water change question
 

hi everyone i just have a general WC question, i was told today that the way i do water changes isn't the best for my SPS, i do a 30% water change every three weeks, and i was told to do less more often, in the past i was told to do more less ofter?! lol what works for you guys/gals out there? any input would help thanks

I've never heard that so my ears are open as well.
my current schedule is to do 15 gallons every week (10% of total tank volume) as I was trying to eradicate some cyano due to bulbs past their prime. I will say that my corals have been looking more vibrant since changing over to that schedule.

With SPS in particular, stability is key. So the less more often schedule would theoretically be better. There are successful SPS reefs with all sorts of waterchange schedules, including things like 4 times per year. Crazy talk! Haha

Go onto any salt water forum and you will find this is a hot button topic with many different answers and as far as I am concerned there is no right or wrong answer to this question. There are people who do a water change every 3 days to those who haven't done a water change in a year or more regardless of tank size

If what your doing for water changes is working for your tank then keep on trucking but if you want to try something different try 3-6 months of a different water change schedule and take pictures once or twice a month to compare to see if what your doing is working for you or not.

As with anything if you notice deterioration of corals stop and go back to what was working for you.

I made the decision not to have sps coral and went softie tank and I do one water change a month on average but it's what works for me.

Remember it's your tank do what you think is best for your tank all we do is provide guidelines or what works for us

I think every tank is different, also the water volume can be a factor. Can't see a little 10/20 g tank going without water changes for long periods of time.
In my experience, I tried monthly WC before, now I do 5 or 10% weekly and sometimes 20%.
Have to say the weekly WC are easier imo, little and fast water changes, also I see my corals do better with this routine....
So I decided to base my WC just looking at how my corals do .
And tell you the truth I like it better also because I have bare bottom and is easier to pick up all the deposit every week, so the tank stay clean...



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Bare bottom here aswell 90g display I do 5g every 3-4 days to suck out detritous and every 2 weeks 25g. The 5g waterchange I use probiotic salt and 25g just regular IO.

I started with monthly water changes in my 75g. My phosphates got very high so I have been doing 20% water changes every 3 days for a while. Everything is back in check so I am planning on doing biweekly water changes. I hope this is able to maintain everything as I have a high bioload. I may end up doing weekly WC's if I have to. I'm thinking the monthly WC may be to long for me, but I May try this first before bi-weekly.

in the past i use to do weekly 10% but was told that wouldn't help the tank because it was too little and too often, . so now i have been doing 30% every three weeks and i been told its too much and the corals won't like that. i want to get into a routine that will not be hard so i can continue to do it and that the corals will thrive over time. i was thinking of doing a 10G water change every two weeks on my 75G as the actual water volume for the tank would be roughly 70G or less so it works about to be a 15% water change. what do you guys think??

My sps don't like big changes and here is why...

I carbon dose with biopellets and a reactor. Because of this I keep my alk at 7 as any higher and my acro's burn their tips. So I have a dosing schedule that keeps my alk steady at 7 all the time.

My salt mixes WAY higher than that. I've measured my instant ocean alk at 13 before but its always higher. If I do a larger water change (say 20%) my alk will swing that day to 8 or 9 and the next day my acro tips will burn. It will drop over the next few days though.

Considering I run a phosphate and nitrate reactor my main reason for water changing now is to add trace elements back into the water. For me doing smaller weekly changes accomplish this and don't create the alk swings I'm trying to avoid.

That is the definition successful reef keeping.

Charles