Am i cutting corners on water changes?

I have a heavily stocked 90g (corals & fish) running a reactor with gfo and carbon. I have only been doing 10g water changes every 2 weeks. Will I run into issues by not doing larger water changes even though i am changing it more frequently? Parameters are good, but I just started this method on the first of this year.

 

Your routine sounds great to me Nightstick

10% every 2 weeks is great IMHO
I chose to do 5% weekly, and thats enough water being changed to replenish lost minor and trace elements IMO

so 10% every other week is the same amount of water , and thus provided everything looks happy, and your parameters are under control, I would not increase either the amount or frequency that you do

Steve

 

thanks steve, just needed reassurance and I got it! Ha

 

Sounds great to me. I only do a 20% every 6 months or so.

 

You say your parameters are good, but what does that mean?

The only reason to do water changes is to remove something or to replace something. There are many that do not do water changes. They do not need to remove anything and it is debatable what needs to be replaced.

I did large water changes... 10g a week on a 90g. Then went to maybe 10g a month. Then went to one gallon a day with a continuous water change. I never noticed any difference except the large water changes were unnecessary.

I had zero nitrates and low phosphates and everything was growing well, so why do them? I went to a daily for stability and my tank did seem a bit happier that doing the very few water changes, but even then I wondered if I even needed one gallon daily. I only did that because I was using 7 gallon jugs and it was easier to just changes bottles once a week.

Ask your self what it is you need removed, or what it is you need replaced.

 

Your tank will let you know if more or less is needed.

 

Great post. I love it when people shine the spotlight on misconceptions with factual experience.

I'm too new to the hobby to weigh. I've only done 2 water changes (tank born 11/24/10) and both were 5 gallon changes on a 29 gal tank. This last change was needed because my nitrates high. I also replaced the filter media with each WC (overkill since even the manufacturer says that is "monthly maintenance, and they always want you to buy more").

 

Nicely put.

 

I totally get that if your params are good then you should be good. But dont you think since we are emulating a small ecosystem in our homes we should change out the water from time to time? I dont dose a thingI just run gfo and carbon, but I am afraid if I stop my water changes then things might go bad... Perhaps I will cut down to 5g's every two weeks and see how that goes.