How often do you clean (substrate/water changes, etc..)your tank?

[Greybeard]

140g bare bottom, high flow rate, maybe 160g total volume.

Siphon out little pile of detritus that builds up in the same place all the time, due to high flow rates, when I do my weekly water change.

16 gallon water change, IO, every Saturday.

Takes no more than 5 minutes to do.

 

[mistergray]

weekly 25% WC.
never clean the substrate. cuc does that.

What size tank do you have? What members consist of your cuc and how many of each?

 

[mistergray]

About every 2 months cleaning my sand along with water change. And that works great for my acropora dominant tank.

Beautiful tank!

 

[mistergray]

140g bare bottom, high flow rate, maybe 160g total volume.

Siphon out little pile of detritus that builds up in the same place all the time, due to high flow rates, when I do my weekly water change.

16 gallon water change, IO, every Saturday.

Takes no more than 5 minutes to do.

How in the world do you exchange that much water in 5 minutes? You must be related to aquaman!

 

[CanuckReefer]

Nice cuc variety! Is there a difference in temperament and productivity between the red and blue legged hermits or are they fairly similar?

Similar imo. If anything my Reds are slightly bigger. I've heard some say they kill snails, I've never seen any evidence (in my tank) of this in years. Both do an effective job of cleaning imo. And thanks.

 

[sp1187]

What size tank do you have? What members consist of your cuc and how many of each?

150 Tall. footprint is 48" x 24".
nassarius #'s unknown as they make babies.
margarittas, cerith, astraea, trochus #'s unknown. add more when I think about it.
blue leg/red leg hermits #'s unknown. I add a dozen of each every 6 months or so.
3-5 fighting/strawberry conchs
bristleworms #'s unknown.
spaghetti worms #'s unknown.
stomatella snails #'s unknown.
limpets #'s unknown.

 

[Greybeard]

How in the world do you exchange that much water in 5 minutes? You must be related to aquaman!

Hit the 'WC Mode' switch on my Apex (turns off skimmer, ATO, and return pump).
Grab two 10g Rubbermaid containers, stored under the tank, with a 1.25" siphon hose.
Slide the screen top over, siphon, grabbing detritus pile, filling each bucket to the 8g line.
Hit the 'WC Refill' switch on my Apex (Turns on return pump and mixing station refill pump until ATO normal sump height sensor is tripped, then turns on ATO and skimmer).
While that's running, my wife and I walk the two 8g buckets out the back door, dump 'em in a gravel bed. Helps keep the weeds down
Stack the two rubbermaid containers, roll the siphon hose up, and stick 'em back under the stand.

Maybe 5 minutes, if I'm not moving very fast.

 

[schuby]

You've mixed water changes with tank cleaning. I do them on different intervals so I couldn't participate in your poll.

For myself, I don't consider a water change to be a "cleaning". Maybe I'm weird.

 

[mistergray]

Hit the 'WC Mode' switch on my Apex (turns off skimmer, ATO, and return pump).
Grab two 10g Rubbermaid containers, stored under the tank, with a 1.25" siphon hose.
Slide the screen top over, siphon, grabbing detritus pile, filling each bucket to the 8g line.
Hit the 'WC Refill' switch on my Apex (Turns on return pump and mixing station refill pump until ATO normal sump height sensor is tripped, then turns on ATO and skimmer).
While that's running, my wife and I walk the two 8g buckets out the back door, dump 'em in a gravel bed. Helps keep the weeds down
Stack the two rubbermaid containers, roll the siphon hose up, and stick 'em back under the stand.

Maybe 5 minutes, if I'm not moving very fast.

I’m impressed! Maybe in a few years I’ll get this good.

 

[mistergray]

You've mixed water changes with tank cleaning. I do them on different intervals so I couldn't participate in your poll.

For myself, I don't consider a water change to be a "cleaning". Maybe I'm weird.

What intervals do you do water changes? What intervals do you do tank cleaning?

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Okay, try not to laugh too hard. What do you mean by socks? I keep seeing this referred to in threads and have no idea what people are talking about.

