How do YOU do water changes?

I'm doing water changes once like every 6 weeks on my nano, 5g at a time I just use 2x5 gallon water buckets that they sell at the LFS, I actually buy my SW and bring it in since I have no where to setup a ro/di here and keep a reserve of water

Other than that I just measure and dose, the only thing I dose is B-Ionic though since calc is really the only thing I ever see get low, filtration on the tank is just the micro-sponges and carbon

My 58g I do a 10g change once a month same concept but 0 dosing since it's just softies and the rbta which just split a few days ago for the first time, it was huge, probably a good foot across before it split, even the 2 in there now are pretty big

 

I like your method, luvsreef. I did read somewhere though that tiny, frequent changes are not as effective as large water changes....say, 25% or so (at a time) done less frequently. In the article, they did a bunch of calculations that (of course!) I didn't understand but the bottom line was, more fresh SW was actually getting swapped out with the large changes than the small over the same length of time. Any one else remember this article or have any thoughts on this? Kas

 

I have a 40gal reef tank that I've had up for five months now and have not done a water change. Toadstool leathers,mushrooms,zoas,and kenya trees are doing great. Filtration is just a Hagen AquaClear Power/Hang-On Filter and a Red Sea skimmer. About 30 lbs live rock and about 4" Live sand bed.
A Koralia 1 to move some water around.
No fish.

 

Well, i have quite a few fish, I also have clams, acro's, and montipora. I rather be safe than sorry.

Kas, i cant see how doing less frequent is actually less than if i did it all at once. Maybe cause im taking less fish waste out per water change cause i never give it the chance to become a decent amount? Im sticking to my method, couldnt be happier with my results.

 

I do water changes. Not really with any set frequency. I do them as I vacuum the sand whenever I feel its looking kinda dirty (maybe about bi-weekly?). Usually about a 10% change or less.
My method is oldschool. Water removed with a good old fashioned gravel vacuum. I have 2 1 gallon epmty gator-ade jugs I fill up with the water and carry over. Its not really that bad since I only do 4-5 gallons at the most per change.

 

I do a 5g water chang every week. I have a 5g bucket with RO mixing overnight, then I take an empty 5g bucket siphon water from the display. Then I set the fresh SW on top of the old SW and siphon it into my sump. Water change usually take about 15 minutes, unless I poke around and clean the sand but I only do that about once a month. I went for about 2 months without a water change because I had heard of people not doing them, but I began to see a lot of algae growth and as soon as I started the changes again I saw an immediate decrease in algae and now its all gone.

 

friday nights after work instead of going to the bar i make 5 gallons of rodi water with the salt already in the bucket,{i do my glass scraping at this time}stir it up,while its spinning i usually add my calcium etc for the week and a touch of food for the corals, then with the other bucket i drain out 5 gallons from the tank and then pour the new stuff right in the sump,, i keep a pretty high water level in my sump{30 breeder} so i don't have to shut anything off. the whole process takes about 2hours but an hour and fifty five minutes of that is making the water,then its another two plus hours making top off water for the week.

 

i read that article,i think anthony calfo wrote it and its somewhere on wetweb media? they approached it in terms of changing water specifically to remove nitrate, and yes big large ones are more efficient as far as changing water goes but they didnt discuss the shock to the animals as larger ones obviously change parameters much faster and really raise hell with a dosing regimine wich is why i stick with small weekly ones,also in my case routine is important i can stick to once a week every week but if i tried once a month it would just never get done,

 

couldnt tell by looking at all my sps's. have you tested the salt used to make for water changes? do they have all 70 elements in the correct amount?

no water change, no swing, constant stable conditions, and yes, success

 

The article I read was not about removing nitrates, etc but rather to find out how much water is actually swapped doing a large change vs smaller more frequent changes. From the replies posted to my question, it makes sense to do smaller, more frequent changes.....less stress to fish and corals. I have 75g and 210g tanks and want to make the job less stressing....for the tank and for me. I'm getting lots of good ideas from your replies! Thanks everyone! Kas