What is your water change schedule?

Koddie Doo

Czar of All ThingsAwesome
How much, how often?

I have been doing about 10% every 3 weeks as of late. My older set up I was notorious for going 2 months or more.

Do you siphon the sand each time? Is it automated?
 
I just got an automatic water changer for my 29. Every hour it takes out a little and replaces with fresh SW pretty accurately. 2.5gal/week. I do the other 2.5gal manually on WC day and manually siphon dead spots.
 
10 % every Sun. morning. Don't have to clean the sand. Have an engineer goby that is about 10" long and 5/8" dia. It keeps my sand moving more than I want.
 
I do 45g in a 450g system whenever I feel like it. Usually on a Sunday but definitely not every Sunday. On the 60 it's been at least a few months.

I never siphon my sand.
 
Once every couple of months I'll do a 20% change. I dose manually and have Agramax (similar to kalkwasser) in my ATO to help with stability and trace elements. I don't do the full recommended amount, just enough to get a little trace elements. I also have a DSB and ATS running so that really helps with my nutrient levels. I also do small water changes of a gallon or so when I'm hatching baby brine shrimp, but that's just to replace tank water that I am putting in the BBS tank.
 
What is your water change schedule?

I managed to get my hands on a Kamoer f05x.

Lei from coralsnmore went above and beyond to get it here.
 
My New Year's resolution is to do a 20% water change every month. That's about 50 gallons every month.

I'd love to have an automatic system, but I don't think it's feasible with my setup. With my tank being in my office it presents some challenges that those of you who have your tanks at home don't have.

I have a utility room that has a sink and a floor drain, but it's 20' away from my tank. That means the lines carrying water to and from the tank would have to go up through the wall, across the office above the drop ceiling, and then eventually through or over two walls to get to the utility room. That's a lot of travel for the water. And I'd hate to spring a leak and ruin ceiling tiles, light fixtures, etc. Probably a small risk, but a risk non the less.
 
I do it the old way with buckets and a pump. Except I use my ato plug in spot on my apex. I have a drain valve in my plumbing drain line with tubing on it. I place the tubing into my dirt water pail and open the drain a little to let some water go to the dirty water bucket. I put the pump in my new water pail and plug it into my ATO spot on my apex. Then I let the float switches do their thing. As the water level drops in the sump the ATO kicks on and fills. I restrict the pump to fill slowly. Then I just keep and eye on the dirty pail. When it is full I close the valve and let the float switch tell the pump to shut off when the sump is full. Works well for me. I still have to lug buckets but if I had larger water changes to do I would just do the brute trash cans on wheels.
 
Just change from 10% weekly to 10% every other week. I am needing to raise my Nitrates as my tests are always 0 and I do not get the sps color I want.
 
If you have an extra $600+ burning a hole in your pocket, you can get one of these top of the line systems. You just program in how much you want to change and when and it does the rest for you.

http://genesisreefsystems.com/product/renew-basic-pumps/

RENEW-Basic-with-Pumps-White.jpg


Where do you get a automatic change system?
 
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