how often should I do a water change

Getting my nuvo up and going. Along with skimming, I will have gfo, carbon, chemi pure, chaeto and the sponges it came with. How often and how many gallons should I do for water changes?

 

10% every two weeks or 20% monthly are the basics. It is adjusted depending on either how many fish you have or how often you feed. How big is your system?

 

Sounds about right, tank is the nuvo 30 aio. Still buying all my equipment as for stocking,, undecided. 4 fish max. I was going to do monthly wc, but I thought that seemed too long for a nano tank. My only exp is with big tanks this will be my first nano thank you for the advice.

 

The best tanks I see do weekly WCs

 

With a nano I would suggest weekly 10%. I've never had a nano but I know they are inherently harder to keep stable due to the smaller volume.

 

Alright I have an rodi unit anway, just alot more work doing weekly wc's. Oh well thanks for the help huys really appreciate it. Cant wait for all my equipment to get here, tanks going to be awesome.

 

Wishing you the best and hope to see that build thread soon.

 

"every week" or "every two weeks" is arbitrary.

Water Change has two purposes. To replenish trace elements and remove waste.

Your nitrate/phosphate levels should tell you how often you need to do a WC to remove waste. Depending on your stock and feeding habits and other maintenance, this could be as high as daily to annually really. If you can maintain 0 nitrates/phosphates via other means, then there is no reason to do a WC for it. IMO, a WC to remove waste is a band-aid and does not address underlying maintenance/husbandry/etc issues.

I have seen 0 evidence that trace elements are depleted in a week, so I find replenishing them a very dubious argument. If you don't dose the main three (Ca, Alk, Mg) then by all means WC to maintain those. If you do dose them, then a WC is only about the trace elements. In this case, I have found my coral will slow down after about 4 months. I suspect that's how long it takes trace elements to deplete to low enough levels after a 10% WC.


If you have a small tank and are worried about stability, all the more reason to dose your main three and do fewer WC. WC is the opposite of stable.

I think the opinion that "nice tanks" do weekly is incidental and highly subjective.

Of course, issues come up that demand frequent WC. I am only talking about normal routine here. If you're fighting some issue, then the rules change.

Good luck
P

 

Here is a tip for water changes that has helped me. Make up new saltwater at the end of a water change so its ready whenever you want to do another. This increased my frequency.

 

I've been doing 5 gallon bi-weekly in my 29 gallon. I'm not dosing, and I'm fowlr for now, corals soon.