Water change

T

The dark knight

Member
How often do you guys do water changes and how much? I've got lps Kenya tree few zoas and Gsp thanks all


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Squatch XXL

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Weekly AT LEAST 10%. More depending on replacement of dissolved minerals/removal of nitrate. It certainly never hurts to do more except in the cost of water. If you have a high bioload, 20%+ is not unusual....but again in larger systems with complex equipment smaller changes are possible.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
When I'm being good, I do 20% weekly. When I'm being bad, I do 33% every 2 or 3 weeks.

I think I change more than most.
 
J

Jimbo_zzr6

Member
I do 10 percent every weekend then have 2 bottles made up. One for topping up evaporation and one saltwater that I do a few litre change every other day. My tank is 250 litres
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
This was a RS Poll from a couple of years back

How often do you do water changes ?

  1. Weekly
    92 vote(s)
    67.6%

  2. Every other Week
    28 vote(s)
    20.6%

  3. Every three Weeks
    2 vote(s)
    1.5%

  4. Monthly
    13 vote(s)
    9.6%

  5. Never
    1 vote(s)
    0.7%

  6. Other... please post below...
    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
 
Squatch XXL

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
The dark knight said:
Would every 2 be ok?
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If your corals and livestock are not hurting, and your nitrates are not bad after 2 weeks than yes. It is a hard question to simply answer yes or no. My current tank has less than 10 ppm nitrates after 2 weeks, but I still do a 20% water change. However, each tank is like a fingerprint. No 2 are the same. If you have lots of fish and feed messy foods, it may be something that you want to do weekly. If you are lightly stocked on livestock, and feed infrequently, bi-weekly should do just fine.


StirCrayzy said:
25% whenever the corals aask for it.
25% weekly if there is an obvious issue to address.
Click to expand...

This is great advice. As you get into the study of your corals, you will start to notice small changes. It is amazing how some corals will let you know by slightly drooping or closing up or just not looking like they did for the last 10 days.
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Great advice given here by many, but particularly by @Squatch XXL - it depends on your system.

Water changes are for replenishing elements and chemicals that corals need to growth and stay healthy and to lower phosphates, nitrates, and contaminants.

Generally weekly is recommended early on when a tank isn't mature. It is sometimes easier and cheaper to keep the tank in balance by doing weekly water changes early on.

Once a tank matures and you start to add lots of different equipment and dosing regimes, then you will have to determine what works best for your tank. To determine this you should be testing the water so that you get to really know your system and its needs. Once you have a handle on it and your tank starts to stabilize, then staying with a consistent regime works out fairly well for most of us.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Oxylebius said:
Great advice given here by many, but particularly by @Squatch XXL - it depends on your system.

Water changes are for replenishing elements and chemicals that corals need to growth and stay healthy and to lower phosphates, nitrates, and contaminants.

Generally weekly is recommended early on when a tank isn't mature. It is sometimes easier and cheaper to keep the tank in balance by doing weekly water changes early on.

Once a tank matures and you start to add lots of different equipment and dosing regimes, then you will have to determine what works best for your tank. To determine this you should be testing the water so that you get to really know your system and its needs. Once you have a handle on it and your tank starts to stabilize, then staying with a consistent regime works out fairly well for most of us.
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me.

While I don't often test now, that's only because I tested like crazy for probably about a year.

It got to be where I knew my tank so well I pretty much knew my test results before I did them. So, I slowed down my testing.

I think knowing what your parameters are is really important. It's just after a while you develop a really good feel for it.
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
If you have LPS and SPS corals, then testing for Alk, Ca, Mg, and major elements is needed. Water changes replace these elements and so if you aren't dosing and testing these, then you will need to do water changes to make sure you are keeping these within reasonable levels.
 
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