Can you do too many water changes

[TBone303]

Is it possiable to do too many water changes. My plan is to preform 2 / 30% water changes per week to battle my hair Algae problem and plus I hate dosing my tank with trace elements. Can changing my water so often be detrimental to my tank.

 

 

TBone303:blush:

[kimura]

Well I've done that before, but with 20% and changing it everyother day. But I wouldn't add any other trace elements that's not already in your saltwater mix. I not too sure what you're adding in but you may start to add too much. I would imagine that it would be hard constantly try and test your water parameters. Just stick with the water changes for now with no trace elements. You don't want to do water changes again for having too much trace elements.

[Catspa]

in theory no, in practise yes. Problem with major frequent water changes, is that you will most likely, inadvertently, be causeing fluxuations in PH, and salinity. - depending on what you have, this may not be a big prob - but many specimis are senitive to these changes, and this will cause stress - wich will lead to probs.

Changes in overall PH of 0.3 can cause major probs, same goes for salinity.

I'd recomend not doing it, i'd get some phosphate remove - i've had lots of luck with it, but it takes time. Pick out as much of the hair as you can, use the phosphate remover, and make sure your not overfeeding, then give it a 3-4 weeks, and i think you'll find that it will be under control. Another possible solution is a Lettuce Sea Slug (Lettuce or Green Nubi) - just got one yesterday, and he's gobling up my hair.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I do a 1 gallon daily change on my 20 and everything is liking it just fine. I would be cautious though of the trace element dosing unless you KNOW your salt mix is low. A 1 gallon/20 gallon tank daily change keeps my iodide level good.

 

The pH changes constantly through out the day, if I were you I would do your small water change just before the lights go out as this is the time when your pH will be its highest, pH will be lowest just before the lights come back on.

[sjpresley]

How old is your tank? Usually tanks go through a real ugly hair algae phase at around1-3 months. Just be patient, try to keep your nutrient levels down (which shouldn't be a problem because there shouldnt' be too much in the tank then anyway).

 

A little phosguard will help with phosphates and is cheaper, easier, and less stressful to your charges than constant water changes.

 

If your tank is not young, I would suggest diagnosing the cause of your algae and fixing the problem, which in the long run will be much easier, effective, and cheaper than treating the symptoms on a constant basis. If your tank is young, just be patient, let your clean up crew do their job and it'll clear up.

 

Alternatively, you could use a fish grazer. Unless your tank is less than 10G a bicolor blenny will give you a hand controlling the algae. If you tank is larger a lawnmower blenny, black blenny, etc. could help too. Just remember to feed them some nori daily after they eat the place clean.

 

On another note, why do you hate dosing trace elements? That is effectively what you are doing if you do constant water changes simply to maintain Ca. or iodine. I know for a fact Kent's calcium and iodine supplements raise the respective levels, because I have fooled with my dosing regimen while testing. And they are cheaper and easier to use than mixing saltwater and dragging out the bucket all the time.

[Dave ESPI]

It is all about pollution controll. Some tanks don't need a w/c but once a month, others need them once a week. When ###### goes wrong, I change lots of water as a preventative, but always let the tank become used to major amounts of W/C first by doing smaller numeropus W/C over a few days. its a "waste" of salt" but not a "waste" of a life IME/HO.