Is it bad to do water changes at night?

[egloskerry]

Title.

[Jacobnano]

Do you have fish? It might freak them out. Could be problems with PH because all the lights are off but I dunno.

[StevieT]

not that I see. Corals that are closed up would be less disturbed.

[egloskerry]

One perc. That's why I asked. I know pH drops at night.

[StevieT]

if bucket was also in dark should still be matched. Honestly I never test my PH before a water change

[Jacobnano]

^^Lol neither do I. Just trying to think of the things that could be a problem. Is your fish the jumpy type? Mine is uber mellow so I probably could, but if yours would go carpet surfing or run into a rock it might not be a good idea lol.

[egloskerry]

Nah he doesn't care.

 

Alright then, I'm off to do a W/C. Anything to get rid of this damn cyano.

[Jacobnano]

I hate that stuff. Try to siphon as much as you can out. Good luck!

[Saiyan]

I do most of my water changes at night. But I take from and add to the sump so the display is undisturbed for the most part. But I don't think it makes a difference either way.

[Pship]

Im about to do one as well. Just waiting for the temps to match up. God I love having a controller!

[schro]

if bucket was also in dark should still be matched.

Ha ha, good one (you were joking, right?)

 

I would expect that changes at night would be better.

pH drops at night because photosynthetic organisms in your tank start consuming O2 and releasing CO2 when the lights are off.

CO2 combines with water to form carbonic acid and lower pH.

Changing water at night gives you a chance to remove high CO2 water and add oxygenated water.

 

- more oxygen in the water for respiration of your critters

- balance pH

 

Just as an idea that I've been thinking of for my tank...

 

Would work especially well if you could do it very gradually.

Ie: very slow drip from your tank and an ATO to top off with salt water over the course of a few hours (or maybe even overnight (My ATO uses a peristaltic dosing pump on my 5 gallon - very low flow - and tops up when my water volume drops by as little as 1 tablespoon)

Doing it at night when it's cooler would mean that your salinity should not rise due to evaporation. Just make sure that you put the ATO back into fresh water when you are done.