Daily waterchanges ..........

Agu

Premium Member
After reading Randys article about daily small water changes I'm going to try it.

Water changes in Reef Aquaria


If I change a couple of cups/day I'll be changing a little more than I do with weekly water changes. Did it today for the first time , took under five minutes for three nanos. Anybody else doing daily waterchanges ?
 
Got the technique down for doing the water changes, takes three minutes total to change 16 ounces in each nano.
 
Been doing the daily waterchanges and I have some observations.

First is that it's impossible to do daily waterchanges if you have a real life. I probably average 5X per week where the waterchanges get done, still that seems adequate.

On my two ten gallon tanks there's no visible difference from the old way of weekly 10% waterchanges.

My fairly new 5.5 had a noticeable difference. The rock was well cured but the substrate was new when livestock was transferred to the tank. Since this tank was essentially a new tank one would expect a diatom bloom which is normal. No diatom bloom, no excessive algae on the glass, the substrate is as white as the day it was put in the tank. This is in spite of faulty design by the aquarist where the tank temp spiked at 90 degrees and dropped to 72 degrees in the same week. ( I've since resolved those issues )

fwiw, etc, bni,
 
Agu, since you haven't noticed any visible changes in your two ten gallons tanks, are you going to revert back to weekly water changes? And have you done any water testing (i.e. calcium, ph, phosphate, etc.) since you've changed to daily? And, finally, do you think it's worth it to go to daily wc?
 
im doing water changes every other day... miss a few here and there... started doing this after my protien skimmer started putting in massive ammounts of microbubbles so no real difference just staying about the same
 
I'll probably stick with the daily waterchanges, esp on the 5.5 gallon tank. The biggest bother doing larger waterchanges is matching the temp, I haven't found that to be an issue with the small waterchanges. Room temp water doesn't budge the temp at all doing small changes.

I have to do daily topoffs but as pointed out that's not the same as changing the water.


Lets keep this a secret, but other than temp and SG (and ammonia with a new tank) I haven't tested for anything else in years :o . If things don't look right I do a couple of back to back waterchanges and that seems to do the trick. IMO it's not cost effective to buy all the test kits and additives for nano setups. (Disclaimer, I've had Reef tanks for a while, I would recommend that if you're new that you test regularly)
 
im with you on that.. i test temp constantly and sg once or twice a day... i top off accordingly.. and as long as everything is blooming and i dont see any excess craziness i dont test for anything... i havent tested my 5.5 since like jan when i put in my onyx...
 
r00onmac, just curious about your temp and sg testing. Once you set your heater and test initially to see the temp, do you have to test continually afterwards? And with sg, I mixed my salt so many times that I know how much salt I need. So I'm fairly close to keeping the sg within the range 1.023 - 1.025. Do you find that your sg swings so much that have to test for that?
 
I have digital thermometers with a temp probe on my nanos. IMO it's mandatory with small tanks.

Use a refractometer to check SG, again I think it's necessary with small tanks.

jmo,
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7173606#post7173606 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Agu
I have digital thermometers with a temp probe on my nanos. IMO it's mandatory with small tanks.

Use a refractometer to check SG, again I think it's necessary with small tanks.

jmo,
man i'm terrible then. i havent checked the temp/SG/or any other chemistry in my nano in 6 months. :rolleyes:

i love what you say about how daily changes are impossible if you actually have a life. that was great and oh so true.
 
AGU, you know I tried this with my large tank and it worked well, I was the problem and started to get lazy. But at least now I do weekly on the big tank. My Nano has been up for almost a month now and I have done weekly on it with good results. I have no fish in it yet though only corals. So maybe once there are fish I will need to up my schedule...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7183080#post7183080 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Carl_in_Florida
Agu, did you ever see that 2.5 tat liquid had a NR.com? He did daily water changes with a yogurt cup.

FWIW

No I didn't see it, but I use a cottage cheese container . Must be a milk product thing :lol: .
 
i try to keep up with weekly and i even slack with that lol If i miss my weekly 5 gal change i just do a 10gal change. Once i get my new skimmer i will probally slack more :D At least a clean the glass everyday :D
 
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