Growth and Water Change!

[huskysglare1]

Has anyone notice the relationship between coral growth and consistence water change? I've had my tank up for 9 months now and the growth has been pretty slow. In the past month I've been doing 10% water change weekly and I can see the growth diff. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Yes

 

[mike_cmu04]

I have done a 20% water change every week since i have set up my tank and it seems like i get my best growth the last couple weeks when i missed a week

 

[saltcrazy]

husky, how often did you do water changes before? i'm in the same boat, my tank has been running for 9 mos now with minimal sps growth. i do 20% wc religiously every 2 weeks since set up. are you noticing more growth with weekly wc?

 

[tripnbili]

I have a friend with a 120 who started doing a 5g (not even 5%) change DAILY! But his hard work is paying off, or so he says.

He says he has never seen such growth and color!

I'm just not that responsible to keep up with 5g a day...

 

[huskysglare1]

Before, I hardly change my water. Maybe 10% every 2 to 3 months. When I started to see my sps dying, I commit myself to do a 10% wc weekly. Since then, I've notice my corals have all recovered and growing a Lot faster.

 

[T Bag]

Are you feeding? Lights and water changes are good, but animals need to eat.

 

[JNicho]

I find something like Coral Frenzy works great, but a little bit goes a long way...you don't want to add too many extra nutrients...as for water changes I do 1%-2% daily...I have a system set up with my Apex controller on the main display tank that automatically adds new water to the display while old water is removed from the sump...on my prop tanks I just manually change a couple gallons a day as I'm always there fiddling with the tanks/corals anyway...I find the daily method keeps params very stable and IMHO it's awesome in terms of growth, color and polyp extension.

 

[fijiblue]

I have done a 20% water change every week since i have set up my tank and it seems like i get my best growth the last couple weeks when i missed a week

I agree - I notice a lot more growth when I skip a water change.

 

[Allmost]

I cant believe we have such a thread on professional site like this.
we should all read randy's article on water changed if we havent yet.

what do we do when we change water ?
we dilute nutritions and remove some.
diluting heavy metals which may have build up
removing extra n and p
adding back the lost elements.
pulling solution towards ionic balance state.
replenish the sources for KH, CA, MG, K+ and many more.

so those whos corals look worse after water change are removing too much zooplanktons from water which were the food source of corals, the new salt mixed had different KH, ca, mg levels and shifted ph or ...

and for those who are getting better growth, perhaps the elements which corals took up are limiting its growth and after water change they are back at acceptable levels for coral to grow again, or you have removed n and p making the coral more comfortable.


that being said, we should all ask ourself a really important question before each water change, why ?

for me, 7 G of water change per week on a net total of 100G works perfect. I do water changes to gain back the lost elements, such as iodine, bromide, SI, floride, K+ and many more .. and my corals look more colorfull after water changes. if I do too much water chnge, corals will go pail due to not enough nutritions in tank. and so on ...

 

[sanababit]

i believe its the heat, corals tend to grow more in warm temperatures, i hardly do water changes and get really nice growth, specially in the summer

sana

 

[Allmost]

i believe its the heat, corals tend to grow more in warm temperatures, i hardly do water changes and get really nice growth, specially in the summer

sana

LOL come onnn !!!! how can you ppl be so closed minded ?

and if you do a water change with warm water ?

PS. ever thought of a heater for winter ?

SPS in good conditions grow, and better the conditions the more they grow. it has to do with Everything, not one thing

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Of course water changes help. If you see your corals suffer after a waterchange then perhaps one might consider that their water change procedure is flawed. IE the water they are adding is deficient (very likely) or you are disturbing anarobic areas of your tank during the procedure. Please dont imply in an advice forum that because your corals look worse after a water change that water changes with good water can be anything but positive for your corals. I have personally seen tanks with up to 100 percent (actually 90 percent as there will be water left) water changes done and the corals were fully extended and fine in a couple of minutes.
However, if you disturb high nutrient area of your system during your water change procedues you will often see negative reactions as the additonal compounds are removed from the system. This doesnt mean that waterchanges are not positive for your systems. We wish (not really then every one could do it) it were that simple.

