Reefs best freind ?

[Fozzy225]

I understand what he is saying. 1st week 10% water change 2nd week your taking out some of the new water you just put in and so on. So is it better to do monthly water changes? I been doing weekly water changes as well.

 

[Mudzie]

Nothing at all wrong with weekly water changes.. I have been doing them for the last 3+ years this way....and will periodically do a 20% change.. Stick with what's working for ya.
Know your tank and your tank personality...
Per Mark Calahan... Lol

 

[mr_X]

Dosing iodine? What levels? I just started a coral tank and was contemplating calcium and magnesium to start.

Get test kits and make sure you actually need these things before adding them. I have seen more tanks go south than I care to remember dosing things blindly.

I don't understand why people think iodine is used more than anything else, meanwhile it's not even a major contender in sea water. Why aren't people tossing in potassium? I'm betting that's used as well.
Here's a link to the breakdown of sea water-
What is Seawater? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Remember, adding things that aren't getting used up on a regular basis will cause an abundance of this element, and most likely will end up causing a problem.

 

[MarinaClown]

Nothing at all wrong with weekly water changes

Right. What was confusing to me is Terrance said that 10% weekly water change was equal to 10% monthly. Every site, blog and forum I looked at before and after getting into the hobby preached smaller but frequent water changes. So I thought "well if 10% monthly is the same as 10% weekly why am I wasting time and money on weekly changes".
That's why I really wanted see some ideas on that point. Otherwise, trace elements can be added using one of those dosing bottles that are probably more cost effective and time efficient than performing weekly water changes. It would take a lot of authoritative articles and opinions to persuade me to skip weekly water changes.

 

[Terrance]

Many variation of water change schedule has worked for many people. Whether weekly, every 2 weeks, or even monthly, it all depends on the overall system.

I was just saying from a mathmatical standpoint about one 40% water change is very different from 10% weekly water change in a months time. The once 40% monthly is better for fowlr and 10% weekly changes are better for reef tanks.

 

[Frankie_Garcia]

You have an awesome tank!

 

[Keithhjs]

Lol this is amusing. We are picking the fly poop out of the pepper. Maybe it's better stated in gallons. Or is 10 gallons a week water change not equal to 40 gallons a month cuz every week you remove part of what you put in last week. 10% a week still equals 40% a month period. Whether it's old water or water from two days ago, it had still been added, pooped in, filtered, etc & then removed. My 2 cents.

Nice tank btw!

 

[Fozzy225]

Let's do this yellow and blue make green. Let's start with 100 gallons of yellow take out 10% and replace with blue . Do this 4 times to equal 40%. Then you have 100 gallons of yellow do one water change of 40% and replace it with blue. Are you gonna have the same color green?

 

[MarinaClown]

Well if we are going to go that route to calculate things lets not forget to include 5-8% weekly top off water into equation. Lol. Bottom line is weekly water changes work for me as well.

 

[Fozzy225]

Yes works for me too. I don't know any different. Been doing weekly water changes since day 1. But was thinking about every 2 weeks

 

[mr_X]

Replacing trace elements is another reason for the water change, correct? If you are doing larger monthly changes you are going to have larger parameter fluctuations than with weekly, smaller changes. Things like alkalinity will be going up and down and that is not a good environment for corals.

 

[Airgoose2222]

Even simpler, take a 5 gallon bucket filled with red ping pong balls. Do 10% changes daily and replace the with white ping pong balls. The next change when you remove 10%, you will likely remove a couple white ones along with the red ones you are trying to get out. If you did this for five days (daily changes add up to 50%), you would not be removing as many red balls as you would if you did one 50% change at once because the white ones would be removed too instead of all red with one water change.

As others have stated, a healthy tank comes in many forms. If it's working for you, great! Keep up the good work. If not, there are other ways to go about it. Keeping an open mind with owning saltwater aquarium allow us all to learn and keep healthy, happy marine life. Which is all of our goal.

 

[Mebbid]

You guys are differentiating too much. Why would water that's been in a tank for a week still be considered "new" water? If multiple water changes were being performed in succession to drastically change parameters then I agree about the course this argument is taking.

However with weekly water changes just to maintain levels in trace elements it just doesn't work this way imho.

The things being debated about in this case need to be defined better or this debate is just going to keep going around in circles.


Ps. This discussion is hilarious

 

[Fozzy225]

Ok a 5 gallon bucket of peas take out 5 cups replace with corn. Lmao I'm just playing. Hahahaha

 

[mr_X]

However with weekly water changes just to maintain levels in trace elements it just doesn't work this way imho.

What do you mean? You can certainly keep a thriving reef tank with weekly water changes. I've been doing it for many years.

 

[Mebbid]

What do you mean? You can certainly keep a thriving reef tank with weekly water changes. I've been doing it for many years.

I was talking about the differentiation of "new" and "old" tank water. If water is in a tank for a week after a water change then it can hardly be considered as new tank water. That's the main thing that people are debating about in this thread.

 

[mrvincent]

Yo, I didn't read all the posts, but I understand the math of doing 4x10%WC will drop nitrates lot fewer than one single 40% change.

So, are you saying it's better to do less bigger water changes than more smaller water changes ? If it is, then I'll do 1WC/month if I can 0.o

I have small 20g setup

 

[Dav3]

A big water change will have a more drastic effect of dropping nitrates but stability is key. just do the small ones unless your nitrates start to creep up too high. Then add a larger one to drop them down again.

 

[mrvincent]

Ok, I'm doing 25%WC each two weeks. Is it ok ? I make sure the water is same salinity, KH and temperature. I heat it with the 20g heater before I put it in.

 

[Mebbid]

Yo, I didn't read all the posts, but I understand the math of doing 4x10%WC will drop nitrates lot fewer than one single 40% change.

So, are you saying it's better to do less bigger water changes than more smaller water changes ? If it is, then I'll do 1WC/month if I can 0.o

I have small 20g setup

It depends on what you're trying to accomplish. For removing nitrates then a larger water change is better. I wouldn't suggest lass than a bi weekly water change however, especially if you have corals.