Once a week instead of once a month water changes?

[Just Dave]

Once a month, I change 4 small plastic buckets of water out of my 30 gal tank, which changes about 20% to 25% of the tank water. But its such a hassle to remember, and doing this really upsets the fish.

Will it hurt the water cycle to have a bucket a week changed? Each bucket it ruffly 3 gallons. It would be easier on me and I could do it allot slower and ease the water back in, but I fear I might mess up the water cycle doing it so often..

is this okay to do?

 

[scuba_steve]

id go two buckets every week no fear with the cycle !! i like to set tanks up with sumps big enough to beable to pull out enough water to do your changes and keep all pumps running !! then ya can make up the water with out having to be all perfect with it and slowly drip it into the tank !! fish never know it goin on

 

[cmor1701d]

I agree with Steve. Shoot for a 10% change weekly.
You could also get a couple of larger buckets. If you were to use tow 5 gallon buckets you could siphon into one from the tank and into the tank from the other.

Smaller but more frequent changes should translate to less of a change in the water quality between changes.

 

[fishfreek]

TO be really lazy with water changes have a large powerhead and hose so you can pump new water from your bucket into the tank. No heavy lifting above your head.

Once your tank has cycled the amount of bactera that are free floating in the water is very small compaired to the bactera living on the rock and in the sand bed.

 

[pecan2phat]

Your goal should be in the range of 20% > monthly if you have a low to avg bio-load. So if you performed a 2.5 gallon (average size of a bucket or pail) change every week, you would have 10 gallons at the end of the month which translates to about 33% which is well within the acceptable range.
I have a 29g mini-reef with moderate load and I perform a 4.5g R/O water change bi-weekly. This is about an 30% monthly change.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Depending on the load in your tank, doing the 3g per week change could potentially even be better for your tank.

Consider:

Water parameters are ultimately more stable. Rather than allowing levels to build up and then be removed via larger monthly changes, you will in essence keep the levels from building up and eliminating sudden changes in water quality.

This does not mean monthly changes are detrimental.

 

[scuba_steve]

i like what fenner wrote "dilution is the solution to pollution "

 

[Hara]

I change tank water weekly, much easier on my lower back as I am a dyed in the wool bucket hauler

 

[Sati]

I do 30% weekly water changes in my FW tanks. Why are changes of this volume not a good idea for SW?