 

[sanababit]

LOL come onnn !!!! how can you ppl be so closed minded ?

and if you do a water change with warm water ?

PS. ever thought of a heater for winter ?

SPS in good conditions grow, and better the conditions the more they grow. it has to do with Everything, not one thing

Well, first of all corals are animals, second, in warm weather their metabolism is faster, thus more growth, look it up, you will be surprise, and growth is not determined by heat, but to other params as well, but the guy was asking a simple question regarding the last month or so, meaning we are in summer, i am not closed minded by any means, i tend to do things differently that is all, i will never tell anyone what to do unless the person is asking me directly...

Sana

 

[Allmost]

Well, first of all corals are animals, second, in warm weather their metabolism is faster, thus more growth, look it up, you will be surprise, and growth is not determined by heat, but to other params as well, but the guy was asking a simple question regarding the last month or so, meaning we are in summer, i am not closed minded by any means, i tend to do things differently that is all, i will never tell anyone what to do unless the person is asking me directly...

Sana

what temp do you keep your tank at usually ?

I keep my tank at 80.0 all year round. with 0.5 degree shift from day/night.

that's why I asked

I agree with ure point of higher metabolism, but corals in wild are bleaching due to global warming and raise in ocean surface temp ! you know what I mean ? also most whipe outs happen due to temp going too high

 

[Allmost]

Of course water changes help. If you see your corals suffer after a waterchange then perhaps one might consider that their water change procedure is flawed. IE the water they are adding is deficient (very likely) or you are disturbing anarobic areas of your tank during the procedure. Please dont imply in an advice forum that because your corals look worse after a water change that water changes with good water can be anything but positive for your corals. I have personally seen tanks with up to 100 percent (actually 90 percent as there will be water left) water changes done and the corals were fully extended and fine in a couple of minutes.
However, if you disturb high nutrient area of your system during your water change procedues you will often see negative reactions as the additonal compounds are removed from the system. This doesnt mean that waterchanges are not positive for your systems. We wish (not really then every one could do it) it were that simple.

also new water having different values than the water in tank can cause Issues right ?

I keep my KH at 7, and CA at 400. back in the days, I used to do water changes using RC salts, which has KH of 13 and CA of 520 !! so after each water change, my KH, ca and PH were shifted and had bad results on the corals !!! so I switched salt to TMPR, and now I dont have that Issue .

 

[wfournier]

I cant believe we have such a thread on professional site like this.
we should all read randy's article on water changed if we havent yet.

Wait, this is a site for professionals?

 

[Allmost]

Wait, this is a site for professionals?

well, they let me on it so I guess not hahahaa
lol


but from all the great ppl who post here, Id say it is ! I was shocked when I made an account to ask about balling method from Randy, and had Heinz, boomer and all the guys that I was reading about actually reply to my thread !

I have read the net and all books on reef keeping for years, but the last couple months here reading and speaking to experienced reefers has though me alot more.

 

[sanababit]

what temp do you keep your tank at usually ?

I keep my tank at 80.0 all year round. with 0.5 degree shift from day/night.

that's why I asked

I agree with ure point of higher metabolism, but corals in wild are bleaching due to global warming and raise in ocean surface temp ! you know what I mean ? also most whipe outs happen due to temp going too high

My temps are 75 winter, 86 summer, with a shift of up to 3-4 degrees or more, at 74.9 the heater comes on and at 86.5 the fan comes on, no chiller, dont need it, the only param i keep somewhat stable is alk at 7-9.5, as long as its in this range everything is good, i have a mostly sps tank, here is a photo, more than 3 years now

sana

 

[Allmost]

11 degrees temp swing, wow. teach mother nature how u do it and save the natural reefs

so you dont check for ca and mg neither ?

well .... interesting ?

PS. your tank looks prety nice