well the question i have is can you possibly change too much of the water. for example our nano tanks are soo small it would be no problem to mix up a 5 gallon bucked of salt water everyday and do a 25% waterchange daily. or would that be too much stress on the coral and fish? just wanted to hear your thoughts/suggestions thanks!!!
too many water changes?
- Thread starter fella1320
- Start date
ok there are a few reason you shouldnt do a 25% water change everyday? first one being the water temp will drop or raise expecially in a nano tank, this will kill your corals, also, you will be adding too many nutrients into your systme and you will have mad bacteria and algea breakout, also your tank will never cycle if you keep doing that much of a change everyday...you should change the water once a week about 10% of the water, and you should start seeing some healthy growth in your system.
ACBlinky
Premium Member
Nitrifying bacteria live attached to a substrate - rock, sand, tank walls, etc. Water changes will remove nitrates, phosphates etc. and replenish trace nutrients; unless there's something undesirable in your source water or salt mix, there's no way it could cause a tank to re-cycle or trigger an algae bloom.
That said, I agree that 25% daily is overkill unless you're trying to dilute a toxin. 25% per week should be enough, many people do even less. If you want to get into a routine of doing daily changes, I'd aim for around 5% or so.
That said, I agree that 25% daily is overkill unless you're trying to dilute a toxin. 25% per week should be enough, many people do even less. If you want to get into a routine of doing daily changes, I'd aim for around 5% or so.
my thinking is because its a nano tank, imagine if you have a 12 gallon tank with LR, LS in it so now your left with about 10 gallons of water, and you remove 5 of the 10 gallons thats a nice chunk of water in a 12 gallon nano, your tank wont have time to establish....imagine if you took have of you water out of your tank everyday, thats a bit overkill dont you think...
well i am having a horrible algae problem i get soo jealous at all of you guys who have these perfect algae free systems. i have been doing about a 25% wc weekly to everyother week and i decided to get on top of it so i did 2 25%WC last week and it really wasnt too hard i was just thinking that i must be doing something wrong. this is what i have a 5.5 tank with 7lbs of lalo rock. filtration has been a fluval 304 full of live rock with no filter pads and i just added a wisper 30 on the back that im planning on turnning into a fuge. lighting is 2x 24watt pc actinic and daylight. livestock is only 1 small damsel 2 shrooms, 1 acro frag, 1 blue ridge frag, and 1 fan worm. so the question is what am i doing wrong? sorry for the long post
phenom5
Member
what about the LR in the display? new stuff? uncured?
i don't know...increasing your WC's won't hurt anything, and might help. maybe something like a gallon change 3 or 4 times a week, see if that helps and decide if that's something you want to do long-term. refuge will help also, as big as you can manage.
i don't know...increasing your WC's won't hurt anything, and might help. maybe something like a gallon change 3 or 4 times a week, see if that helps and decide if that's something you want to do long-term. refuge will help also, as big as you can manage.
the LR was curred when purchased and had a 45 minuet ride home before it went into the tank and from there i let it sit for about 3 weeks before i turned the lights on and i did a water change weekly and every week i would dip the rocks inthe empty water to kind of wash the detritus off of them. im going to give the WC's a shot and im also going to get the nano fission skimmer this weekend and see how that does. ill let you know how it all plays out. and i moved the rock around 2 days ago flipping the rock around so the algae is on the bottom and doesnt get much light. thought being that it will die off and with water changes ill be able to get alot of the nutrients out of the system but now im getting a diatom bloom. its like i just cant get ahead. i might do another WC today 3rd one in 10 days. everything seems to be doing alright with the frequent WC's but it has only been 2 weeks. ill keep you posted.
it will finally die off, you can siphon it out if you want thats a suggestion, but if its not dead underneath it will keep coming back, the best solution would be to add a macro too your system or even a seperate macro tank will do you wonders....make sure you dont get calerpa type or any fast growing type, it could run your whole tank if you let some of it..i have 3 types if intereted, 10 bucks will add good bacteria and bugs to your system...i live in williamsport which is kinda close to you considering we drive long distances in this hobby to find good things
I just have to clear up a few inaccuracies posted by Spoon25:
1) Performing a water change replenishes trace elements (to a limited extent), but it does not add nutrients to your system. Water changes take out nutrients, that's why we do them.
2) Reefs undergo substantial temperature changes, so a fluctuating temperature will not kill your corals. However, you should make every effort to match your temperature and pH and to aerate your water change water beforehand.
3) Anthony Calfo does nearly 100% water changes, and his thread resides here.
Finally, it's too hard to diagnose a tank problem without listing your levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, pH, temp, etc. Also, the length of time your tank has been setup.
I get the feeling that you've set this tank up quickly. Your going to get a cycle even if the rock was cured beforehand, and you're also going to get a small cycle when you move around your liverock.
1) Performing a water change replenishes trace elements (to a limited extent), but it does not add nutrients to your system. Water changes take out nutrients, that's why we do them.
2) Reefs undergo substantial temperature changes, so a fluctuating temperature will not kill your corals. However, you should make every effort to match your temperature and pH and to aerate your water change water beforehand.
3) Anthony Calfo does nearly 100% water changes, and his thread resides here.
Finally, it's too hard to diagnose a tank problem without listing your levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, pH, temp, etc. Also, the length of time your tank has been setup.
I get the feeling that you've set this tank up quickly. Your going to get a cycle even if the rock was cured beforehand, and you're also going to get a small cycle when you move around your liverock.
