my new tank - water changes

[Stuquarium]

hey guys

i bought a established tank of a mate and it's my 1st marine, i've been kepeping discus for a while now so i know the importance of water changes.

although how important are they for marines? the tanks been in operation 2 months, i've had it a week and i've just done a 40L water change, no gravel vacing. i have a 55G tank, i have an ehiem cannister filter and a tophead filter, powerhead, no protein skimmer,

my questions are basically how often should i be changing the water and how much should i be changing, i keep 60litres of fresh marine water on standby.

thanks guys

 

[seaham358]

A lot of people do monthly WC of 10-20%, some do smaller weekly or biweekly water changes. Its really up to you and what you want to do to help keep your tank healthy.
You need to pick up a nitrate test kit if you don't have one and check you NO3 weekly in the beginning. And when it starts to get high you need to do a water change.

 

[seafan]

Also you could check alkalinity to see if it starts to drop, and then do a water change.

 

[Stuquarium]

thanks guys. i've ordered those test kits

 

[natman2]

Small frequent. From my experience once nitrates get a foot hold it is very difficult to cut them down without a very large water change, so waiting for nitrates to start creeping up before changing some water is a bad idea IMO.

Small and frequent means less disruption to the tank in the long run. It also makes for much less of a chance of drastically changing the water chemistry with a large water change.

 

[Civicman86]

What if you have a 10g tanks and add about 1/2 gallon everyday? Im use to doing a 10-20% change every week in my FW tanks and was just going to continue that trend

 

[Jermz79]

civicman, with my 12gal I do a 2 gallon change every week ... I could probably do 1 gallon, but 1 gallon goes pretty quick so I do two!!! This gives me time to syphon any junk off the rock or from the crevices.

 

[Guest]

The smaller your tank, the more often you need to change water. For 55G, I used to do 10 % water change every two weeks in the beginning. After 6 months, I only change once a month. Some people say "don't change your tank water too much for SW hobby, let the water marinate". But my main concern was Nitrates. I had a green hair algae outbreak and my nitrates was off the roof. 8O

That's because I never changed my water for 2 months. Now, I decided, it never really save me time and effort by procrastinating on water changes. It only makes you spend more time and hassle when you do decide to water change after procrastinating for months. No easy way out of it, really. But I would suggest a 5-G bucket of water change for your 55G once every 2 - 3 weeks. That's a pretty decent water change suggestion.

 

[Stuquarium]

cool thats easy. real doable.

i haveadiscus tank too, i change 30% of there water every 3 days, so i'm no slacker when it comes to water changes.