How often do you do water changes?

[lennon]

Hi everyone

..Just getting ready to decide which size tank to do..larger 55 or the nano's. But I heard some with 55 gallons get away with monthly water changes.ONCE ESTABLISHED..I know..not in the beginning.
Does anyone get away with this in a nano tank?
I will add a refugium and sump even on the smaller size. So I plan to maintain it well.
Please, anyone who reads this..just respond with your maintenance schedule..Pretty please.
That will help me decide..
Thanks much!!
p.s. please..no lectures on how you can't get something for nothing and all about being dedicated..I know all about that. I am just looking for honesty on the maintenance just to get an idea and see how successful a nano or small tank can be..thanks again!

 

[fallinmor]

no the most u could go on a nano is a week. most people do daily but it depends on the size of the nano like a 10 gallon u could do a water change every 2 weeks, but like any thing less like a 5 gallon or a one gallon normaly everyday. usualy nano's smaller then 10 gallon don't last cuz of the pain of taking care of them.

 

[bigarn]

With my 10 gallon reef system.... Weekly 1 gallon water changes, Weekly or bi-weekly filter cleaning and change, and of course just to stay ahead of things, every 2 days I clean the front glass with the ole magfloat. No additives since the start ... and 14 months later no problems.

 

[mike_cmu04]

On my 12 gal nano i changed about 3 gallons of water and cleaned the filter every 3 weeks and never had problems.

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by Lennon
Hi everyone

..Just getting ready to decide which size tank to do..larger 55 or the nano's. But I heard some with 55 gallons get away with monthly water changes.ONCE ESTABLISHED..I know..not in the beginning.
Does anyone get away with this in a nano tank?
I will add a refugium and sump even on the smaller size. So I plan to maintain it well.
Please, anyone who reads this..just respond with your maintenance schedule..Pretty please.
That will help me decide..
Thanks much!!
p.s. please..no lectures on how you can't get something for nothing and all about being dedicated..I know all about that. I am just looking for honesty on the maintenance just to get an idea and see how successful a nano or small tank can be..thanks again!
Lennon, Ok no lecture.

Ha! The smaller he tank, the harder it is to keep because the water volume is so small. Larger is always better. It goes like this; If a fish dies in a small tank, the quality of the water will suffer. If a fish dies in a larger tank, there is more water so ultimately little to no change in water quality.
Back to water changes, like said before the quality of the water IS everything. Water changes replenishes all the trace elements that get lost to evaporation and consumption.

 

[hot883]

On my 55 gal. I change 7 gallons a week. On every thursday, EVERY Thurs. Just what I do. and have great success. HTH

 

[lennon]

Lennon, Ok no lecture.

Ha! QUOTE]
lol..
I guess everyone is different. I know some on the board who change their 65's once a month with success. So hopefully maybe I can do once every 2 weeks.
We'll see..
Thanks for everyones advise!!

 

[debbie]

My 10 gal I do changes every 10 days religiously after trying to do that "once a month" thing and crashed my tank.....

Won't do that again...nope....

 

[the reef]

on my 72 gallon and my 80 gallon I change 10 gallons every 2 weeks and twice a week I clean the filters on them I have two fluval 404 filters instead of a sump and have had no problems doing so when I clean out my filters each holds about 1.5 gallons so that is an extra 6 gallons a week and when I change the 10 gallons I suck up the watter from the sand and when I change the filter I use the watter that was in the filter to rinse my media with
sticking with a nice routine is going to work out in the long run so dont say oh my nitrates are not up yet I think I will wait to do a change
I stick with a routine as well as how long my media lasts as well I have a scedual on my computer that tells me when I need to change the next carbon, sponge, nitrate media, phosphate media, I do a smaller amout of carbon now so I change that once a week and the sponges I change every 6 weeks and the nitrate media I change every 2 months and my phosphate media I change every 3 months but I have it set up where I only change half of each so I dont loose to much of the bacteria colony
routine matinence will be the best bet for salt watter as well as routine testing I test all the parameters twice a week and the ph and sg daily

 

[lennon]

Originally Posted by mike_cmu04
On my 12 gal nano i changed about 3 gallons of water and cleaned the filter every 3 weeks and never had problems.
Every 3 weeks sounds much better to me.
I cant imagine doing water changes every week. LIke I said, I understand in the beginning...but not forever. But I will do what it takes according to the tests.
Thanks for the advise everyone!

 

[lennon]

Originally Posted by mike_cmu04
On my 12 gal nano i changed about 3 gallons of water and cleaned the filter every 3 weeks and never had problems.
That sounds good. What kind of filtration do you use? Can you give me brand names?
is it a reef?

 

[fishmamma]

I have a 16 and a 29 gallon. No sub, no fuge but do run skimmers. I do water changes every 7-14 days, on average every ten unless I have added new stock then I do weekly for the next couple of weeks to be on the safe side. My nitrates hover around 5 with this schedule. I change the filters in my HOB out every 2 weeks and also run a poly. Both tanks are fully stocked.

 

[diane4]

I change all my 5 fresh water tanks every week with about 65%.
My 2 saltwater tanks, depending upon how they look 10-20% every week, with an occaisional skip to every 2 weeks.
We like to feed, so we do the clean up more often than most.

 

[lennon]

Does having a sump help with this? I am not sure if I should do a sump or hang on filters?