How often do you do water changes?

[NoobtoSalt]

So I had a customer come into my store yesterday and she was talking to me about how she is getting a house with a saltwater tank already setup in the house. We talked for a bit (of course I mentioned the forums) and she was saying that the guy that owns the house only changes his water once a year...

 

She was explaining that he only adds water to help with the evaporation. It sounded like she is getting a FOWLR but this still can't be good for the fish.

 

So the question is, if you have a well established tank how often and what percentage of a water change is neccesary?

 

I'm still doing small changes every 2 weeks.

[moto826]

i have a 45 cube and i change half a week

[impur]

I have a 75gal and i change 15gal weekly.

[ReeFit]

after the tank is established and steady signs of nitrates begin to show up after cycling is done, i do 10% weekly. occasionally i will let one week slip if i feel the water quality is good. It also depends on how heavy you feed your fish, or if you even have fish for that matter.

[grassi]

10-20% weekly. A bit more sometimes if I feel there is a reason.

This way you don't have to add trace elements

I also experimented the 1% per day + 10% weekly and I have to say corals were growing faster. I don't know if that was the reason, but other people were having same effects.

[newfisher]

My 90g fowlr with 45g sump/fuge I change 30g every week to week and a half. The water perams are always good, I just have A LOT of BIG fish and feed a bunch.

[Jazmyne]

29 gal nano

 

I change 3 gallons every 2-3 weeks.

 

Water params have been steady for more than two years and two moves.

[kendaroo]

I do 15%-20% weekly in both tanks. The 12g has been up for about 2 years, the 24g only for a few months.

[kilmca]

I try to do ~30g per week but lately it's been every two weeks.

[NoobtoSalt]

I just had my water tested at a LFS and the water I've been using had a high PPM count. I'm going to be doing a larger water change I think to cut down on some of that.

 

I thought I was doing fine with the water but seeing it on a tester was kind of eye opening.

[jackaninny]

Biocube 29 change 5 gallons once a week - probably overkill but I'm lazy and the 5 gal mark is the top ring on the buckets so it's easy to see both coming out and going in. Corals growing like crazy.

[racefan]

Bio Cube 29-3 gals one week 5 gals the next week.

40 gal- 10 gals every other week.

[reefnjunkie]

I have a 75 gallon w/ 20 gallon sump-I change out 15-20 gallons maybe every other week, I did experiment to see how long I could go-I felt guilty after 7 weeks so I change it.

 

My params never varied in all that time, I was concerned more about trace elements that were being absorbed-that is a grey area to me-I dose with Coral vite weekly and Strontium/molybenium(sp?)

 

And IMO-my tankmates are pretty happy but I would say I'm going back to doing 15 gallons every 3rd week

 

I too have read about the water not being changed in over a year-In a FO tank it would be fine I guess as long as NO3 is inline

 

Maybe it depends or a gauge would be if things are living vs. thriving/growing-I shoot for the later-

[MarkBirkett]

Water Changes

 

I top off with R/O every day and do 25% full change every two weeks. My livestock is all doing great and I only have a few soft corals.

[bswe22]

I do a 5 gallon water change on my 20 gallon w/5 gallon fuge every 7 to 10 days. Everything is doing great right now. I am starting to experiment with different salts. I have a problem with the Alk. and Cal. getting very low every other day. I think my corals are just growing so fast; they are sucking it up rapidly.

 

Bryan

[stylaster]

i do a 50g water change every 3 weeks on my 120g. On the 24g tank i do a 5g water change every two weeks

[coralreefer]

15 gallon change on 135 gallon tank + 40 gallon sump once weekly.

 

DrMerle

[markdadof2]

5 gallons every week here. Using the GetTanked salt. I will probably wait a few weeks to do another because I got a bit carried away with the brightwell ZEO method and pulled out a few too many nutrients out of the water column.

[batchelor]

20 gallons every 2 weeks on my 90 gal / 30 gal sump-fuge

[reef165]

I do 50 to 60 gallon change once a month on my 150 gallon with 65 gallon sump.

 

I saw a post on page one about high PPM's and well dosnt the salt add to the PPM? Arn't ya suposed to only test your purifyed water for PPM cuz when ya add salt it shows as PPM?

 

Oh and I try to use a couple dif salts, changing every water change or so just incase one has something lacking in the other. Would be great to buy like 4 dif salts and mix them in something to get the benys of each one.

[Ku'ulei]

1g R/O top off every day; 15g water change every week on my 75g tank/10g sump. Ammonia keeps rising to 0.25 by the 6th day; never had a sign of nitrite or nitrates yet. PH starts to drop about every second week and I add a PH buffer to correct.

[CA2OR]

Re: How often do you do water changes?

 

Water change....what's that?

 

On a serious note....recently I have doone quite a few and will be doing another one or 2 before the 9th....but typically I do water changes once or twice every three months.....if that.

 

I have a 60 cube and when I do changes its 10 gallons...typically I have no idea what my parameters are as I have never owned a test kit.

 

I get little to no growth.....

 

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

[tanktop74]

I have two 150 gal tanks, I do a 30 gal change on the reef tank and a 20 gal on the FOWLR (thats not really a fish only any more) every other week. I am also doing a 3-4 gal change on our new frag tank once a week, more if needed.

[Michael7979]

Roughly 300g in system and I do a 25-30g WC every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes I might be alittle lacks on it and it might be every 3-4 weeks, but I make up for it by doing an extra 10g change. So it becomes 30-40g WC instead of 25-30g.

[Michael7979]

Oh and I do a 1-2g change on the wifes 12g FO tank when I do the WC's.