[dphilbert]

My local fs is down the street from where I have classes and they have seawater so getting water is not a problem. Is doing a 5 gallon change on a 20 gallon tank once a week too much? Can you cange water too much? I know that this may lower calcium levels but if adding natural sea water I would think that this wouldnt be as much of a problem, plus i supplement with purple up daily.

[dalamar96]

It probably isn't too much as it is about 25% / week, but you could cut that back to every 2 weeks to be a little more along the norms. (10% / week or 20% / 2 weeks etc) I think the too much would be changing more the 50% of the water at one time.

[mateo lopez]

I change 30 gallons every third week on my 175 gallon. I feel that the water needs to condition well before i replace it. My corals and fish are doing great.

[volitan_fa]

I think you're fine, especially with a smaller system. How's purple up doing for you? I hear mixed reviews about that product.

[dphilbert]

I think its still too soon to tell how the purple up helps. When i first put in liverock, the a lot of the coraline bleached in a few days, before the ammonia had even spiked, so the guy at my store told me there might not be enough calcium. After starting supplements, no more purple algae has died (pink and greenish still didnt make it), and new rock i put in didn't have the purple die off like the first rock. So I guess it works ok, but the purple still isnt spreading (its only been 1 month)

[mcintosh]

Keep posting on how the Purple Up works. I supplement my tank with a two part mix which used to grow a ton of coralline, but I have noticed a slow down in production of coralline on the glass and was considering adding Purple Up just to give an extra boost.

As far as water changes are concerned, I would say find a pattern and stick to it. Each tank is so different it is hard to say what will work best for you. If you are consistent with the water changes doing more water changes will mean having to use less supplements and less concern over having waste products build-up. Just be consistent.

I do a 5-gallon water change on my 55 every week. I think I notice better color out of my stoney corals when I do this. However, I also have gone a month or more without water changes in order to increase the poop factor for my soft corals to grow.

[volitan_fa]

I'm just curious about the purple up because I've heard bad things about it from people, but maybe they dosed wrong? I simply dose pure liquid calcium and iodine into my system. I've got a 25 lb batch that I picked up at a LFS (the only one with LR!) that had a little purple and green growth on it when I got it. Them, as well as another rock, are almost completely covered with green coralline and some purple/pink is starting to creep too. I've only had it about 2 weeks under weak power compact.

[dphilbert]

So what did you hear?