Water changes!

[cooper]

I usually do weekly water changes to keep the water in the tank as clean as possible. Today is-was a water change day but I jsut tested the water for Calcium, Nitritate, Ammonia, Phosphates, PH, and Alkalinity and everything looks good. So my question is, should I do a weekly water even if the water chemistry seems to be fine.

Calcium 350
Alkalinity 3.8 dkh
Phospates 0.03ppm
PH 8.3
Amonia 0

What do you guys think? Should I wait a few more days? perhaps bi weekly water change instead of weekly?

Cheers

[mark]

There's people out there who only do bi-weeklies, other monthly, some never, so might not hurt to experiment, but if what you're doing works... Remember though, even with a protein skimmer, best way to get the crap out of the tank is water changes.

Chk you alk or your units though, 3.8 seem low for dKH but getting up there for meg/l. Usually see 2.5 - 4 meq/L or 7 - 11 dKH.

Also see 380–450 ppm commonly quoted for calcium if having corals.

[danny zubot]

What percentage are your weekly water changes? You might do well to just reduce your percentage if you feel that you've been over doing it.

Another thought, things that we don't tend to measure such as trace elements are replenished with water changes too.

[saltynuts]

i do 5 gal every 12 days!
56 gal tank with 20 gal sump & 20 gal frag tank plumed to main sump!

[Redrover]

If it's not broke don't fix it...I'd stick with the weekly change [ 10% to 20% ]
I started weekly and have never changed...first time in years I have had to change, this week due to a Ich product going bad...the product I was using has been posted in, you guessed it Products.

RJ


" Express Lane : Five Beers or Less "

[cooper]

I do 10% weekly water changes and my tank has been doing really well. No algae, no problems at all since I set it up.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

The amount I change depends on the amount of water required to siphon all the crap off the bottom. Never more than 2-3 gallons on a 55 gallon tank, though

[cooper]

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

The amount I change depends on the amount of water required to siphon all the crap off the bottom. Never more than 2-3 gallons on a 55 gallon tank, though

Do you do this weekly or bi weekly? How many fish are there in the tank? How often do you feed them?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Originally Posted by cooper

Do you do this weekly or bi weekly? How many fish are there in the tank? How often do you feed them?

I do this once every week (I do skip the odd week, but rarely). I have 5 fish and I feed them every night at 10pm (varies between NLS pellets, mysis and cyclopeeze) as well as generally try to keep some nori in a clip for them to nibble on throughout the day.

[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