How often do you water change?

[cham]

Originally posted by FOREIGNER
I empty my whole tank every two weeks and rinse live rock w/ fresh water, make sure it is very clean that way, my corals and fish are not doing too well, but at least the tank looks like new all the time

[irishsea]

10% weekly!!

[wasupdavey]

Haven't done a single water change yet since the start of my tank. 4 in a half weeks into it. Not planning to water change until I see some signs that I need to

[Bebo77]

i do 8% a week.. as i have a 25 g chamber buit into my sump for water changes...

[garyw68]

I do a 15 gallon water change every two weeks with my 90 gal. When I first started, I did them once a week.

[Old Firedude]

I force myself to do a 10% change every weekend, and use RO/DI to top off (my own). I figure if I waited until there were changes in the water params, the fish have already felt them. Only time that changes is if I add a new fish, then it's 5 gallons every couple of days for about a week.

[dtaranath]

1-2% daily with a Litermeter. It does the water changes for me automatically. It also tops off 2 gal everyday with fresh RO/DI. The only work I actually do is once a month, when I add salt to the 44gal RO/DI reservoir in the basement.

[trae]

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Originally posted by FOREIGNER
I empty my whole tank every two weeks and rinse live rock w/ fresh water, make sure it is very clean that way, my corals and fish are not doing too well, but at least the tank looks like new all the time



I did that when i was new to the hobby years ago. There is too much info around to do those types of things now.

[t5Nitro]

How did you set that up to auto water change?

[supervdl]

I do a 35 gal change every two weeks.

[gkelly]

Originally posted by dtaranath
1-2% daily with a Litermeter. It does the water changes for me automatically. It also tops off 2 gal everyday with fresh RO/DI. The only work I actually do is once a month, when I add salt to the 44gal RO/DI reservoir in the basement.

I'm sorry - but if you're not lugging buckets around and spilling water in the floor it really doesn't count.

Seriously - this is an awesome solution and constant change would definitely help keep things stable. I'm going to put this into the tank upgrade I'm planning.

[dtaranath]

Originally posted by t5Nitro
How did you set that up to auto water change?

It's actually easy with the litermeter. The main unit serves as one pump, and then you get two litermeter remote pump modules with the auto-top off control. All are controlled by the main unit. One pump takes out a set amount of water from the tank and dumps it into the sewage line, another pump pumps an equal amount of saltwater into the tank, and the third pump tops off with either fresh water or kalk. It's awesome. I think it's a must for reefkeeping.

But it's not as efficient as a single batch change. According to randy holmes-farley, a 30% of continuous water change is equivalent to a 26% single batch change. But the flip side is that there is miniscule temperature and salinity change, and all your organisms are less stressed.

Here's a great article on water changes:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

[t5Nitro]

That's really cool.

[FOREIGNER]

I was kidding 10% weekly

[Bambalam]

5 gal a wk sometimes more depends on test results.

[cartoonbear]

always 10% weekly

[mwwhite]

10% bi-weekly. Tank inhabitants are thriving.