How long does a water change take you?

[Stolireef]

Most reef keepers consider water changes to be a key part of good water husbandry (yes, there are some successful contrarians out there). Assuming that the vast majority of hobbyists do not have an automatic water change system (me included), what is your process for water changes and how long does it take. Try to be detailed so we can all learn.

My process:

Make water: Two days before water change, fill and mix 20 gallon container with new salt water. Container is right next to my tank.

Water change:

Place five 5 gallon buckets directly in front of tank with doors under stand open so I can see the sump.

Place towel on floor directly behind buckets. Place pump for water from salt reservoir next to towel.

Turn off all pumps using Apex.

Siphon water from tank to fill each of the five gallon buckets about 3/4 full (comes out to almost exactly 20 gallons but easier to carry than buckets that are almost full).

Dump water down shower drain near tank.

Stack all buckets back in the garage.

Refill tank while watching water level in sump.

Turn on all pumps except for skimmer.

Turn on skimmer 5 minutes later.

Total time for complete water change excluding RO fill up of salt container is about 20 minutes.

 

[billdogg]

I mix my water in a 55g drum in the basement. It is hard plumbed to the back of the tanks (a 120DT/40b sump upstairs, a 60FT/100g sump in the fish room). I use a python siphon to remove water fro the tank then just push a remote control to turn on a Mag18 in the barrel to replace what I've removed. If I am just doing a water exchange I can be done with both in under 30 minutes. Most of that time is waiting for the refill - next time around I'm going with a Mag24 or similar to get it to pump a little faster. I use the entire 55g every time - it then becomes my topoff barrel until the next go-round.

 

[homer1475]

Mixing station in my fish room with 2 35G brutes.

Plug in extra pump(sicce 2.0), turn apex to feed mode c(shuts off return, heater, skimmer, ATO, and reactor), then pump out 2 5 gallon buckets from the sump. Connect long hose to my mixing barrel, turn on pump and wait till the sump is full.

Takes me all of 10 to 15 minutes to change out 10G, which I do weekly on my 80G system.

 

[TangingOut]

When my 110 was up and running, it took me 1 minute or less. I did a daily 1.5% water change.

 

[crazycolt42]

Do you guys siphon from DT or sump, or both? Also, do you fill through the sump or DT? I have a lot of experience with WC in a freshwater tank that used canister filtration, but none with a sump and am not sure how to do this. The main thing I am wondering is with my DT being 150g, and my trigger 34 sump holding a max of around 30g, if I want to do 25% or so, not sure I can do that from the sump. Thanks for thinking of this thread! Going to be very helpful for those of us who do not plan on a sophisticated WC system or mixing station.

 

[BeachVacationer]

I siphon my gravel when I do a WC. Is this practice ok? It's amazing how much stuff comes out of the gravel each time.

 

[ca1ore]

Preparing for the WC takes about 5 mins. once the RODI is made; doing the WC takes all of 1 minute to switch out the valves.

 

[cincyjim]

When I did water changes it only took about 15-20 minutes and the water was changed out from the sump. Now I use an automated water change at 2 gallons a day.

 

[Stolireef]

Do you guys siphon from DT or sump, or both? Also, do you fill through the sump or DT? I have a lot of experience with WC in a freshwater tank that used canister filtration, but none with a sump and am not sure how to do this. The main thing I am wondering is with my DT being 150g, and my trigger 34 sump holding a max of around 30g, if I want to do 25% or so, not sure I can do that from the sump. Thanks for thinking of this thread! Going to be very helpful for those of us who do not plan on a sophisticated WC system or mixing station.

Most people do it out of their display tank. It's way easier to get a siphon and, if you have substrate, you can vacuum it. Just be careful when refilling to recognize that when the tank is full, if you didn't lower the water level in your sump you could end up with an overflow situation when you turn your return pump back on.

I siphon my gravel when I do a WC. Is this practice ok? It's amazing how much stuff comes out of the gravel each time.

Yep. It's fine. That said, it's better to do a section at a time with each water change rather than doing the entire bed at once. You want to maintain the fauna in the bed.

 

[Stolireef]

Preparing for the WC takes about 5 mins. once the RODI is made; doing the WC takes all of 1 minute to switch out the valves.

