[Roady]

I have always done a 10% water change every week on my reef, however, these passed two months I have been doing a 10% water change every other week just to see if the every week approach was absolutely essential. I have found that, in my tank, it makes no difference. I still refill my auto top-off with fresh water and additives every week. I was just wondering how often everyone was doing their water changes.

[spanko]

I do 20% per week. Dilution of adverse chemicals and nutrients, replenishment of used elements are the main reasons for doing water changes.

[Roady]

Yeah I understand why we do them, I'm just curious as to each persons approach to it

[spanko]

Originally Posted by Roady

Yeah I understand why we do them, I'm just curious as to each persons approach to it

Got ya. I think that each persons approach to water changes is tailored to their tank. Some get away with monthly, some can't let a week go by. I guess the best answer is to test your water weekly for nitrates and calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Also viewing the condition of your livestock will give you a good indication of how your tank is doing, although by the time you see something looking a little off it may be harder to get the tank back.

[NOSAJ214]

I agree with Henry.Some people have to do 10% weekly,some 10% biweekly.So many factors come into play but i do 10% each week,altough i dont have to,i just choose to to try to keep things as stable as possible.Also livens everything up in the tank when the change is done.

[unclejed]

One practice I have never believed in is weekly water changes. I understand many may disagree, however, the less stress you put on the tank the better. Once a month, or if you must, once every 3 weeks is adequate.
When the inhabitants of the tank can relax and get into their own groove for a month or so I believe they are more at ease and content. If I didn't have to do a water change I wouldn't but unfortunately in a closed system, even with all the advancements; overflows, sumps, refugiums and skimmers we do have to "change out" some water.
Well, that is my opinion on this, feel free to comment and remember we are all in this together!

[Roady]

Sorry spanko, I replied to your comment really fast at work and now that I read what I wrote it sounds rude, I didn't mean it to be that way. I'm really enjoying all you guys input on this, thanks!

[spanko]

Not to worry, I did not take it the wrong way. All is good!

[IceMan]

i do 10% weekly, honestly i could likely get by with less but i figure with this much invested i don't wanna cut corners on something like that... that's just me, but also those things you rarely or never test anymore could creep up on you.

salinity = test reg.
calc. = reg.
dKH = reg.
mag. on occasion
nitrate on occasion
ammonia, trites, phos. hardly ever
etc. etc.

i used to test everything religiously but now... ya know?

[Mr_X]

Originally Posted by unclejed

One practice I have never believed in is weekly water changes. I understand many may disagree, however, the less stress you put on the tank the better.

i think the longer you wait to do a waterchange, the more stressful it will be on the inhabitants.
why would clean water full of essential nutrients effect anything negatively?


weekly waterchanges here. necessary or not, it doesn't cost me much money, and about 15 minutes of my time.

[IceMan]

though i disagree with the idea of spanning the time between water changes it is true that it adds to the chances of stressing inhabitants at every water change, with that said a weekly 10% will induce less stress than a larger monthly will, simply because there is a smaller change in water chemistry...

Originally Posted by Mr_X

i think the longer you wait to do a waterchange, the more stressful it will be on the inhabitants.
why would clean water full of essential nutrients effect anything negatively?

because ANY change in water parameters can upset corals, inverts, & fish. A shift in the water be it good or bad is something that biologically has to be accepted… if not then would you take a new addition and simply toss it in or slowly acclimate it to your system and specific water makeup? Every time you do a water change it is a micro version of this and the larger the water changes get the more macro this becomes.

[spanko]

Originally Posted by IceMan

though i disagree with the idea of spanning the time between water changes it is true that it adds to the chances of stressing inhabitants at every water change, with that said a weekly 10% will induce less stress than a larger monthly will, simply because there is a smaller change in water chemistry...
because ANY change in water parameters can upset corals, inverts, & fish. A shift in the water be it good or bad is something that biologically has to be accepted… if not then would you take a new addition and simply toss it in or slowly acclimate it to your system and specific water makeup? Every time you do a water change it is a micro version of this and the larger the water changes get the more macro this becomes.

This is why, for those of you just getting into water changes, is it important to test your water change water to ensure all parameters are as close to the tank parameters as possible.JMO

[Mr_X]

i've never had any ill effects from doing a waterchange. all i make sure of is the temperature.
i stopped checking the parameters of my waterchange water years ago.

i don't acclimate corals either. i just float them and then toss them in. i've never lost one with this process.

changing out 10 or 15 percent of the tank water will not make a huge difference anyway. unless of course it's 40 degree water.

[spanko]

Originally Posted by Mr_X

i've never had any ill effects from doing a waterchange. all i make sure of is the temperature.
i stopped checking the parameters of my waterchange water years ago.

i don't acclimate corals either. i just float them and then toss them in. i've never lost one with this process.

changing out 10 or 15 percent of the tank water will not make a huge difference anyway. unless of course it's 40 degree water.

