Water change question

[caliAO]

I'm new to the hobby and had my tank for about 2 months now. I bought it off of someone on Craigslist 120 gal fully functioning with fish and all. With this being my first salt water tank I took a lot of the guys advice that I bought it off of and lots of online research. My question is I'm keeping the tank on the same water change cycle that the previous owner had 30 gals every 2 weeks. Was wondering tho if I should be doing maybe like a 15 gal change every week. All test perimeters are good just super OCD on making sure everything is ok cause seems like a lot of conflicting things that I read on the internet and makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

 

[EzReefs]

15g per week is fine

 

[homer1475]

Either is fine.

30G every 2 weeks or 15G every week is basically the same thing.

There are no hard or fast rules concerning WC's. Do what you can afford the time to do, be it every other week, or every week, either is fine.

Only time smaller more frequent WC's are preferred is if your trying to cleanup a mess, or to control nutrients.

 

[mcgyvr]

seems like a lot of conflicting things that I read on the internet and makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

wanna state some of those conflicting ideas and we can shoot them down or validate/explain them for you?

 

[billdogg]

wanna state some of those conflicting ideas and we can shoot them down or validate/explain them for you?

^^^What mcgyvr asked^^^

Happy to take aim at some of the bunk that goes around

 

[thegrun]

I make weekly 15 gallon water changes for my 120 gallon tank, more out of habit than necessity. I'm sure 30, gallons every other week would be fine. There is a very small advantage to making weekly water changes, you will have slightly smaller changes to your water chemistry with the weekly changes, but the advantage is very small.

 

[rockslide123]

Make sure you bring the replacement water to near the same temperature if your doing the larger change

 

[caliAO]

Thanks everyone for the help. I could see how the weekly change would be better as less chances of fluctuating water chemistry than a 30 gal change would.

 

[nereefpat]

Thanks everyone for the help. I could see how the weekly change would be better as less chances of fluctuating water chemistry than a 30 gal change would.

As long as salinity, temp, and (to some extent) alkalinity match, you can change much more than 20% at a time.

10% weekly, or 20% every other is pretty standard advice given to new reefers. It's a good starting point, and of course you can adjust as needed.