water change amount

[brackish10]

ok, i have a fluval spec v. the build thread is herehttp://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/reef-chronicles/86946-joshs-5g-pico-flual-spec-v-4.html#post1209383. i have been doing 20% a week using reef crystals salt. i do 2 10% changes one on thursday, one on monday.i do not dose anything, but i just added a refugium. should i cut back to 10 percent on mondays only? i do have a frogspawn that takes some of the trace elements from the crystals, if i cut back to 10% a week, would it still be gettin enough? would it be enough to maintain the water quality?

 

[goma]

10% water changes once a week are just fine!

 

[Mike Johnson]

I'd keep doing it the way you are. A gallon a week is not going to break the bank.

 

[reefer gladness]

+1 I'd continue with 1 gallon changes as well, especially if you aren't testing. Bear in mind none of us can tell you if you are doing enough or too much without test results.

 

[brackish10]

im aware, i use the cheapo stick tests to check nitrates. I dont feel i need to be 100% accurate, just get to the ball park. It almost always hovers around 10-20 ppm. Considering that i have the clown and use reef chili, thats really not horrible. my total systm volume is 6.5g.

 

[DaveK]

The test strips are notorious for being extremely inaccurate. I wouldn't trust them even for a genera "ball park"l reading.

Get the for real test kits you need. You need not get all of them but nitrate and phosphate are important to see if your water changes are keeping up.

 

[brackish10]

I'm reefing on a budget... and test kits are rediculously expensive. I use rodi water, coupled with chemipure (20g bag on a 5 g tank) and have cheato in a hob fuge, so i dont worry about phosphates. nitrates almost always show up at around 10, but i use the same strips for my brackish and it does read higher in my brackish tank (as expected... no plants and slightly overstocked.) also, to be honest, i change the water moreso for trace element additive than nitrate export... my biofilter in that tank kicks ass. I have 11lbs of lr and a little too much cheato for the tank size... total volume with hob fuge is only 6.5g and i only have 1 clown. everything else is cuc or coral.

 

[nivek]

I used to do 10% water changes every alternate days until 2 weeks back when I found out that the corals were growing even better with 10% water changes every 3rd day. So continue with what you're doing and you'll be fine. This is on my 5gal pico.

 

[whippetguy]

My advice is to try it and see how the tank does. If things start to not look so good, go back to what you were doing.

 

[brackish10]

i think ill just stick with whats working

 

[jadams]

In our Biocube we do a 5gallon change every 3wks...nitrates and other are really good...just make sure you always us RO water...seems to work well with ours...

 

[brackish10]

i am noticing one troubling factor in my tank, in the last 2 days, my gsp hasnt opened fully. i get like 6-10 individual heads open, but thats it. normally, its the first thing to open.

 

[whippetguy]

First thing to do is check your water parameters.

 

[SkipsPrincess77]

I only do a 10% water change once a month. My readings seem to always be at 0. I have a wet/dry filter with protein skimmer as well as a canister filter. One important thing to remember is to always clean your filters with aquarium water so that the beneficial bacteria doesnt die off.

 

[Mike Johnson]

GSP doesn't open or grow in a "clean tank", you know, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates. Keeping nitrates at 5 - 10 ppm and phosphates at
.03 - .05 ppm is better for LPS and softies.

 

[brackish10]

everything else is flourishing. i changed lights recently (few weeks) and it hasnt responded well. the gsp is half covered with what appears to be a brown/red algea. and a fairly thick l;ayer. the parts not covered open, but im not really sure about how to remove the algea... i tried picking it off and it doesnt budge.

 

[slfcaptain]

everything else is flourishing. i changed lights recently (few weeks) and it hasnt responded well. the gsp is half covered with what appears to be a brown/red algea. and a fairly thick l;ayer. the parts not covered open, but im not really sure about how to remove the algea... i tried picking it off and it doesnt budge.

Could be cyano. Try using a turkey baster to blow it off. If its cyano it will blow off easily. The GSP won't mind the blast.

steve

 

[Reef Commando]

I do roughly 10% per week.

Apparently frequent smaller changes are better than one bigger change. That is if you have the time to do that, far easier with a nano tank.

You could always try cutting back. Carry out testing though to see if this works better for you or your current system of changes is better.

 

[scastillo813]

I do 10% (6-7g) a week and usually at the end of each month do a 20% change. All of my parameters are great with the exception of my nitrates (10-15ppm) and phosphates (.25ppm). My corals still come out and grow like crazy. (Might be cause of the steves LEDs)

 

[AquaFXdotnet]

I would have to agree with what everyone else has said and go with what you have been doing until you can afford the drops test kits until you can truly test and know where your at before you start messing around with the water change.