Same here, no acclimation for coral other than temp. X you do check salinity though on water change water correct? I also check calcuim, alk and Ph so that I can make changes to the tank - change water if necessary.

[unclejed]

All right, let's go at this from a different perspective, dilution. If you have a 50 gal. of water and change 10% or 5 gal. you still have 45 gal. of old undiluted water. In one week of you feeding and fish excreting and some things die (inverts) and nutrients building up, by the end of the week you are almost back to square one.

You are not effectively diluting and "polishing" the water to any substantial degree. On the other hand, if you change 30% of 50 gal. or 15 gal. then you have diluted the water to an amount of only having left 35 gal.

So if I may, the dilution capacity is far greater doing one Change at 30%. The formula is this; 45/5=9 but 35/15=2.3 where the sum represents the dilution factor so the smaller the number the better, less old water remains.

[spanko]

Yes but how much has the build up increased in the 3 week period (possibly detrimental levels) compared to the 1 week period?

[IceMan]

true if you do it every week but if you are saying that 30% once a month dilutes more than 10% weekly over the long run then you need to go back to the drawing board...

[jimw369]

way too complicated

[spanko]

Originally Posted by jimw369

way too complicated

Yup..just do the water changes. Can only help.

[unclejed]

Originally Posted by spanko

Yes but how much has the build up increased in the 3 week period (possibly detrimental levels) compared to the 1 week period?

No, you have removed a larger volume of water and replaced with pure water so your beneficial bacteria can now accomplish what they do more effectively. If some don't understand the concept and fact of dilution I can't help that.

Forums are a place of ideas, opinions and facts. I believe in the end each person does what they have found works for them. Too many times (as this series of posts proves) people want to believe "A" method or "1" method is correct when in reality more than one one method may be equal to another and thus some personalities may be drawn to a particular method and someone else to another. It's simple. We aren't here to prove each other wrong (or we shouldn't be) but rather to put forth the ideas, concepts and facts mentioned above.

So, this thread has exhausted itself and it has been a viable discussion.

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by unclejed

No, you have removed a larger volume of water and replaced with pure water so your beneficial bacteria can now accomplish what they do more effectively. If some don't understand the concept and fact of dilution I can't help that.

Forums are a place of ideas, opinions and facts. I believe in the end each person does what they have found works for them. Too many times (as this series of posts proves) people want to believe "A" method or "1" method is correct when in reality more than one one method may be equal to another and thus some personalities may be drawn to a particular method and someone else to another. It's simple. We aren't here to prove each other wrong (or we shouldn't be) but rather to put forth the ideas, concepts and facts mentioned above.

So, this thread has exhausted itself and it has been a viable discussion.

Dont want to start anything but how do you explain people that dont do water changes but every 3-4 mos. We had a gentleman on RB about a year ago that owned a LFS that had a fantastic looking large reef tank he claimed hadnt had a water change in 2 years! Pics of it are here in the threads somewhere. I personally have a friend that has a tank we would all like to have and he doesnt do a water change until he sees something negative happening in his tank. He feels water changes messes up his water chemistry and by doing water changes every 1-2-3 weeks adds stress on the tank. Him being in the business commercially for over ten years says this whole water change thing was drummed up by salt manufacturers to make money.

Lets take a quote from Keith (Krazy) "All I do is regular water changes". At the time Keith had a very nice reef tank loaded with corals. As time went on keith also mentioned he was doing less water changes and noticing no problems and the last word I think was every 3 weeks.

Im not playing both sides of the coin here. Im simply stating it seems many ways can work. I do feel that regualar water changes of 10-20% every 2-3 weeks helps keep the average aquarists tank up to snuff and out of harms way. I do them myself every 3-4 weeks.

[Krazy]

I have noticed over time that spreading my water changes out resulted in a happier looking and faster growing tank. I do water changes now every month, month and a half. I do add trace elements every 2 weeks though. Its going to play out different for everyone based on tank size, amount of fish, etc...

[Adam J]

I do water changes in my reef tank once a month.I also agree about acclimation.With corals I bring them to my temp and put them in.

[DEWAYNE]

let me chime in, my tank still looks grea, all corals doing fine. IMO, doing a water change simply replaces what has been used up by filteration, and fish as well. I add certain things too my tank once a week, and I only do a water change every 3-4 months. This has been the same for me for 12 plus years, will never do a water change so close together, just letting you know what has worked so well for a number of years enjoying this hobby... let's not make it a second job, keep it simple, forget the text book and learn your tank. I do not have meatl halide, or t5 lighting, just the right combo of a lighting system that I have used for years. I am not knocking the other lighting systems, I will add them later, just know that it can be done w/out them, on a short term scale...... just my opinion guys, so don't attack me all at once..LOL

[jimw369]

HEY KEITH!!!


I GOT RB TRUSTED!!!


Did you ever think almost a year and a half ago we would still be here? lol

I guess you could say niether one of us ran in the pack.

Hope the back is better.