Water changes

[moo33284]

I have a 75g I'm turning into a reef tank. As of now I have two clowns, 3 green chromis, 2 engineer goby, a solaris wrasse, coral banded shrimp and an algae Blenny. I wasn't to avoid doing
10 g+ water changes. Do you think I could Get away with doing a 5 gallon change every week? I'd rather do more changes with less water to deal with. Do you thinkh this would be enough?.... maybe too much? I'm really not sure but want to keep my water as clean as possible.

Any thoughts?

 

[bavass]

i have a 55g and I do 2 5g water changes a week. All you can do is try and see how the tank does watching nitrates

 

[huma-huma]

I have a 75g I'm turning into a reef tank. As of now I have two clowns, 3 green chromis, 2 engineer goby, a solaris wrasse, coral banded shrimp and an algae Blenny. I wasn't to avoid doing
10 g+ water changes. Do you think I could Get away with doing a 5 gallon change every week? I'd rather do more changes with less water to deal with. Do you thinkh this would be enough?.... maybe too much? I'm really not sure but want to keep my water as clean as possible.

Any thoughts?

You want to do a 75g reef but arent willing to do 10g pwc's? Im not saying this to be harsh but to try and help, if you want to do a reef tank, you need to be 100% committed to it. What would you do if you get it all setup and then find out 5g water changes arent enough?

 

[Mrc8858]

You want to do a 75g reef but arent willing to do 10g pwc's? Im not saying this to be harsh but to try and help, if you want to do a reef tank, you need to be 100% committed to it. What would you do if you get it all setup and then find out 5g water changes arent enough?

+1 you really do have to understand to get the most from your reef then you work for it not the other way around. Be ready to dedicate atleast a hour a day to some type of maintenance or something related to your tank

 

[moo33284]

No what I'm saying is can I do 5g water changes twice a week instead of one ten gallon once a week... which would end up being more work anyway but I'd rather do more water changes with a smaller amount if water. I want to know what would be more beneficial. To do smaller changes but more often...or one larger one. Not trying to get around anything. Trying to figure out what would be the best for the tank. Especially since I have filter feeders like my flame scallop.

 

[moo33284]

Trust me I put more than an hour a day into the tank...I rhino you just misunderstood the question.

 

[Mrc8858]

Ok well with that said smaller and more often is better but 5 g at a time might not be enough depending on Bioload or filtration system.

 

[moo33284]

What I'm trying to get out of this is to know if taking to much out at over would be detrimental to any filter feeders and stuff like that. Or would a ten gallon change not effect it so much?

 

[Mrc8858]

A 10 gallon shouldnt effect your filter feeders at all in that size system I don't have problems doing that size changes in my 46 with 20 sump/fuge. Are you running a refugium?

 

[moo33284]

Okay thanks. I'm honestly willing to do a 5g change every few days if necessary to keep everything happy. I just don't think taking ten plus gallons out at a time is a better way to go, but I really don't know. I don't want to take more beneficial bacteria/established water out than needed...but don't really know the chemistry behind it all. I guess that's the info I'm really looking for.

 

[moo33284]

No I'm not. I want to get one started though but don't really know what the best way to go is with the refugium. I have a hang on filter I was thinking of turning into one. what did you do for yours? Is there anything a little simpler I can do to make one?

 

[Mrc8858]

The reason the larger change can be better is mainly due to percentages. One 10g change will remove more nitrates then 2 seperate 5g changes. If your not fighting nitrates and just wanna replenish elements then multiple small changes is definitely best

 

[Mrc8858]

They are very simple just a few baffles siliconed into place to section it off. Check out melvreefs.com they have a lot of info on the matter or check YouTube.. sorry if the link is wrong google melvs reef if so.

 

[moo33284]

Ahhh I see...okay so maybe I'll stick with ten g changes till everything levels out. Thanks a lot!

 

[moo33284]

I saw someone made a little thing out of gutter guard and lr rubble for pods to just leave in the tank. I was thinking of making one of these also to help establish a pod population. Are pods small enough to be pumped back through my sump if I keep the fuge down there?

 

[Mrc8858]

Ya some will make it but some will also perrish. The best for a fuge is one that just flows back into the DT from gravity but honestly unless you are really straining the pod population then they will be fine being pumped back into your tank. I've got a mandarin nice and fat in my system and still a large pod population with about 5-7 gallons dedicated to a fuge in my sump.

 

[huma-huma]

I saw someone made a little thing out of gutter guard and lr rubble for pods to just leave in the tank. I was thinking of making one of these also to help establish a pod population. Are pods small enough to be pumped back through my sump if I keep the fuge down there?

Yes. Tey will hitch rides through your return pump to the tank.best thing to do is buy a tank thatll fit under your main tank, ten simply section it off in 3 sections (youll need 2 cut to spec pieces of acrylic from lowes or home depot) and ten simply measure it out so your skimmer and retrn pump fit, then silicone them in ( with aquarium safe silicone of course (go with GE silicone 1, doesnt have mildew resistors in it)
And +1 to the percentages statement.

 

[moo33284]

Okay... I have a 3 step fuge all run by gravity until the pump. Maybe I'll set it up in the middle part. I'm sorry to ask this but do you have any pics of your fuge setup? You've been such a big help already! I really do appreciate it!!

 

[moo33284]

I have a 30 gallon sump underneath. The spot the pump sis in is about five gallons. Think I could just use this space?

 

[Mrc8858]

Yep here's my re build since my old one sprung a leak and the last one just took a second ago