Water Changes

[SRT80]

I have been neglecting the tanks latley. I don't think I have done a water change in probably 5 months. But everything is doin' fine. I did do water changes yesterday though. I did a 20 gal. change on my 80 bowfront and 5 gal. change on my 20 gal. I'm gonna try and get back on at least doin' monthly changes.

But I have a question. I could do say, a 25 gal. change once a month on the 80. Or could I do say, a 6 gallon weekly change. Or will there be no benefit of only changing 6 gal. a week vs. 25 gal. a month.

Any thoughts?

Steve

 

[NeveSSL]

I'm thinking 6g a week would be less shocking on your reef than 25g a month, especially if something was to be out of whack for whatever reason with the new water.

I'm not sure other than that, though.

Brandon

 

[SRT80]

or maybe even do a 10 gal change every 2 weeks.

I guess I could start doin' the 6 gal. a week change and see how it goes. I mean, I went 5 months without changing anything so I guess it couldn't hurt.

Steve

 

[ocd_mariner]

Personally, its easier for me to change one bucket of water on sunday then 5 buckets once a month. I loathe water changes and will put off a gigantic one.

 

[SRT80]

Yea, that's kind of where I was goin' with this Chuck. It would be much easier to do 1 bucket. I have a Oceanic salt bucket that I think actually can hold 7 gal. of water. But that's like at the edge. So, 6 gal. should be fine.

Thanks for the reply.
Steve

 

[NicoleC]

I prefer smaller changes on a more regular basis; a minimum of 10% weekly. (I do 20% weekly.) And once you get to so many buckets, a couple of sturdy trashcans on wheels and a pump is so much easier you'll never want to lug buckets again.

Most people fail to aerate their change water, balance pH and bring to the proper temp -- but if you do so, 90%+ water changes are fine.

 

[kone77]

my tank just got done cycling and i added a algea pack there eating all the diatom algae its looking crystal clear when should i do a water change and how?do i add salt to the new water im changing or just water sorry im new to all this??

 

[DMBillies]

It is an interesting question, because even if you are changing out the same volume of water, you are not changing out the same volume of "old water."

Let's use easily divisible numbers... 5 gallons per week vs. 20 gallons per month on an 100 gallon tank.

With one 20 gallon change, you are doing 20% of the overall volume of the tank and all 20 gallons coming out is at least 1 month old.

With 4 x 5 gallon changes per month...

1st change: 5 gallons old water out
2nd change: 4.75 gallons old water out (5% of the total volume comes back out), .25 gallons 1-week old water out
3rd change: 4.7375 gallons old water, .25 gal 1 week old water, .0125 gallons 2 week old water out
2rd change: 4.736 gallons old water, .25 gal 1 week old water, .0125 gallons 2 week old water, .000625 gallons 3 week old water

So, in the course of a month you are changing 19.22 gallons of 4+ week old water and re-changing .77 gallons of water that is relatively new.

I wouldn't lose sleep over that.

Tank stability is the issue here and if your tank can be more stable with smaller weekly water changes, then by all means do them, you'll just have to accept that you are "wasting" some small amount of "good" water when you do so.

Personally, I've had better runs of luck when I've been doing less in the area of water changes, possibly because the way that people traditionally do water changes really does anything but keep the tank stable. Even if you're really careful, as long as you are siphoning off a reasonable percentage of your water when you do a water change and then relatively quickly dumping all of that water back in... you're probably causing a significant change in water temperature and water chemistry all taking place in less than an hour.

I have never seen a fully automatic and slow method of doing water changes that didn't scare the hell out of me in terms of flooding issues... but I think such a product would be an incredibly good thing for most tanks, especially smaller ones where a larger % volume automated water change might be an easier and still economical way of achieving stability than trying to dose in small volumes (where small errors in measurement have big effects).

 

[SRT80]

Yea, I always mix my water with a couple maxi jet 1200's for 48 hours. I also use a heater, buff the ph. I also use IO salt so I have to add some calcium as well. My IO only tests 320 on calcium.

I still have 2 50 gal. mix bags left along with about 20 gal. mix in another bag to use then I'm probably gonna go back to reef crystals.

Steve

 

[sandalscout]

Kone, your tank will evaporate water on a daily basis, and when this evaporation occurs, ONLY water is lost. To replace this water (and you should do so every day, at least) use only fresh water with no salt (if you are not using RODI water, make sure it sits in a bucket or container, open to the air, for at least 24 hours to dechlorinate. There are automatic topoff units that will partially automate this.