Filter socks. It's a plastic ring with a closed fabric/ synthetic sock attached to it that your overflow water flows through. They collect the large nasties and occasionally naughty sea creature.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Filter socks. It's a plastic ring with a closed fabric/ synthetic sock attached to it that your overflow water flows through. They collect the large nasties and occasionally naughty sea creature.

 

[mistergray]

Filter socks. It's a plastic ring with a closed fabric/ synthetic sock attached to it that your overflow water flows through. They collect the large nasties and occasionally naughty sea creature.

Aaaaaah...... Thanks for the info!

 

[schuby]

What intervals do you do water changes? What intervals do you do tank cleaning?

I do a continuous water change of 2 gallons a day on my 140 total gallon system, for about 10% a week. I'm thinking about reducing it to 1 gallon a day. For the 2-gallons-a-day AWC, I swap out 2 5-gallon jugs every other day that fit under my tank in my stand. One jug is for new water and the other for old.

I clean my glass several times a week with a magnetic cleaner/scraper (Flipper). I clean my two return pumps once or twice a year, when my flow reduces more than 30%, based on inline flow meters. I clean my powerheads maybe twice a year when they get too much algae growth on the cages. I clean my glass lids about once a month. I clean my skimmer about twice a week.

I've had to start cleaning the filter floss around my return pumps recently due to sponges growing in them. I've found that hydrogen peroxide cleans the sponges off much better than vinegar. I expect to clean those filter floss maybe every two or three months.

I don't run any filter socks.

 

[X-37B]

4th 10 gallon water change today on my 120 going on 22 months since startup.
Going to do 10 gallons every 4 months now.
Bare bottom high flow tank.
I suck out detrius also.
Clean sump out every 6 months.
Clean skimmer, return pump, fill carx.
Filter socks about every 4 days.

 

[CanuckReefer]

The bottom line is, be proactive. Rather than reactive. There is nothing wrong with scraping the glass a bit more, cleaning the filters a bit more often, if it gets you into the fray and involved, it will not hurt. Stick to your water changes, clean it before it gets gunked up, watch your parameters. You end up on the high end more often than not.....

 

[Colin_S]

I do a 33% water change every 2 months with NSW, when it arrives i siphon out the sand bed. 150g DT

 

[Lowlandreef]

I don't really know how to answer the poll, so I'm just gonna answer here.
At the moment I'm running my setup without waterchanges. I have a refugium to take up nutrients, and I dose All For Reef to replenish minerals and trace elements.
As for cleaning/maintenance I scrape the glass maybe once a week and change out filter floss every couple days. Every two weeks I clean the skimmer and every month or so I stir up the sand and blow the rocks with a turkey baster. Takes me around 5/10 minutes a week to keep everything clean.

 

[mistergray]

I do a continuous water change of 2 gallons a day on my 140 total gallon system, for about 10% a week. I'm thinking about reducing it to 1 gallon a day. For the 2-gallons-a-day AWC, I swap out 2 5-gallon jugs every other day that fit under my tank in my stand. One jug is for new water and the other for old.

I clean my glass several times a week with a magnetic cleaner/scraper (Flipper). I clean my two return pumps once or twice a year, when my flow reduces more than 30%, based on inline flow meters. I clean my powerheads maybe twice a year when they get too much algae growth on the cages. I clean my glass lids about once a month. I clean my skimmer about twice a week.

I've had to start cleaning the filter floss around my return pumps recently due to sponges growing in them. I've found that hydrogen peroxide cleans the sponges off much better than vinegar. I expect to clean those filter floss maybe every two or three months.

I don't run any filter socks.

Thx for all the info!

 

[mistergray]

The bottom line is, be proactive. Rather than reactive. There is nothing wrong with scraping the glass a bit more, cleaning the filters a bit more often, if it gets you into the fray and involved, it will not hurt. Stick to your water changes, clean it before it gets gunked up, watch your parameters. You end up on the high end more often than not.....

Good advice! I’ll definitely work on being proactive.