Suggested Water Change Schedule for 225?

Just as the title says.

I have a 225 with 70 gallon sump.

Nitrates are high and so is Calcium.

I'm looking for suggestions on a consistent water change schedule.

How many gallons & how often?

 

You'll get a lot of different opinions on that, mostly because there are a few factors that define the need for water changes. Those of us with smaller tanks will usually change somewhere between 10% weekly to 10% monthly, depending on stocking level, type of livestock, type(s) of filtration, etc. Ones with larger tanks typically run oversize skimmers, extra GAC and GFO and/or bio-pellets to reduce nutrients as well as dosers to add suppliments where applicable to reduce WCs as much as possible. In short, your tank will tell you how often and how much you need to change.

 

on a tank of that size, are you on a tight budget or no? cause lowering nitrates on that size is gonna mean a buncha water changes. have you thought about turning the sump into a huge refugium?

 

I typically do a water change once a week on sundays. Normally its only time im not busy and I change out 10% or more depending how i feel lol. That day I clean all my equipment like skimmer cup, but once a month clean the whole thing.

 

Is it a reef or fish only? If its a reef depending on how high the nitrates are I would say 10 - 20 percent weekly until they go down. Thats what I did in my 225 but I am also a little over stocked. If its a fish only then I would double it but since its a fish only nitrates around 20 - 30 are usually safely the norm.

 

I have a 215 and I do a 5 gallon water change every 2 days. I find that it takes about an our to fill the bucket of water depending on how old the RODI cartridges are.

This comes out to 75 gallons a month. The key point here is not for Nitrate control, but for element refreshment. IE the salt.

I like doing the small water changes because the elements in the salt get absorbed by the reef fairly quickly and I like making the replenishment on a constant basis. For those who do monthly water changes, you are allowing the elements to deplete slowly and then rapidly replenishing them. In the mean time the reef only benefits one time a month.

 

I like the 5 gallon every 2 days idea! I really want to rig up a way to take out and add water easily so I dont have to remove the lid.

 

This is a new tank right... do you have that skimmer hooked up yet. Calcium is easy to take care of... water changes as a means to lower nitrates works, but takes a lot of water... much much easier to lower nitrates other ways.