water changes
 

I keep reading about water changes and I have not changed water in a year. all I do is add water using drip method with caluim milk ,iodine and trace elements and iIhave not had a death or problem since stopping the water changes. I have added 50 lbs of live rock from jl and never got a spike. ph added monthly why the need for water changes?
darren

The point of water changes is to dilute excess nutrients and/or toxins, and to replenish trace elements that are consumed by the organisms or otherwise removed from the system. Kinda like a dose of fresh air for your critters.

I have to admit, I never used to do regular water changes (actually hardly ever did 'em at all), but I've been doing so for the past several months & I do see a positive difference with my corals especially. However, my tanks are heavily loaded & fed, so removal of excess nutrients may be more important for my tanks than for others with lightly stocked, underfed tanks with heavy filtration/skimming.

Re: water changes
 

you will soon, it may not be a single problem but may rather appear as a series of nascences. I did the same thing you are doing when I started and it was about the year to 1.5 year mark the problems started showing up.

Steve

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By the way, welcome to the board Dewy. :biggrin: What size tank do you have? What kinds of fish, inverts and corals are you keeping? I too don't really have a regualar water change schedule. I tend to only change the water when needed, but that is still at least once a month.

Water changes give you a chance to siphon off detritus buildup and just the act of doing them keeps you more involved with your reef tank.
Theoretically, you could "get by" without water changes, but in addition to the above mentioned benefits by others, do you want your reef tank to just "get by", or do you want do make it the best that it can be?
:smile:

Mitch

Save yourself the future grief and start doing water changes. I've tried going a long time without water changes in the past and the end result wasn't nice at all. You end up with a buildup of things that don't belong and are depleted of things that should be in your water.

Plus the chance of getting an ionic imbalance which is a pain in the butt, because then you have a fun time trying to get your alk, pH and calcium to stabilize. The long and short of it is that in my opinion, you will be left with a tank full of water that barely resembles ocean water.

The price of salt is inexpensive and it just takes a bit of effort to do a water change, but in the long run the tank will be better for it. Once your tank takes a dive because of water change neglect it can take quite a while to reverse things and get the tank looking like it used to. Some may disagree, but that has been my experience.
Bill

I change a small amount of water in all my tanks every sun. It's the only time i allow myself to put my hands in the tank. So all the glass gets cleaned with a razer, any algae pulled, rocks moved to better positions. By the time I'm done the tanks look awesome and everything looks so much happier it's the best day of the week :biggrin:

Every week? That's awsome. I do a 15% change every two weeks and I believe that a properly mixed water change is the single most important key to a healthy tank - ironically it is also the least expensive thing you can do. Now if I could just get my seaclone skimmer to perform :razz: !

- Chad

what I have found works for me is a 20% once a month. I don't have the time to do it ever weekend as it is a two day ordeal.. one of these days I will have to make an automated water change set up hehe.

Steve

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Chad wrote: Aint that the truth! :mad: I hate mine too.

I do 10% every week (~3 gallons). Takes me a few minutes to take water out, and replace it. I love my water changing system.

-Richer

I am adding an extra T and ball valvue in my closed loop for water changes. then it can go right from my tank out the window. i will keep the habit of 20% a month that i do now with my 55 on my 140 (175 total gal).

When you say 'system' do you mean its automated?
If so let see pics.

If I had to only change 3 gal I would do it ever week also :mrgreen: 20 gal is a little more involved. I am looking into a set up now that will allow me to have 50 gal of premade water on hand at any given time.

Steve

I have a rather large bioload in the 230g, so I try to waterchange 40-50g every two weeks. The water is mixed and heated in a large rubbermaid. Then the water is siphoned out of the tank with a python hose into the shower. New water is then pumped back from the rubbermaid. Pretty painless. :mrgreen:

It is true that 3 gallons is harmless, but I dare say, if I had to do more, it wouldn't take much longer than a few minutes :razz: . All I do is disconnect my topoff pump from the autotopoff system, throw a powerhead with a piece of hose attached to it into the sump, and plug it in. After ~3gallons has been pumped out, I throw the same powerhead into the premixed water, and plug it into my autotopoff. In a couple of minutes, whatever I pumped out of the tank has been replaced, and all I need to do is disconnect that pump and reconnect my topoff pump. Quick and painless... unless you forget to plug in that topoff pump... which I did once. Mags sure are noisy when they're sucking in air :eek:

-Richer

ya thats pretty much what I do, mix 20 gal in a container next to the tank, then useing a spare pump I pump 20 gal out of the sump into an identical container then switch the pump to the new water and refill the sump. what I want to do is make a 50 gal rundown set up so I just pump the bad water outside to my hearts content, then rundown new water to the system. no buckets inside this way :mrgreen:

Steve

Deb, I am curious, with the python hose, how do you know how much water you've taken out of the tank? Or I guess what I mean is, how do you know when to stop? After enough times you just know where the level should be if you want to replace the same amount from the rubbermaid?

thanks

Mark your sump before and after that way if you don't have identical containters it won't matter. IMO, it's handy to have two of the same size though.

If you can get away with it and have a big enough sump it's nice to change water without shutting off the return pump and have the system going while you do it.

I drain from the top tank and refill there as well. My water is heated and aged so the occupants love this fresh waterfall.

So I know to drain four to five inches from when it has stopped draining into the sump. I use my magnavore to measure that distance. I always make sure to err on the side of caution so I end up with some new SW leftover for another tank.

Same for me. I drain 4 or 5 salt buckets out, put same amount of heated new water back. This really stirs up the tank, and the fish love it.

Thanks, I was mostly curious what methods people are using if they're not using buckets to drain into.

Not having to haul buckets to the drain has a certain appeal.