Water Changes

[Saltwater Noob]

I have not done my 1st water change yet and was wondering if I really need to?? I seem to be adding about 2 gal a week to my tank due to evaporation so that adds up to like 10 gal a month what is about what I would change. Is it normal to have that much evaporation or do I still need to do a water change?

[BigAl07]

Water changes remove some build up chemicals and add trace elements that your system is depleting and needs.....

[InLimbo87]

How big is your tank? I have a 30g and probably get 3-5 gallons of evaporation per week, depending on the amount of fans you have for cooling, whether you have a top or not, etc, etc will determine your evaporation..

And, yes, you will still need to do water changes regardless of how much evaporation you have. Evaporation is merely the changing of the water in your tank to a gas and being released from the tank. This is why you need to top off. Because the only thing leaving your tank when you have evaporation is water. All of the trace elements, salt, nutrients, etc all remain in the water. This is why you must do water changes to remove the buildup of nutrients and chemicals

Now, dependent on what kind of equipment you are running, whether you have a refugium or not, and the size of your bioload would help determine how often that you should be doing the water changes.

I run a skimmer, a refugium, and keep an average bioload on my tank. 4 fish for about 40 gallons of tank volume. I do 5 gallons a week, which is a little over 10%. I could probably go longer, but my corals seem to really like the once a week waterchange, and I don't want any algae to go out of control.

[Saltwater Noob]

Ok I am going to do a change this afternoon I think how do you guys do you change just use a hose to siphon the water out then add new??? Also when you top the tank off do you use saltwater or just plain water?

Thanks

[BoomerD]

Top-offs are done with fresh water...the salts don't evaporate out...
Water changes remove "dirty water" and replace it with "clean water".
Remember:
"Dilution is the solution to pollution"

[lcstorc]

Your water tests should be your guide on water changes. They should be done on a regular basis before nitrates build up in the system. Once the system is stable you will learn to judge how often and how much but this takes time. A newly established system is going to need more water changes than an older system since the biological filtration is still growing and catching up. I did once a week 20% water changes for about the first year. Now I do them every 2-3 weeks and things are fine.
A few things to know about water changes.
Always use RO or RO/DI water for your top-offs and water changes.
Use a good brand of salt for your water changes and always test the new water to be sure you are not adding contaminants back into the tank.
Mix the water and the salt for at least 24 hours with a power head and heater to aerate the water and make sure all of the salt has completely disolved.
Be sure the new water has the same temp, salinity, and Ph as the tank water before adding it to the tank.
That should be about it. Yes you can remove the old water with some tubing. Just create a siphon and let it flow. The new water can be added the same way. Create a siphon from the container to your sump or tank. It is better if you can add it to the sump. That way the new water is mixed with the old before getting into the display. This will help prevent shock to your inhabitants if you are slightly off on the parameters of the new water.

[zimboy]

What type of substrate are you using? If you are using a gravel or crushed coral substrate, the use of a "gravel washer" to clean your substrate of detritus is a good idea. You can get em from your local fish store for ~$10.00.

If you're using sand, just ignore this.....

[burning2nd]

real ez.... dont make it harder then it needs to be....

Refracometer.

MAKE SURE your new water is closest you can make it to the tanks temp... (like exsact)

my rodi holding tank is heated airated, and circulated. same thermometer's on both tanks,

both at 80.1

mix your salt to what you want (uselly the same) or a little higher or a little lower depending on what your triyng to do...


remove the same amount of water that you intend 2 replace (have mixed)

suck it out, pour it in slow...

have a nice day.....


remember, smaller is better, several small water changes will do you justice compaired to a large one....

What i do is sundays sometimes ill do waterchage every 3 hours,

sometimes ill replace 50% BUt the key is to make sure your new water matchs your tanks water.....

[burning2nd]

Sorry....

depending on BRAND you might have to let your water buffer.....

switching to Tropic marin will remove this problem....

it takes me all of 5 min to do a water change.

i have buckets setup, (fresh water only, mix, and old water)
the fresh water bucket only goes in the RODI tank. the mix bucket gets the new mixed water, and the old buckets gets the turned out water...

IVe hurd from meny people that they might have to let there water sit to buffer or something like that.....

IMO IF i had to do that, i would switch to a brand that lets me not do that....

[wasupdavey]

Its been 1 month for me no water change yet. All the trace levels are still good. All the toxins Ammonium, nitrites and nitrates zero. Planning on getting filter feeders too so I can have a cleaner looking tank. I heard cleaner clams are really good for nitrates Littleneck clams.

[sabodish]

also, if you do some research on the topic you will see that ONE large waterchange per month (20%) is much better at removing the bad stuff than 4 small (5%) water changes...i do about 15% per month on my tanks and it works great.

[KodiakBear]

I do 10% weekly, and a 20% monthly. When I had a really bad algae bloom due to high phosphates I went to 2.5% daily in addition to the regular schedule. I used a product similar to this to help clean up the sand bed
Siphon Kleen
I do suck up some sand, but I've only had to add 5 pounds after a year's worth of water changes.

[KodiakBear]

When you get some corals, realize that some can give off pretty potent stings, or be sensitive to chemicals on your skin. You should consider something like these Aqua Gloves when working in your tank.

[lcstorc]

There are a number of reasons you want to let the water mix and sit for 24hrs that have nothing to do with buffering or what type of salt.
The biggest reason is to be absolutely sure the salt is all disolved. Undisolved salt in the tank is not a good thing. Also this gives the water time to aerate and increase the oxygen content.
I use TMPro Reef as well for my salt and really like it. I also mix my water a minimum of 24hrs and often 48 or even 72 hours before I do the water change. This has worked extremely well for me and is what is recommended by people who have been doing it for a long time.
For regular water changes is it best to do smaller amounts regularly since this is less shocking for the system. If you are trying to dilute polutants in the water then the larger the change the better. You will remove a lot more with a single 50% water change than 5 10% water changes.