Thoughts on water changes?

[Adam L]

My tank (WB 130) is now 1 year and 8 months old. I test alk, NO3 and PO4 weekly. I don’t see much value in other parameters. I dose Red Sea AB+ daily as well as B Ionic 2 part. Over the last 3 weeks those 3 parameters have been very stable and perfectly in range. Water is crystal clear and fish and corals are good. My NY Kicks torch did hit a bad spot a few days ago but dosed cipro right away to the whole tank and it’s looking better. I’ve had that happen before with torches and didn’t have cipro on hand and lost them. Get some Cipro. Anyway, I’ve always done a weekly 20% water change but with everything so stable I have held off for the last three weeks. Mostly as an experiment. I know there are some folks out there who are no water change people. I like saving money on salt. What do folks think, stick with no water changes or go back to tried and true weekly 20% or maybe just do 10%?

This article recommends changes. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

 

[MadReefer]

Tough question. Personally think it depends on what corals your keeping. LPS and soft coral are more forgiving with dirty water but many SPS are not. I have a mix of all and perform a 10g water change monthly, not exactly every 4 weeks just every month.
I dose Kent mag, ESV Alk and ESV Calc. Some corals are okay with this approach others not. I have to manually do a WC so I try not to do many on my 80g DT.

 

[Adam L]

Tough question. Personally think it depends on what corals your keeping. LPS and soft coral are more forgiving with dirty water but many SPS are not. I have a mix of all and perform a 10g water change monthly, not exactly every 4 weeks just every month.
I dose Kent mag, ESV Alk and ESV Calc. Some corals are okay with this approach others not. I have to manually do a WC so I try not to do many on my 80g DT.

Thank you. Btw you still have that marine beta?

 

[Adam L]

Chickened out. Just did a water change. Thought maybe need to add trace elements and mag back.

 

[horseplay]

Every time I do water changes I feel good. Not sure about the corals...

What is your regime for dosing Cipro? I have always had some difficulty with keeping torches.

 

[amado]

everything works as long as you stick to it. corals will adjust and adapt to your water.
I find water changes to be the easiest way to reset the tank and parameters. I made it really easy to do water changes.
I change 50g every 2 weeks. you have to do what works for you. I know reefers in NYC that live in apt with no space to install a RODI unit.
for them changing water is very difficult. I also have talked to reefers using well water in their home with very high TDS in their water.
so for them not doing water is a better choice.
in my last setup I had auto water changes. I changed 4g a day with an apex dos.

 

[DangerDave]

Get some Cipro.

This is great advice!

 

[MadReefer]

Thank you. Btw you still have that marine beta?

Sadly, no. My other fish were way to aggressive towards it.

 

[Adam L]

Every time I do water changes I feel good. Not sure about the corals...

What is your regime for dosing Cipro? I have always had some difficulty with keeping torches.

I mix a 500 ml capsule with 500 ml rodi. Now have 1mg per 1ml. I then dose 7ml per liter of total tank volume. So for my 420L tank I dose 60ml. I get results with one does but I wait three days and dose again.

 

[Rueric]

I don't do waterchanges on my main system, but that's also because I'm following the Reef Moonshiners method.. It's a lot more expensive but people seem to be really happy with this method

 

[MadReefer]

I don't do waterchanges on my main system, but that's also because I'm following the Reef Moonshiners method.. It's a lot more expensive but people seem to be really happy with this method

How long have you been doing this?

 

[Adam L]

everything works as long as you stick to it. corals will adjust and adapt to your water.
I find water changes to be the easiest way to reset the tank and parameters. I made it really easy to do water changes.
I change 50g every 2 weeks. you have to do what works for you. I know reefers in NYC that live in apt with no space to install a RODI unit.
for them changing water is very difficult. I also have talked to reefers using well water in their home with very high TDS in their water.
so for them not doing water is a better choice.
in may last setup I had auto water changes. I changed 4g a day with an apex dos.

Water changes are easy for me. I make my own rodi. I have my whole water system close. Just use a python to a sink. And I just pump back in my fresh salt water. Can do a change in 15-20 minutes.

 

[Boehmtown]

I'd stick to 10 percent weekly and go from there. Big fan of water changes myself

 

[MadReefer]

I drain DT into two 5g buckets and then haul them to dump out and then pump new water in into DT. That takes about 20min for me.

 

[Rueric]

How long have you been doing this?

Since the tank was up and running, about 1 year now

 

[john90009]

If the tank got to where it was at with the waterchanges, I wouldn’t change the routine. Sure a tank can get better if you hold off and then again it can possibly go downhill. I normally stick to what I was doing. My tanks the same age as yours, I got two big tangs and a big foxface that dirty my water fairly well. Just checked phopahates, .28 and nitrates are 40. Corals are all happy but it’s just what they grew up in.

 

[ericrodriguez]

I normally do used to do 15% every month but the last 6 months I have not done any but thanks God still good growth and corals look happy!
The last water I prepared ended up evaporated before I had a break to get in there and do it!!
I’m also thinking about the no water change route

 

[MadReefer]

If the tank got to where it was at with the waterchanges, I wouldn’t change the routine. Sure a tank can get better if you hold off and then again it can possibly go downhill. I normally stick to what I was doing. My tanks the same age as yours, I got two big tangs and a big foxface that dirty my water fairly well. Just checked phopahates, .28 and nitrates are 40. Corals are all happy but it’s just what they grew up in.

I tested all my params today and the Nitrate is 0 , Phoshate 0.03. I am concerned of bottoming out as I do have some diatoms and hair algae so i don't truly believe the reading. I was considering dosing NoPox but I have a fuge with macro algae.

 

[john90009]

How’s the macro growing for you, do you have a diverse cleanup crew to transfer the hair algea back to dissolved organics and to be pulled out with the skimmer? Have you sent out an icp or done one of them recently? Would like to see if other elements are alittle out of whack.

 

[DEL]

I used to do my auto wc at 2g a day. I always had this weird brown algae. Then I stopped because I got lazy of making water. 2 months passed, less algae. Then I started my auto wc again. Got algae again. So now I stopped and haven't done anything in about 3 weeks. My sps are all growing. I run a cal rx and also an algae scrubber and a reefmat. I haven't tested any levels, and my trident has been off for almost 6 months now. Stability is key.