When I did water changes it only took about 15-20 minutes and the water was changed out from the sump. Now I use an automated water change at 2 gallons a day.

You guys are such showoffs. Where's the challenge in automating a water change. I bet you guys also have your lights on timers or something. I have to plug mine in every morning because they don't even have an on/off switch. In fact, I don't even have pumps. I stir the tank by hand every twenty minutes.:jester:

 

[FullBoreReefer]

Actual water change, 15 gals in about 5mins or less. Open/close some valves, turn on/off a pump via apex. Done.

 

[Dr. Reef]

My setup is completely automatic. Once salt mixing bin nears empty it trigers pump to transfer Rodi water from storage to mixing bin and suspends auto water change system. (Genesis renew+storm system). Sends me email and text. At that point all I have to do is add 1 bag of instant ocean in the mixing bin. Apex turns the mixing pump off after 3 hrs. Once I match salinity I hit 1 button to resume Genesis system which then takes over to do 3 gal water change daily on its own.
Whole process is automatic and my only involvement is to add salt in bin and check it after 2 hrs to match salinity so I would say 5 mins tops of my time.

 

[Rilelen]

All manual; I have a 35 gallon Brute trashcan in the kitchen, with a pump in it. Sometime during the week when I'm home, I turn my RO/DI on (which lives under the sink) and let it fill. Some other time during the week, I remember to dump my salt mix into the can, and turn the pump on to start mixing it.

Saturday or Sunday, I turn all my pumps off. I get my siphon hose out and siphon the display tank, vacuuming the sand. With the long hose, I can run it right out the front door; with the short hose, into a 5 gallon bucket. I siphon out about 15 gallons, and then I get a long vinyl tube, which I hook up to the pump in the kitchen Brute can. One end in the can, one end in the display tank, and pump on until the tank is filled back to the waterline.

Then I generally repeat for another 15 gallons, for a total 30 gallon change on about 70 gallons of water. That's fairly large - about 40% - for a routine water change, so I don't do it every week. More like once or twice a month (depending on how the tank's doing - I'm a fan of heavy import/heavy export, so it's not unreasonable for my system). Takes about an hour all told from beginning to end if I'm using buckets for drained (instead of draining direct outdoors), but also because I go slow with the substrate vacuuming and use a fairly small vacuum. I'm also a 5' 2" woman, so hauling 5 gallon/50 pound buckets of water is a non-trivial task for me (especially if I want zero sloshing!).

(My super lazy water change method: attach a hose to my skimmer cup that goes to a 5 gallon bucket, and then just keep slowly pumping water into my sump....the skimmer slowly pulls out all the excess water, and gets all nice and clean inside at the same time with so much water running through it relatively quickly!)

 

[ecarrillo046]

Reef noob here but wouldn't you water change with freshwater assuming that salinity of the tank would increase if you added more salt water?


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[Dr. Reef]

Reef noob here but wouldn't you water change with freshwater assuming that salinity of the tank would increase if you added more salt water?


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If you take out equal amount of water from tank and replace it with same amount of freshly made saltwater assuming salinity of tank water and saltwater mix is same then no it won't increase salinity.

 

[homer1475]

Reef noob here but wouldn't you water change with freshwater assuming that salinity of the tank would increase if you added more salt water?


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With evaporation, water evaps not the salt effectively raising your salinity. So you add fresh water back in.

If you take out salt water(IE a WC), then you replace with salt water. Other wise you'll be decreasing salinity.

 

[A sea K]

4 gals per week is my intended schedule. I let the water mix at least an hour prior to changing. If its a simple change then I just siphon from the DT then fill back into the sump. Takes less than 15 mins once the water is mixed. If I'm vacuuming gravel or something of the sort it will take a bit longer.

 

[Timfish]

To do a 20 gallon water change with 5 gallons top off on a 100 gallon system about 25-30 minutes including using an algae magnet to wipe algae off glass.

Sequence is:
Test salinity
wipe algae
Pull out buckets
Fill buckets with hose,
add dechlorinator
mix salt, almost always a couple ppm lower than tank to make up for evaporation
shut off pump
siphon out 20 gallons
turn on pump
add back in 25 gallons
adjust water level
done




25-30 minutes total.

 

[JUNBUG361]

30 minutes with some help from my kids