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Water change question

jgraz

jgraz

Just curious, but I have been doing 5gal changes in my 20h weekly. While it does not take to long I was wondering if there is any benefit to doing a 1gal daily change. Actually I was thinking the same for my 44 pentagon. I have been doing a 10gal change every 2 week there.
Is there any benefit to doing a daily 1 gal change in each? I can literally do those changes in about five min, and there would be less disturbance to the tank. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
John
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
There is a member on here trivan who has a 45g cube in the talk of the tank. He does the one gallon a day with a pump.
 
downbeach

downbeach

I would think, unless there's a problem, doing smaller amounts more frequently would be good. Do the five gallons five times a week in 1 gal. increments.
 
trivan

trivan

The main reason I set up a continuous water change system is laziness. The benefit though is that you don't have the chance of changing the water parameters when doing a large water change. The benefits are written up in one article by Randy Holmes-Farley, whom I don't think anyone in this hobby will argue against.

Since I have put the water changer in line, I've had a very stable system and my sps growth has been great.
 
trivan

trivan

Yeah, post number #8. Let me know if you have any questions. I also just added a auto Kalk doser to fill the ATO tank using a BRS 1.1 dosing pump.
 
jgraz

jgraz

Thx. I'm not sure I'm gonna go so automated. $ is not something I have a lot of right now. I did my second 1 gal change this morning and it took all of 2 min. Im hoping that this will help to get my parameters more in check without having to dose.
 
ricwilli

ricwilli

I was also thinking of implementing the daily water change to my system. The BIG benefit for me would be that the high alk in my new water won't be to drastic as doing a 50 gallon water change at once. Funny thing is that I was also reading today about people doing water changes with there skimmer.http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1534930. I think David (Malulu) also does daily water changes. I would love to hear more about this.
 
jgraz

jgraz

ricwilli said:
I was also thinking of implementing the daily water change to my system. The BIG benefit for me would be that the high alk in my new water won't be to drastic as doing a 50 gallon water change at once. Funny thing is that I was also reading today about people doing water changes with there skimmer.http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1534930. I think David (Malulu) also does daily water changes. I would love to hear more about this.
Click to expand...

I was gonna link to that exact thread on my previous post. Could not find it though and this computer is so slow(darn federal government). I was considering this but with my smaller system It would be more labor intensive. It would have to be a more then daily check to make sure my return compartment doesn't get too low, since im not using a ATO at the moment.
Im trying to bring my PH, ALK, and Calcium up. I figure it would be easier with a smaller more frequent change + I might be able to get away from dosing to do it. And as an added benefit since im changing salts this will make it less stressful on the system.
 
jgraz

jgraz

trivan said:
The benefits are written up in one article by Randy Holmes-Farley, whom I don't think anyone in this hobby will argue against.
Click to expand...

I just read through the article. My reasoning behind the idea was to maintain the Calcium and Alkilinity levels. He just blew up my idea. Clearly it won't work. Im probably gonna have to dose at some point. However im still gonna follow the small changes and see how it does for getting out the bad stuff. Thanks for the tip on the article.
 
trivan

trivan

Interesting concept, but I wanted a complete set it and forget it system, so unless I missed a post this type of process would accommodate for that (I didn't read the entire thread).

Yes Malulu does do constant water changes as well. I'm not sure what hardware he uses.

I am using the Litermeter for the water changes, but I know that mnat has great success using another and a lot cheaper doser from ebay for his 2-part. Maybe an option.

ricwlli- from what I see on your build thread, setting up a auto changer would be very simple. Basically, 1 pump to my sump pumping out old water, and 1 pump to my mixing station for the new water. Balance the in/out amts and the Litermeter calculates how much water you want to exchange per day by 150 and cycles between the 2 pumps. I have various float switches on my controller in case of faults to turn the pumps off.
 
Nickjr000

Nickjr000

trivan said:
The main reason I set up a continuous water change system is laziness. The benefit though is that you don't have the chance of changing the water parameters when doing a large water change.
Click to expand...

Idk if its cause im lazy too but LOL, ..... +1, totally agree. More stability in your system with the daily change, no drastic swing in params.
 
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