Who still does water changes?

[Jon0807]

How many of you actually do water changes? With all the different systems, dosing, testing, filtration, reactors, etc, I wonder, are regular water changes still necessary? I've watched so many videos on youtube and read so much about people moving away from regular water changes, it just makes sense to me that water changes are a pretty inefficient way of exporting nutrients and replenishing elements. I realize with nanos, water changes are the best way to do these things, but with bigger systems, its got to be pretty cumbersome and is the only reason why we do water changes because that's what we were told to do for years?

 

[homer1475]

Most with large systems, do automatic daily water changes.

I still do a weekly 10G religiously on my 80G.

And yes water changes is still the best and most efficient way to manage water chemistry.

It's much easier when all you have to do is flip a couple valves and your done. It's best to think of things like this when setting up the tank, and getting it all setup so all you have to do is flip a couple valves.

Remember, the solution to pollution is dilution.

 

[Karbonoffee]

I'm not going to lie and say I do water changes often. I try to do them when I get the chance to haha

 

[ReefNomad]

Change water every week! I can't bring myself to give it up.

 

[LeJeune981]

When I had my 150 up as a freshwater tank.. I had bluegill/sunfish/rock bass/a plecostomis/clown loach/and a channel cat... all were cought out of Lake Erie (except the pleco and loach)
Anyways. I had that system up for 5 years.. 2 huge hob filters (I forget who made them.. but they were 250 each 15 years ago)

Anyways.. long story short... my bluegill/sunfish/rock bass grew to over state record size... I was feeding the fish 200 feeder gold fish a week..

I never did a single water change in those 5 years.. and never once had bad water..or even smelly water....

I did change the filters a few times... mostly I just cleaned them and reused them...

My pan fish were all state records when released.. channel cat was 5 lbs..
Pleco weight in at around 3 lbs and so did the loach... all were cought or purchased tiny.. less than an inch long

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[Tom39]

I make it my goal to do them once a month and try and change out 20% of the water volume. Sometimes though, other activities like vacation and household chores get in the way and every month turns into every 6 or 8 weeks.

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[abrooks12376]

When I had my 150 up as a freshwater tank.. I had bluegill/sunfish/rock bass/a plecostomis/clown loach/and a channel cat... all were cought out of Lake Erie (except the pleco and loach)
Anyways. I had that system up for 5 years.. 2 huge hob filters (I forget who made them.. but they were 250 each 15 years ago)

Anyways.. long story short... my bluegill/sunfish/rock bass grew to over state record size... I was feeding the fish 200 feeder gold fish a week..

I never did a single water change in those 5 years.. and never once had bad water..or even smelly water....

I did change the filters a few times... mostly I just cleaned them and reused them...

My pan fish were all state records when released.. channel cat was 5 lbs..
Pleco weight in at around 3 lbs and so did the loach... all were cought or purchased tiny.. less than an inch long

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You just incriminated yourself, definitely cannot go releasing aquarium kept fish into the wild. Fish and game anyone...

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[LeJeune981]

I'm an outlaw!!!!

I figured I released my fish in the same location I cought them...

Not like I released a foreign or evasive species...

My loach and pleco are still on display at the small town lfs I purchased them from...and are GIGANTIC now

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[Tcox]

Following the BRS160. I have a hard time keeping chaeto alive. If that wasn’t an issue I might consider going to the Triton method. Currently I’m doing about 30% ever other week.

 

[JUNBUG361]

10-15 gallons every 2 weeks

 

[ROB2005]

Change 5 gallons weekly, for sole purpose of trace element replenishment not administered by dosing.

 

[zheka757]

i still do once i a while. but honestly, i do it not because i have bad test readings, just because. about ones every 2 month.

 

[Bpb]

12% weekly as best as I can. Sometimes the lengths people go to in order to avoid water changes are far more expensive and labor intensive than the water changes themselves. I suppose your tank volume will settle that. For anything in the small to medium category I cannot see how an ultra high light refugium which needs to be trimmed and cleaned weekly, $200 in ICP testing every year, plus dosing 4+ additional elements daily to the tank (potentially needing to automate them), is in any way cheaper or easier than a bottle of vodka, a box of salt, and 5 minutes a week. But...to each their own. Sometimes the "fix" for a simple task is overly complicated and cost inefficient.

On a large tank I think a calcium reactor with carbon dosing is much cheaper or easier than any other trace addition/nutrient export method that could potentially lessen the need for water changes.

 

[EMeyer]

Water changes are the single easiest maintenance task in keeping a saltwater tank.

In principle you can get away without water changes. But water changes are such as easy step that in one fell swoop accomplishes many good things for the aquarium.
nutrient export
replenish trace minerals
removal of refractory DOM
stabilize salinity
stabilize alkalinity

all these without the need for tedious and error prone testing, in a simple 5-10 minutes of siphoning and turning pumps on and off.

A more interesting question for a poll, in my mind, would be: if you dont do water changes, why not? Not saying people who don't are wrong -- you can definitely keep a beautiful tank with no WC -- but I'd be curious what people are perceiving as the benefit.

 

[SycoCell]

I do about 25 gallons every 2-3 weeks in my 125g. I daily dose automatically, but it gives me the "fresh" feeling when it's done. Tank always looks happier when I do it.

 

[MrsReefK]

I have my DOS setup to change 1.5-2% per day on our 625 gallon system.


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[Dmorty217]

I might do a water change every 6 months or so but not anywhere close to once a month.

 

[RobZilla04]

Spread mine out to once a month. Trying to spread them even farther but depends on nuisance nutrient levels. Just installed a chaeto reactor to help.

 

[eastlake]

I do 15 gallons out of my 150 gallon every week. Not only is it a routine at this point, which feels weird when I stray from it, but the corals tend to look nicer after the water change, which I like to see. I can't say I see the same immediate appreciation from the fish, but, I have a pair of shark nose gobies and allenii damsels that breed regularly and I'll take that as a thank you for the effort

 

[Jekerry]

We just did our first at week 4. All the corals look happier. Even though our numbers did not indicate anything wrong, we noticed an immediate change. We did 10 gallon change in our 54 gallon tank. We plan on doing it monthly. It was pretty easy to do.