Water changes!

[cooper]

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

The biggest advise i can give anyone with regards to water changes is "consistancy". A tank needs two things, stablility and consistancy. In other words if your tank is new then do a water change of the same amount once a week, then once things settle drop that down to once every two weeks. After that it all depends on what your paremeters are telling you.

In my experience a mature tank needs a water change only once a month. As the tank has become mature it has developed in part its own eco system and every time you do a water change you are messing with its own bio rythm. For example, my tank in the UK was a very successful full LPS/sps system, no sump (shock horror!!) and no filtration other than a deep sand bed, a huge skimmer and 80KG of live rock in 125 gallons of water. the tank got a water change every 3 months if it was lucky, and the stag corals grew beyond control!!

What i am trying to say is, as said before "if it aint broke dont fix it" But you must keep track of those parameters especially phoshate and silicate, as these are the two that can build up on you. Everyone is looking for something that has dropped and many forget about the ones that can build up, other than the obvious 3 nasties of course!.

My moto has always been, less played with more success. Just my oppinion.

Best wishes
Michael
www.aqua-digital.com

That makes a lot of sense, My tank has been set up for a year now. It has been doing great with weekly water changes but today before I did the water change I tested for almost everything. Everything was fine, almost non existent Nitries, Phosphates...etc. Calcium, PH, Alkalinity and the rest was fine. So I thought that maybe I could do a bi-weekly water change instead of weekly.

Thanks for your advice Micheal!

[Aqua-Digital]

Hiya

glad i could help.

To expand on this slightly, and pointing to your tank, if your tank has been running for a year and the parameters are spot on then really you should be looking at a maximum of once a month, but i appreciate this takes a lot of trust in your system to take such a step. So in this case, do as you say, swap to bi weekly I suggest maybe for two months and then for sure swap to monthly, this will give you the opportunity to see how your tank reacts and also your tank bio rythm a chance to adjust.

Always remember you are playing with nature, no mater how smaller portion of nature that may be, but what ever size, nature hates change.

Hope that makes some sort of sense this time of night

best wishes
Michael
www.aqua-digital.com

[Redrover]

What size tank, not that makes a difference, I would disagree on monthly water changes...Don't forget the trace elements in doing water changes.
Your lucky not having any spikes, as most reefers I've talked to have gone through theses spikes...Not just one time, a number. I've had many tanks over the years , starting as a young lad [ freshwater ] now a senior, decided five years ago to try saltwater, after a number of tank I'm still learning.
Like I said if it's not broke don't fix it. I'll stay with what works for me [ once a week ]

Good Luck :RJ

[christyf5]

I have a barebottom tank and my fish produce crap like nobodys business so I do a waterchange weekly mostly to siphon all the fish poop out and various other detritus. I do 15 gallons mostly because I know where the 15 gallon level is in my garbage bucket and was too lazy to do any less. It only takes about 10 gallons to get all the detritus out and suck out any other crud off the rock etc. I suppose I could do it every second week but I hate to see it build up in there and I have a very watery green thumb when it comes to growing algae

[Aqua-Digital]

It all comes down to what you feel comfortable with really.

I started keeping fish back in 1976 and have built up my own stratagies on what has worked for me in this time, mainly keeping marines, and in the Uk having a 6,000 gallon koi pond.

With regards to trace elements, this is a very important factor and should be added weekly irrelevant of water changes, especially where salt water is concerned, this is in the main due to the massive difference in salt quality from manufacturer and from bucket to bucket, which again brings me back to disturbing the natural eco and bio system that you tank has built up. And also remember modern RO units take every single trace element out of the water you are putting in your tank, so if you are keeping fresh water especially, you are actually in part removing a lot of goodies from your system and replacing it with raw water, so the addition of trace elements becomes an even greater importance.

But with this debate must always come one important thing, and that is you do what you feel comfortable with.

Bets wishes
Michael
www.aqua-digital.com

[cooper]

Originally Posted by Aqua-Digital

It all comes down to what you feel comfortable with really.

I started keeping fish back in 1976 and have built up my own stratagies on what has worked for me in this time, mainly keeping marines, and in the Uk having a 6,000 gallon koi pond.

With regards to trace elements, this is a very important factor and should be added weekly irrelevant of water changes, especially where salt water is concerned, this is in the main due to the massive difference in salt quality from manufacturer and from bucket to bucket, which again brings me back to disturbing the natural eco and bio system that you tank has built up. And also remember modern RO units take every single trace element out of the water you are putting in your tank, so if you are keeping fresh water especially, you are actually in part removing a lot of goodies from your system and replacing it with raw water, so the addition of trace elements becomes an even greater importance.

But with this debate must always come one important thing, and that is you do what you feel comfortable with.

Bets wishes
Michael
www.aqua-digital.com

I guess I should have mentioned earlier that I have been using tap water since day one. Am sure a lot of people are not going to agree with using tap water but so far it has worked for me! Never had an algae outbreak, not even when I first set up my tank. I don't add any additives , none whatsoever. Some people add Calcium, or other stuff to their tanks but I have never done any of that.

[mark]

The reason you haven't been supplementing is you've been keeping things up with the water changes, if you spread them out you might need to start depending on you tanks demands.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by mark

depending on you tanks demands.

This is a very important consideration. If you have a huge amount of coral growth each month, monthly changes might not be enough. If you only have moderate to slow growth, then monthly might be perfect. This is where experience and getting to know YOUR tank comes into play. What works for everyone else may or may not work for you.
I did bi-weekly changes simply because I had a day off every two weeks and I had some spare time. Doing weekly could become a chore after a few years, so play around a bit and see what the tank needs.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

I had a day off every two weeks and I had some spare time.

must be nice!,

but to echo some of the remarks, I went from bi-weekly to monthly to every 2nd month sometimes every 4th, depending on my work schedual of when I was home or not. I was running hte guantlet of kalk reactor, Ca reactor, skimmer...... so I was not doing water changes fo anyuthing other than people said I should as my water was never deficient in good eliments or in excess in bad. Aside from maybe stuff we cannot measure. Do I believe in them, yes. do I think you need to do it every week/two weeks/moonth/year ect... it depends on your tank and what you have in it and what equipment you have supporting it.

Steve

[cooper]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

If you have a huge amount of coral growth each month, monthly changes might not be enough. If you only have moderate to slow growth, then monthly might be perfect.
.

My corals grow, but not very fast. I would say I have slow coral growth but healthy.