How often does everyone changed the water?

[Atlanta Aquarium]

Recently I bought a G-6 skimmer. It's a workhorse!!! I was thinking of changing my water once every two weeks or maybe even once a month.
Is this ok for a reel tank?

[Victor626nj]

its been two months but im making a mix for tomorrow as we speak im getting good growth out of my corals eveything is colored up and i have about 20 fish ...so i dont think you have to do them that frequently

[Atlanta Aquarium]

Two months? I think I overdone the water changes. I'm going to try to do less frequent water changes.

[Barbara]

I change mine when the hair algae crawls out of the tank, walks upstairs, taps me on the shoulder and informs me that it's about to move in permanently! Seriously, I only change my water every 2 & 1/2 to 3 months. I call it my quarterly water change. My corals have good growth, fish don't die, skimmer works great, water doesn't stink. I can't see changing it any more often since I don't have problems.

[LorenK]

How about this question...how do you know when you should change water?

There is a certain reefer who has a large tank (pretty low bioload) that hasn't changed for 2 years and his tank looks great.

[Barbara]

Originally Posted by LorenK

How about this question...how do you know when you should change water?

There is a certain reefer who has a large tank (pretty low bioload) that hasn't changed for 2 years and his tank looks great.

I say either when it stinks (which has happened to me, but you have to have a fairly sensitive nose) or when you see your inhabitants acting poorly or poor growth. If you pay attention to your tank, I think you would notice when the quality is starting to drop off.

I have also heard that, the larger the tank, the less often you have to change the water. I'm finding that out with my poor little clown in the 10G tank. There is nothing else in there but that poor little fish, and I'm doing a 20% WC every 2 days just to keep the water from being cloudy and stinky. And I do have a filter on there, but not running carbon since I'm medicating. As I type this I realize I need to put the carbon in before I leave for CA 'cause the husband won't do water changes and won't know how to load the carbon.

[Atlanta Aquarium]

Dang, with the size of the skimmer I just bought, I think I can get away with once a year then. Thanks Barbara, I'll make sure that the hair algae stays put.

[Victor626nj]

i think that once you tank is established its kind of pointless im doing it cause i have been feeding heavy thesse past few day cause i got a purple tang that was a little picky and i wanted him to eat and now that he does its back to my normal feedings ...so just to help my skimmer out lol

[Victor626nj]

rit if you start seeing a change of color in your corals its time for a water change

[Atlanta Aquarium]

Victor it maybe too late when I starting to see the change in color of my corals. LOL That was happened to my recent tank crashed.

[Victor626nj]

how are you recovering from that rit well better said how is the tank recovering

[glxtrix]

I generally do 20g's on my tank weekly. I have roughly 170g of water. I believe in the less more frequent wc's. This topic is a good one. I know people who do 30% weekly and I also know people who don't change water for a long time. I over feed the hell out of my tank, so with the addition on my skimmer little wc's seems good for me.

[tyleratl]

This is something I was wondering about also. I have decided to do 10% once per week. But, is that really needed or is it too much?

[Atlanta Aquarium]

Well I was able to save about all of the nice SPS. That because Shaw took all the SPS to his place. I did lose some nice size colonies though. I prabably could have saved all the losses had I not been so busy that week. BTW, LPS and zoas weren't as affected by the ammonia spike as the SPS.

[Atlanta Aquarium]

I always do a nice weekly water change. I want to do less frequent water change since I feel quilty of using too much water. I hope the new skimmer will let me do that.

[Barbara]

Couple of folks made a good point about the feedings. I am a skimpy feeder. I only feed my fish every other day to every 3 days. Also, I do give the foxface and blue tang a reasonable sized seaweed to munch on every other day, but they eat the whole thing within 24 hours, so they go another 24 hours before getting another. Also, in my 90, I only have 5 fish.

Bioload probably plays a big part in how often WC is due. I tend to agree with those folks who bring that up, and I shouldn't have been so cavalier in my answer given I probably run a lighter load and less feedings than most.

[saltwater junky]

wow i feed my fish 4 time a day,and i do 20% water change every week and still pull out a 5 gallon bucket of waste a week

[FutureInterest]

A lot of people have to change their water every week to keep their nitrates down. Many other people don't have this problem so they can get away without doing water changes for extended periods.

I fortunately fall in the latter category. As such, I tend to do water changes every 2-3 months. I don't recommend going longer than 3 months... as certain necessary trace elements that we do not regularly dose do get used up over time. In my tank, I start seeing tip bleaching and other negative aspects at around the 3 month range although all parameters were normal.

I once did go 7 months without a water change. My macroalgae though went asexual so I had to then do a massive change. :(

[mysterybox]

you should do about a 0% water change at least once a month. This will insure that trace elements are maintained & ions remain balanced.

[ericmcj31]

Originally Posted by LorenK

How about this question...how do you know when you should change water?

There is a certain reefer who has a large tank (pretty low bioload) that hasn't changed for 2 years and his tank looks great.

I think I know who that is-and it does look great