big tank water change

goldenboy

goldenboy

Member
I have a 240g tank and do a weekly water change of 10g or so. I've been pretty regular about this, but my top off due to evaporation is around 10-15g per week. Does the 20% water change rule apply to this scenerio? I'm a little lazy and would like to cut it down to about 10% a month.
 
viper_930

viper_930

Active Member
Top-offs do not count towards the water changes. It doesn't replace the needed elements like iodine, magnesium, etc. I'd recommend doing 10% weekly water changes, or 25% monthly.
 
goldenboy

goldenboy

Member
Originally Posted by ViPeR_930
Top-offs do not count towards the water changes. It doesn't replace the needed elements like iodine, magnesium, etc. I'd recommend doing 10% weekly water changes, or 25% monthly.

But can't I just add trace elements, iodine, and stronium? I have a ridiculous amount of LR to help with filtration. Somewhere in the 400-500 lbs range.
 
latino277

latino277

Member
Dude.... if your getting lazy with it..... it's going to show in one way, shape, form or fashon! I would just contiue the coarse you've been taking
 
dskidmore

dskidmore

Active Member
Originally Posted by goldenboy
But can't I just add trace elements, iodine, and stronium? I have a ridiculous amount of LR to help with filtration. Somewhere in the 400-500 lbs range.
Where do you think those elements are going? Fish/Corals/Plants ingest stuff in water, convert stuff to diffrent stuff. Diffrent stuff needs to be removed, and origional stuff replaced. Do you have a magic formula for removing diffrent stuff from the water?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Don't skimp on the weekly water changes!!!!!! Use a python to drain the water and if you don't want to lug buckets of water to the tank get a sump pump and drop into your water vat and pump the water back into the tank that way. It's super easy that way, and actually pretty lazy on my part!!!!!!
 
robchuck

robchuck

Active Member
Originally Posted by ViPeR_930
Top-offs do not count towards the water changes. It doesn't replace the needed elements like iodine, magnesium, etc. I'd recommend doing 10% weekly water changes, or 25% monthly.
Top-offs in place of water changes also don't remove wastes from the water.
 
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