CA2OR Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 It has been almost 3 months since my last water change and I feel good. LOL. I know I waited a tad too long...well ok....way too long but still. The only reason I did a change is because I dosed for red slime. What exactly are the reasons we do water changes frequently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COReefer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 to replace the minerals that are used up by the livestock in the tank. iodine, mag, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 hmm.....so I should have been experiencing issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COReefer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 maybe not with mostly just zoas and softer stuff. I would consider redslime an issue if you had that going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 I did but that is gone now. That is why I did the water change, because I treated for that. But outside of that everything seemed to just grow. I am just curious. This is the second time I ignored my tank and had good results. Except the red slime of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralreefer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 There are trace elements we can't test for...there are toxins, pollutants and chemicals lurking...there could be minor imbalances waiting to become major imbalances... "the single best husbandry practice we can impose on our "indoor oceans" is a regular water change"...DrMerle July 6, 2009 PNWMAS forum(rock2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finch6013 Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 sorry for the hijack. How much do people change when doing a water change? Is there a recommended percent? Right now I am doing 10g per week on my 75g tank. Is that enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 CA2OR do you use a cal reactor? when I was using one, I hardly ever did water changes. In the ocean the breakdown of coral sand and rock is what keeps the cal., Kh., Mag., exc. stable right? theres no one dosing the ocean with trace elements n such. Then if ya use a killer skimmer and I used a ozone G, that should export most of your unwanteds. I to once I got my cal reactor diled in only did a small water change every 3 to 6 monthes or when things just wernt looking right. Still had great growth and collar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I do about 15-18gal a week on my 75gal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisW Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 The only reason I did a change is because I dosed for red slime. What exactly are the reasons we do water changes frequently? To prevent red slime.DOH! Dennis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralreefer Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Finch--are you including sump and subtracting rock...if 75 gallons is your net water, then 10 gallon weekly is plenty...many would recommend ~7.5 gallon every week or 2... There is the load of the tank to consider, type of coral and number of fish.. There is history of the tank and previous experiences... Many would say 10% weekly...that is what I do... DrMerle(rock2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I once did not do a water change for about a 18 months on a 72 gallon tank. I was using a mineral replacement block. I think the name was sealab 28 or something like that. The tank looked great for a long time, but then I started to get some hair algae and that was the end of that experiment. I guess it all depends on the system. That system had a crushed coral sandbed, a really whimpy excalibur skimmer, and a mag 350 running carbon. The sump/fuge did have some "mud" in it. Maybe that was the "magic bullet". Dunno. DOH! (nutty) Jay This is from January of 2005. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I once did not do a water change for about a 18 months on a 72 gallon tank. I was using a mineral replacement block. I think the name was sealab 28 or something like that. By the way, I do not recommend this for anybody. I now do 20% waterchanges every 2 weeks. That is 64 gallons every 2 weeks. Thats a lot of salt. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downhill_biker Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I have to admit that I am one of the 3 month kind of guys. I do quarterly, quarter water changes. I replace about 25% of the water, and everything seems to do well. I use kalkwasser and a skimmer, and every week i check ca and alk, and adjust accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinh Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 3 months???? It has been almost 3 months since my last water change and I feel good. LOL. I know I waited a tad too long...well ok....way too long but still. The only reason I did a change is because I dosed for red slime. What exactly are the reasons we do water changes frequently? You think 3 months are a long time? I setup my 300 gallons in June 2001 and I changed water about 3 times. My Reef tank look good and corals are growing like crazy. I don't even have an RO unit or a calcium reactor. I use a specific water filter that sell over the counter. I got the idea of not changing water from the original owner of Upscale. I have a plennum in my tank. Ontop of all this I have a good sckimmer that I build. Some of the fishes I have in my aquarium are over 15 years. I think changing water regularly are being push or advertise buy the stores that sell them. One more note. If you live in the Portland Oregon area, you can log onto the Portland Water Bureau and find out exactly what are in the water that you drink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I used to do a 50% water change on my tank once a week. The tank did well. When I setup my reef I was doing a 30% water change once a week. Things were good. Now on my reef I do a 10% water change every few months, things are good. On my planted tank, I have done a 3 water changes in a year. Two were within a week of each other, dosing for flatworms. The last was when I moved the tank. IMO water changes are used to export nutrients that the systems filtration is not. Instead of using more water, I just increased my filtration. I use supplements to increase things I am loosing. I only dose what I test for. Yes there are trace elements that I can not test for, but I am not sure just how much flouride (.000068 in natural seawater) my corals need. In the air we breather there are several elements we do not use, I suspect it is the same with the elements found in the ocean and corals. Not that I know anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 sorry for the hijack. How much do people change when doing a water change? Is there a recommended percent? Right now I am doing 10g per week on my 75g tank. Is that enough? Thats probably fine being its once a week. Will keep things fresh that way. I think its like 20 - 25% a month but there is no rule chizled in stone. Sometimes I go a month then will do about 40 gallons in my 120. I do think it is better doing frequent smaller ones but more labor intensive but Ive got it down to about 10-15 minuts after the water is ready. I even siphon the saltwater over my neighbors fence now so it doesnt kill my grass. He would never even know as he has grass 4 feet tall (threaten). I ran a sprinkler over his grass where it gets near my fir trees on 4th of july fireworks .....just in case. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I change about 25 gallons of water a week on a 400 gallon display and I'm really happy with the growth i'm getting. Before this tank I never did water changes on a consistent basis and I never had consistently great coral growth. The only things i have to dose for is alk and sometimes magnesium. I'm currently not running a ca reactor and until the ca level drops below 400 i'm just going to keep doing water changes. This is just my experience and i like not having to dose a bunch of different things. I like to keep it as simple as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 No I have no Ca reactor, I actually run what most would consider a pretty lame filtration set up. But I do have decent lighting and use, IMO, good salt. Could your salt have anything to do with the results of frequent water changes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason7504 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 i do 10-15% WC a week sometimes every 2 weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 No I have no Ca reactor' date=' I actually run what most would consider a pretty lame filtration set up. But I do have decent lighting and use, IMO, good salt. Could your salt have anything to do with the results of frequent water changes?[/quote'] What is up with your signature Ca2or? Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finch6013 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Its from Batman the Dark Knight. Joker explaining why his face is messed up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I just watched that movie again last night on bluray. Awesome awesome movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finch6013 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 yes it is. Very well done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 I have been hearing from previous clients that Johnny Depp is going to be the Riddler in the new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.