Doing a water change, you will need to mix up an amount (usually 10-20% of your systems total volume) of replacement salt water. Let it mix (usually using a pump in the container you are mixing it in) for 24 hours to offgas and become thoroughly mixed. Measure it's salinity to ensure that it matches yours tank salinity, and then remove that same amount of water from your tank, replacing it with the new water.

Hope that helps, it'll become second nature soon.

 

[SRT80]

I also wanted to add, my tank is a 80 gal. bowfront with tidepool sump. When I set it up, it only held like 65 gal. of water. I think there's around 100lbs of rock and can't remember how much sand was used. Also, only 3 fish...2 clownfish and a pygmy angelfish.

Steve

 

[DMBillies]

Pretty much ninja'd...

my tank just got done cycling and i added a algea pack there eating all the diatom algae its looking crystal clear when should i do a water change and how?do i add salt to the new water im changing or just water sorry im new to all this??

You add salt to water your are manually taking out of the tank and replacing. You do NOT add salt to water that you are using to top off the tank to account for evaporation. It is easiest to just remember that salt doesn't evaporate, so it doesn't need replaced with salt water, but any other way that you take water out of your tank you want to replace with salt water.

As far as how to do it...

The best thing to do is use a small pump, heater, and maybe an air pump/airstone inside of a clean bucket. Add your water. Measure your salt and add slightly less than it calls for. Allow it to mix for a little while. Then, get a refractometer or hydrometer (refractometers are way better... like WAY better... so if money isn't a huge problem, get one) and bring the level of your salt up to the desired level (35ppm or 1.025ish). You should mix/aerate your water for at least 8 hours I'd say before you use it for a water change if that is possible (it allows the pH to stabilize and the salt to fully dissolve). Your water should be as close as possible to the temperature of the tank water before you add it and unless the salinity in your tank is wrong the salinity of the water should match too. Then a water change is really as simple siphoning some water out and adding some water back in.

Also, you should know that it is generally not a good idea to use tap water or even dechlorinated tap water in a reef. Nutrients in the water is a big concern and if you have copper in your water you could definitely reek a lot of havoc. Either get your water (you can get pre-mix) from an LFS, get water from RO/DI filters at Walmart and other big stores, or get a filter and make your own. The personal filter is the best/easiest method that you have the most control over. The LFS I would put next on my list. The Walmart RO/DI thing I would personally only do if I were in a real pinch (you can't have any idea how long ago they actually serviced them). If you only have fish, this is less of a concern, but inverts hate copper and high output lights can quickly create all kinds of algae problems if there are nutrients in your water.

 

[kone77]

thank you good looking out everybody

 

[supertech99]

i just read randy holmes farley article on this last night basically he stated that if the volume is the same across a short time frame like a month chemically they are basically the same except for the shock to the corals on a larger one time change. I guess if it had been months though you probally needed to catch up.

 

[kone77]

I added my algae pack some of my snails died the bigger ones about 10. My crabs and little snails are doing fine i took a water sample to work cause my ph probe didn't come in the mail yet and i work for pepsi and we have a aquafina water line department they tested the ph and it was 9.4 i know it should be about 8.2-8.4 is that the reason my snails are dead.someone in the lab department told me to add 3 tablespoons of white distilled vinegar that will bring it down for now till my ph reader and probe come in then i can adjust it were it needs to be?

 

[NicoleC]

9.4?!

I find that very hard to believe; that's nearly impossible to achieve unless you are dumping large amounts of kalkwasser in your tank. I'm pretty sure the calcium carbonate would be visibly precipitating out of the water. My gut feeling is that your lab's equipment may not be suitable for saltwater.

Even if it is true, don't do anything drastic like suddenly lower it; you definitely want a properly calibrated pH meter before attempting to reduce it so that you can do so at a safe pace. (Yes, vinegar will work.)

Does anyone know where Randy Holmes-Farley hangs out these days? If a new reef tank does have that kind of pH, I suspect he'd be fascinated.

P.S. Your snails most probably died from poor acclimation if they died so quickly.

 

[DMBillies]

Kone- I just noticed your location is listed as Harrisburg, Pa. I'm from Berks county (near Reading kind of) and my girlfriend grew up in Dover (near York). What brings you to TN?

 

[commonstranger]

Id go with smaller but more frequent.

 

[Pickupman66]

Hey, it if aint broke, dont fix it is my motto. I dont change mine, havent in over 3 years. just use that denitrator coil to get rid of the nitrates. all my corals look awesome. now if I did change, I would go with the smaller ones. less headache and time consuming.

 

[fallinapart]

I do a 20 gallon change every couple of months just to stay in practice...