Water change question - too much?

[brett559]

My tank is 42 gallons - after sand and rock displacement, probably 50 gallons with my smallish sump. I'm currently doing 10 gallon water changes every two weeks. That's 20% every two weeks, 40% per month.

Is that overkill? I have no fuge, but a good skimmer. My stock is on the high side. I feed twice a day (NLS pellets and PE mysis). I dose two-part.

Things are going well - I have a little hair algae, but sand is clear. Fish are corals look good.

The safest thing is probably to keep up my schedule, but do I need to do 40% per month? Would 20% per month be sufficient - i.e. one 10 gallon change per month?

 

[phenom5]

Not too much at all IMO/ IME. 10-15%/ week is a good amount IME, I think 5g/ week would work too, if smaller, more frequent WC's appeal to you.

 

[shifty51008]

Your fine with that ammount of water changes, i agree with Rob, 10% a week is usually the standard.