Doing super frequent water changes.. what can go wrong?

kien · #1 09-27-2009, 07:46 PM

I think that's what this hobby boils down to.. picking your battles. Everyone has their own unique goals and with them challenges to overcome or to achieve in reaching those goals. As suggested, some people are perfectly happy with a salt water tank with a few fish and low maintenance, while some people NEED to have to have that cool fish, and that cool fish, and oh, that one too! Need to have those LPS corals too, and SPS' that are thriving as well! Somewhere in between having just an empty tank with saltwater in it and a tank full (possibly overstocked) with fish and corals, the hobbyist has had to decide where the line is drawn and which battles to fight. Do I keep all those cool fish and risk them fighting one another, eating my corals, nuking my tank, do I deal with the high nutrients, dose to keep nutrients low? stock less? more live rock, less live rock, deeper sand bed, skimmer, no skimmer, bigger tank, smaller tank, more flow less flow?

For me personally I am trying to find a balance where I can keep all my cool fish and corals, while at a cost (time and monetary) in maintenance. The battle I have chosen to fight (today at least) is how to achieve this with all the various methods of nutrient exporting. Frequent water changes just happens to be one that I was curious about.

Myka · #2 09-27-2009, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

I think that's what this hobby boils down to.. picking your battles. Everyone has their own unique goals and with them challenges to overcome or to achieve in reaching those goals. As suggested, some people are perfectly happy with a salt water tank with a few fish and low maintenance, while some people NEED to have to have that cool fish, and that cool fish, and oh, that one too! Need to have those LPS corals too, and SPS' that are thriving as well! Somewhere in between having just an empty with saltwater in it and a talk full (possibly overstocked) with fish and corals, the hobbyist has had to decide where the line is drawn and which battles to fight.

Well said.

kien · #3 10-27-2009, 08:49 PM

Update: No more super frequent water changes. I was changing out %15 every couple of days, then every 3 days, then I was back to my regular weekly water changes

That just ended up being WAY too much work and wasted water for me..

Next up for me, vodka dosing

Delphinus · #4 10-27-2009, 08:53 PM

Wow, I totally didn't see that one coming.

kien · #5 10-27-2009, 09:23 PM

I gave it the 'ol college try! :P You know, I was wondering the other day, for those people who live on the coast, have you thought about using ocean water for your water changes? Just get a bucket of ocean water, heat it up to tropical temps, dump it into your tank. What could go wrong?? :-)

christyf5 · #6 10-27-2009, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

I gave it the 'ol college try! :P You know, I was wondering the other day, for those people who live on the coast, have you thought about using ocean water for your water changes? Just get a bucket of ocean water, heat it up to tropical temps, dump it into your tank. What could go wrong?? :-)

LOL, yeah I tried that. You have to get it really deep. With all the seagoing traffic around here theres lots of "extras" in the water, not to mention all the nutrients. At one point I was using pasteurized seawater filtered to 1 micron and it grew the most lush green hair algae ever!

Delphinus · #7 10-27-2009, 09:57 PM

The public aquariums do it..

but yeah, the collection points are way out there.

Down in the L.A. area I noticed the LFS's were selling a product called "Catalina water." Same idea, just huge vats of it so you could buy 40 gallons at a time if you wanted. They take a boat out towards Catalina Island, suck up huge amounts of water, take it back to the LFS's for selling. I never really understood what the benefit was though, for the cost of salt compared to the cost of anything else for the hobby, it seems like a lot of work. (This was ten years ago though that I was down there, maybe they don't do it any longer.)

When I was reading up on Balling method (the "true" Balling method, not the 2-part/3-part automated dosing we tend to do in North America that we just call Balling), the added salts put into the aquarium cause the SG to rise and so water needs to be taken out of the tank and replaced with RO/DI to maintain a steady SG over time. All done with slow peristaltic pumps so it's a more or less steady state situation. Anyhow I sort of wonder how this compares to a "continuous water change" too.

Kien have you considered Zeo a go at all?

sphelps · #8 10-27-2009, 09:24 PM

Yeah that's why I recommended daily automated/semi-automated water changes. Makes very little sense to do water changes often if you're doing them manually, the whole point is based on automation.

kien · #9 10-27-2009, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

Yeah that's why I recommended daily automated/semi-automated water changes. Makes very little sense to do water changes often if you're doing them manually, the whole point is based on automation.

Only problem is not everyone can flip a switch and have water magically poor out of the/a tank and flip another switch and have water magically poor back in. My tank sits on the main floor in the middle of the house so their is nothing near the tank that I can drain water to easily. Water station is in the basement. I do avoid buckets though, as my changes go something like this..

1. Premix salt in 25g garbage pale a few days prior.
2. Turn off return; water drains into the sump to a safe level.
3. Long hose runs from the basement (drain in the furnace/water room) to the tank/sump.
4. A utility water pump is hooked in and pumps water out of the sump into the basement drain.
5. Take the utility pump into the basement and stick one end into the new saltwater reservoir. Pump now pumps new saltwater from the basement into the sump.
6. Turn return pump back on.
7. clean up.

It isn't automated but I'm also not hauling buckets around. It is still a bit of work though to pull out that hose, the pump, lay down towels, roll the hose back up, wipe the floor, store hose. Then there's the whole issue of dosing the new saltwater mix to make sure everything is up to spec..

sphelps · #10 10-27-2009, 09:45 PM

There are lots of ways to automate and it can be done in almost any situation. Many people run small 1/4" water lines to and from the tank to remote water stations somewhere else in the house. I've also run these kinds of lines in many houses with completely finished basements, electrical fish tape is a good tool for the job.