Water changes- What is your method?

oldmonk · May 5, 2023

For last 2 months have started AWC with Kamoer X2S. 6litres/day on a 750litre set up. Yet to experience full results of AWC .

Before that water changes used to be twice a month, 10% each time. To make things simpler made direct connections from the mixing station to sump for refilling of saltwater. For taking out the water, used a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner.

Thanks

oldmonk · May 5, 2023

For last 2 months have started AWC with Kamoer X2S. 6litres/day on a 750litre set up. Yet to experience full results of AWC .

Before that water changes used to be twice a month, 10% each time. To make things simpler made direct connections from the mixing station to sump for refilling of saltwater. For taking out the water, used a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.

Thanks

Waters · May 5, 2023

I change roughly 4 gallons a day monday through friday doing AWCs and do a manual water change of 15 gallons at the end of each week (to clean equipment and siphon up any detritus).

fodsod · May 5, 2023

I do water changes on both tanks at the same time typically every 9-10 days. In my 90g I do 10g and in my 50g FOLWR tank I do 5g. If it's been closer to 14 days or something seems wrong I'll do a slightly larger amount for both tanks.

My RODI system is up stairs in the laundry room. The system runs into a 44g Rubbermaid for storage. I keep it full at all times just in case.

I will either pump RODI water into 5 gallon buckets to carry it downstairs or I do have a really long roll of tubing that I can run all the way down to the area where the tanks are and pump water straight into the 32 gallon mixing Rubbermaid can. Most of the time it's just faster to make 2 trips with 5 gallon buckets and be done with it.

I mix the salt in the 32g can using an older powerhead, a pretty powerful submersible pump and a large spare heater to get the water up to temp. I remove water from the tanks using a pistol grip aquarium siphon and then pump the new salt water into the tanks with the pump that's already in the mixing container.

I have 2 sand sifting Gobies in the 90g and 1 in the 50g so I never have to vacuum the sand.

I'll add that I use A LOT of towels that are dedicated to aquarium only use (my wife's idea

). I can't seem to do anything aquarium related without getting water everywhere so cleaning that up is my last task in the process.

vetteguy53081 · May 5, 2023

alysak6075 said:
i do about a 1-2 gallon daily water change, pump in water from mixing station into sump, until skimmer overflows, skimmer cup is plumbed into sewer. new water is 1.019SG, this makes tank stay at a constant 1.024SG. I never have to top off. As skimmer slowly stops overflowing it "hopefully" pulls out slightly dirtier water. Has been working for 7 years so far. Also for me this is the cheapest method, compared to 2-part and trace elements. Tanks is a 54 Gallon corner from aqueon. 40 gallons total water in system.

Same method but about 5 gallons a day on a 220 Gallon tank.

have you noticed better coral color and growth with daily water changes?

AKL1950 · May 5, 2023

Fully automatic. 200 gallon system. Two 75 gallon reservoirs. One for RO-DI and one for salt water. 1% each day. All the work is done by Apex and Neptune doser. Last month my Apex decided to take a nap, so just been doing it manually till I get it fixed. 2 Gallons in the sump, and remove 2 gallons from the tank.

Replenish the salt water tank once a month and deep clean it every 6 months to remove the calcium build up and sediment. Saltwater storage is in a closet behind the DT with a line to the doser and dump line from doser to sink in the garage.

Bottom doser runs the new salt water in and old salt water out.

Rmckoy · May 5, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
We all do water changes . Some do this manually, some do this automatically and some simply dont do it.

I utilize a water storage system and do daily water changes of 1-2 gallons. I also have a AWC unit I use bi-weekly when i'd rather not do it manually.

How often do you change your water and how do you do your water change?

View attachment 3136354

I’m going to say “ as little as possible “

I’m having troubles keeping nutrients since upgrading to the 230
So water changes haven’t Happened in months .

Zachary2008 · May 5, 2023

I manually change 10-20% weekly and replace with pre-mixed LFS water. I actually am about to go get some more now.

RZGreef · May 5, 2023

I buy my RO every Friday (good excuse to go see new stock too!), then add my own salt and leave it mixing overnight in a 5gal bucket with a pump. The next morning I'll add a little extra salt or water for final adjustment to 1.025. Then a manual process on Saturday morning, sucking out 20-25% (small tank and this works well), and replacing it with the new mix, and replacing filter floss/pads. I'll usually do my testing Saturday morning immediately before the water change, and then again a day after the WC.

natashakay. · May 5, 2023

I don’t change mine unless I need to

Dburr1014 · May 5, 2023

1% of 100 gallon system daily.
5 days a week = 5 gallons weekly
___=
20 gallons a month or 20% monthly.

intertazz · May 5, 2023

10% weekly using a siphon. but my nutrients are really low to nothing, I will see if I can change my method

Kapachuka3 · May 5, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
A small utility pump would send the water back to tank faster than cup by cup

Ive seen one of those but they are really expensive and I cant really afford one right now.

FoolishWizard · May 5, 2023

In the middle of my "build" but my plan is to run the AutoAqua AWC Duo for auto water changes and top off... Going to go with the small daily changes as opposed to large weekly / biweekly / monthly. Will have (3) 5 gallon reservoirs in stand, one for fresh, one for new salt and one for waste salt. RODI and salt mixing station in garage to fill up the reservoirs as needed.

alysak6075 · May 5, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
have you noticed better coral color and growth with daily water changes?

idk about better. colors were always good. my mortality rate basically went to 0 after i started doing this. before daily water changes i would have some corals that would suffer and some that would always be happy. since i started my daily water change schedule nothing has died randomly, only if i do something really stupid or have some sort of disaster.

I will say: my hammer went from 1 head to idk how many (i stopped counting at 50). So is this method working... yes. are there better ways to do this, yeah maybe. This works for me and is the cheapest.

Edit: to add to this, after doing the daily water changes, the SPS started growing at a much faster rate. YMMV

dowdalld · May 5, 2023

10%-ish per week.
Close anti-siphon valve on return line to tank, turn off return pump, allow to fill sump until siphon breaks.
Open valve to drain on sump. Drain sump to skimmer fixed level, close valve.
Open valve on line to remote salt storage tank, turn on pump in salt tank via smart plug, fill sump to marked level, turn off pump , close valve, open anti-siphon valve, turn on return pump. 5 minutes, done.

ReefGeezer · May 5, 2023

I change 10 to 20 gallons whenever the corals look "unhappy". Seems like that works out to once or twice a month. I simply use five gallon buckets, RODI water from my ATO reservoir, Red Sea Blue Top Salt, and a Refractometer... AND... I do it in a 5-OUT/5-IN process to ensure I don't drop the water level so far that I have to turn off pumps. That makes the water changes less efficient, but helps keep everything the same as much as possible. I try to not be intrusive at all.

vetteguy53081 · May 5, 2023

alysak6075 said:
idk about better. colors were always good. my mortality rate basically went to 0 after i started doing this. before daily water changes i would have some corals that would suffer and some that would always be happy. since i started my daily water change schedule nothing has died randomly, only if i do something really stupid or have some sort of disaster.

I will say: my hammer went from 1 head to idk how many (i stopped counting at 50). So is this method working... yes. are there better ways to do this, yeah maybe. This works for me and is the cheapest.

Edit: to add to this, after doing the daily water changes, the SPS started growing at a much faster rate. YMMV

Thats what ive seen