Methods of Water changes / Pro's & Cons

[Brucey]

OK Chaps, just want everybody's advice on this please.

I've always been a great believer in water changes. I've seen some systems that have full SPS populations, dozens of fish and yet haven't had a water change in years. The general rule of thumb tends to be . . . change approx 10-20% of your water volume per month. I'm a big believer in this although I have never "NOT" done a water change in a period of approx 6 weeks so wouldn't know what would happen if I stopped.

Anyway, the bottom line I'm trying to get at, is how much do people believe is neccessary to replace each month and what advantages do you see to different methods. For example, I've tried two different methods. I change 30% (50Gallons) of my water once a month. If I change it all at once I'm happier because I'm throwing away exactly 50gallons of Nitrates build up, Phosphates etc but my SPS's all react to the change in overall water parameters . . . . but if I do it slowly so the corals don't react your not pulling out as much "overall" bad water

Anyway, just chucking some idea's around

Brucey

 

[cronicreef]

I've notice a big differents on how my corals look and grows when I do a 5gal water change in my 50gal once a week. The polyps tend to come out more and the growth is really noticable.

I'm not very good about doing water changes every week because of not having a ro unit at my place. But now I do so things should be looking better from now on.

So I'm a believer too.

 

[Woodstock]

Larger water changes are certainly better than smaller ones if you have a buildup of nasties that you need to remove. With my BB, I have found that the nasties are very minimal and thus I get by with frequent smaller changes rather than one large one. I have several areas that diterus accumulates on the bottom that signal when a water change is needed. Lately, I have only been doing 5 gal changes (5%) every 5-7 days. I of course keep an eye on nitrAtes and will perform a 15-20% water change if they rise above 5ppm. I think removing the diterus quickly really helps to keep the water clean.

 

[Gina]

We just did a water change this past weekend. We did a 10% change. We hadn't changed the water since towards the end of last Nov. We test the water or try to, every week and haven't had any problems. Usually, we would change it at least monthly but, with the car accident I had in Dec and going to Indy for the holidays we kinda got a little lazy. I only have Tubastrea and Mushrooms and to tell you the truth I haven't noticed any change in the corals whether we changed monthly or not. I did tell Mark though that we need to start doing it more often, if for nothing else just to make me feel better. We still have a DSB (I know, I know, BB but, Mark likes the look of the sand) so thats why I've started buying Nassarius snails.

 

[forestal]

I am by no means an expert...just doing this for 18 months now...as Anthony Calfo has said.."the solution to pollution is dilution"..so my first tank 55 gallon with 55 fuge both with dsb and macro grow out...no skimmer and monthly 10% water changes has eventually led to the death of all but the hardiest softies and the fish (nitrite/ammonia/nitrate all 0)
so on my newer tank...60 hex, no fuge has a skimmer and i change 10 gallons every week...

i have noticed toward the end of the week my sand is getting a bit dirty appearing, and the sps are not extending as much....but everything pops out better with fresh water (er...clean SW )

my limited exp..