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Mark Peterson
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Topic: Water change schedule ?????? Posted: April 22 2016 at 3:29pm |
Here is a little background and the reason I thought this might be a fun discussion.
My wife claims that I have a terrible habit of procrastination. On the other hand, I see it as a good trait that I try not to get worried about much. Yesterday I finally got around to doing an oil change on our old car. It had been since last July and our 2001 Mitsubishi had been driven 10,300 miles. Of course I had been adding oil. It would be foolish not to check the dipstick and keep the oil pan full. I googled the question about oil changes and found that 7,500 miles between oil changes is not so unusual and 15,000 miles is okay for some cars. Motor oils and engine lubrication systems are better than they used to be, but the myth of the 3000 mile oil change persists. So what about water changes. Can we separate fact from myth? Give us your vote and share your opinion. Aloha, Mark P.S. Though here on the forum, I always recommend 10% monthly water changes, personally I often put it off for a couple months or more and even then can only bring myself to change out 15 or 20%. I voted <15% every 3-5 months because that's about where it is right now for my ~70 gal system with Algae, soft coral and LPS coral, dosed fairly heavily every 1-2 weeks to bring Alk, Ca and Mg back up into range.
Edited by Mark Peterson - April 22 2016 at 3:40pm
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:06pm |
Some tanks quarterly, some tanks never.
Car oil, every 5000. But I'll bet every 10,000 is perfectly fine.
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tileman
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:33pm |
I do a 27 gallon waterchange every week. I would guess that my total water volume would be close to 300 gallons considering the sand, coral and rock displacement. So not quite 10% a week. Reason being, I have, and always will have a lot of fish, which in turn, produces a lot of waste. And I feed very heavily. Even though I have other measures in place to counter act this, I just think overall my coral and tank looks much better when I do it weekly. I tried every other week and that turns into every 3 or 4 weeks. I don't like that at all, so I do every saturday/waterchange.
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tileman
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:35pm |
Let's also see your tanks. Proof is in the pudding.
Edited by tileman - April 22 2016 at 4:36pm
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jfinch
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:51pm |
Small tank. Maybe 33 gal of water (34 gal tank +sump). I change 5 gallons/week. That's about 15% weekly.
Kudos to Brad!
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:55pm |
Pics of Adams ~250 gal from last year, assuming he doesn't mind that I post them:
Edited by Mark Peterson - April 22 2016 at 4:58pm
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bstuver
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 4:59pm |
I was changing 20% or so every week but lately I have been lazy and it gets 20% about every 2-4 weeks
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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bstuver
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 5:01pm |
Adam you should post current pics of your tank! We've already had this conversation but figured I'd try;) He says if I want to see pics of his tank I'm more than welcome to come take some:)
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 5:03pm |
Jackie and I were thinking of Adam at about the same moment. Pics of my best/favorite tanks that got about 10% W/C every 1-2 months:
Edited by Mark Peterson - April 22 2016 at 5:18pm
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bstuver
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 5:06pm |
I like that it's very natural looking!
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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bstuver
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 5:08pm |
My most recent FTS from a few weeks ago:
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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Marcoss
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 6:09pm |
I'm at around 10% weekly on both systems. On my frag tank not nearly as often. I want to keep a ton of bacteria in the tank for when large shipments come in. Balancing alk and calcium are easy- figuring out if I can handle a biolad is very hard for me.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: April 22 2016 at 10:04pm |
I rarely take pics of my tank, mainly because I can't get photos to show how nice it is. But again you're welcome to anytime. Thanks for those photos Mark.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 8:46am |
Just for you Jackie...
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tileman
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 10:06am |
Butterflies and angels! That's just crazy. haha Looks great Adam!
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tileman
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 10:14am |
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pgravis
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 1:25pm |
I change about a gallon and a half a day, or rather my Dos does for me. Works out to about 25% a month
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builderofdreams
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 4:18pm |
I'm Probably the extreme when it comes to changing water. 30-50 gallons every Sunday. I tried every 2 weeks but just felt Wrong so i went back to weekly.
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builderofdreams
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 4:21pm |
I think the saying goes? No better solution than dilution. Correct me if i'm wrong..
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bstuver
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Posted: April 23 2016 at 6:18pm |
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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