colonies (that were frags just over a year before) and lost a bunch of clams. I've done 3 - 100 gallon water changes since then (2 one week apart and then another just this morning about 6 weeks after the first 2). I really feel that if I hadn't done the water changes I would have lost all the SPS. They immediately picked up and stopped losing tissue.
I've invested in a larger skimmer which should be getting here this week and plan on continuing to do regular water changes. One item of note is that only my SPS and clams have ever showed any signs of difficulties. All of my soft corals and LPS were doing great the whole time. I tested phosphates and they got up to .2 ppm at the worst, which isn't horrible but SPS just can't deal with them IME.
Oh well, another vote for regular water changes. I also think larger %changes are important. I think 1 - 100 gallon water change each month is better than 2 - 50 gallon water changes during that month.
FWIW, Nathan
I've invested in a larger skimmer which should be getting here this week and plan on continuing to do regular water changes. One item of note is that only my SPS and clams have ever showed any signs of difficulties. All of my soft corals and LPS were doing great the whole time. I tested phosphates and they got up to .2 ppm at the worst, which isn't horrible but SPS just can't deal with them IME.
Oh well, another vote for regular water changes. I also think larger %changes are important. I think 1 - 100 gallon water change each month is better than 2 - 50 gallon water changes during that month.
FWIW, Nathan
i used to do my water changes once a month but i've since switched to doing them weekly. i have found that my critters are much healthier because of this. i have a 40 gallon and i change about 5 gallons a week. this has worked out to be the best method for my tank which is now 1 1/2 years old and going strong.
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