Water Changes

[cfsindorf]

Is there an advantage to doing daily smallerwater changes over a weekly that might be a larger one? Meaning I have a 29 gal tank and was thinking about daily 1 gallon water changes. I do weekly 5 gallon but thought about doing daily one gallon.

 

Would it help hinder good or bad ??

 

 

Craig

[timdanger]

Is there an advantage to doing daily smallerwater changes over a weekly that might be a larger one? Meaning I have a 29 gal tank and was thinking about daily 1 gallon water changes. I do weekly 5 gallon but thought about doing daily one gallon.

 

Would it help hinder good or bad ??

 

 

Craig

 

doing more smaller water changes lessens the impact of any variation between the new water and the old water, so it's advisable to do this where practicable.

 

however, changing 5g per week in a 29g system (that's not even accounting for the rock/sand/etc. that reduces your system's actual water volume) means that you're going to change at least 75% of your water over the course of an average month. that is very high -- unless you're running a non-photosynthetic tank (which i'm assuming you're not), i think you're probably going to be changing your water borderline too much. 40% change per month on average is a pretty average/reasonable goal unless you have a specific reason why you need to change more or less.

[Austin]

+1 timdanger is right on.

 

Here's a recent thread that discusses the daily water change concept. You may find it informative and stimulating:

 

 

 

Daily Water Change thread

[nano427]

I like to do a 10% weekly. So on a 29 gallon you might only have 20-22 actual gallons so Id say a 2 or 1/12 gallon water change would be good. If you see nitrates creep up bump it up to 3 gallons. Here is a link that compares daily vs. weekly water changes

 

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

[brandon429]

what I like best about that article above is it tells you to measure a certain parameter you are trying to control, and how the timing and % of changes will impact that variable, instead of just guessing around, which soooo many threads are doing on nr.com lately.

[brandon429]

just to show extremes of water changes, something far easier in a pico than even a nano, Ive done weekly 100% changes for years and years and have never found one stressed animal at all but then again I don't keep fish. I leave the tank EMERSED while I scrape microalgae, usually 1-3 minutes every single week, with polyps dangling wet in the wind, it would make an average reefer cringe who doesn't really know the adaptive limits of their animals.

 

You won't kill your fish with them either, but no doubt someone who has not killed a fish with a large water change will chime in soon that this will happen. Im sure some sensitive fish could be stressed, but they will die soon (relatively) in a nano vs leaving them in the ocean so what's a few month's difference?

 

When people comment about stressing the animals or the coral, Im wondering how stressed they already are not living in the ocean and instead being stuck in our shoeboxes long term? I think stress comes with the picture, and they are tough enough to adapt, so the percentage of water changed and how often (to me) has never been dictated by animal stress, its how often I want to jack with my tank (least amount possible).

 

For any tank under five gallons, where you are using the blue jugs to makeup your change water, it never made since to me to use only 1/3 of the bucket when you could have just dumped it all in. Large water changes do not stress anything I've seen, and there are no specific animals listed in Randy's article for us to watch out for.

 

ps, for the sponges someone is about to mention those shouldn't be in a nano anyway lol