Water Change Addiction ???

[weatherman]

Sounds kind of silly, but I have a tendency to change 10-13 gallons of water in my 150 gallon coral reef tank weekly. It doesn't bother me to do this, and the corals look great....but am wondering IF I changed 10-13 gallons every 3-5 days, WOULD THIS BE BETTER?
Can you change the water TOO FREQUENTLY or TOO OFTEN? Is more better in this case....or stick to what's working for me now?
Thanks for any suggestions or thoughts.

 

[paulcoates]

I have a Deltec skimmer and according to them:
http://www.deltecaquariumsolutions.c...ariumSetup.htm
Excessive Bubble Syndrome
We get many calls and emails from people new to the hobby or to Deltec skimmers about high levels of foaming or micro bubbles that are returning to their aquariums from their new Deltec skimmer.
This can be quite normal and is a result of the salt water that they have produced not as yet being mature enough for the high performance of the Deltec skimmers.
Many brands of salt used for aquarium water are made up from component parts to reproduce the elements found in natural sea water.
One of the additives introduced to many salts is a conditioning agent which is put in to react with heavy metals and toxins in the water and neutralise their negative effect.
The down side of these additives is that they can increase the surface tension of the water and enable bubbles to hold their form much longer than would be natural with mature salt water.
This effect obviously disappears as the water stabilises and reacts with waste in the system but until it does it causes many people concern which results in a call or an email to us.
To convince yourself of this fact just look at the bubbles in the skimmer cup. They effervesce like when you open a bottle of fizzy pop, which is not how mature water reacts in a skimmer. The bubbles also smell very clean and when you watch them in the tank you will see that they do not burst for an unusually long period of time.
Once the water has matured or the conditioners have been skimmed out then the problem will go away.
Keep in mind that Deltec is an extremely efficient skimmer and if you don't have one you may not get this problem.
Other than that, the fresher and cleaner the water, the better...

 

[murph145]

whatever routine u get into just stay in that routine....
ive tried more and less water changes and never really noticed an improvement some say more water changes is better....
IME i dont see why.... i have very efficient filtration my water is always in great condition and im always putting back the elements that are getting depleted so then i figure i dont need to do so many water changes....
on my 180G tank i do a 30G water change every month.... just my experience

 

[rbaldino]

I imagine that if you do waters changes too often and replenish certain elements faster than they're being used up, you could increase those elements to overly-high levels.

 

[ratrod]

I look at it this way, ever wonder why the tide ebbs and flows twice a day? I know there are a massive amount of great looking reefs that rarely do water changes, but dispite all the fancy equipment available water changes are the best filter and water stabling device we have. I think your water changes are fine IMO. I've been working on a double sump system for a more automated way to do water changes and quarenteen I'll post it all when it done

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by rbaldino
I imagine that if you do waters changes too often and replenish certain elements faster than they're being used up, you could increase those elements to overly-high levels.
Highly unlikely......You could do small water changes daily if you saw fit, and there would be no ill effects on the system.....Actually your tank would be more stable than doing 1 or 2 larger water changes a month....

 

[ricks280]

well, ill chuck in my 2 bobs worth . i do water changes every 2 weeks in my 280g tank and it works 4 me , than again it also must reflect on whats in the tank? if u had a few clowns u would only replca water every 12 weeks, but if u had tangs that refuse 2 stop chooing thats a different ball game , so i think it depends on your volume of water, skimmer, how much u feed and whats in d tank.

(rick) :happyfish

 

[morayeels]

weatherman
I think I am a little more of a water change freak then you. I change 5 gallons of water every day in my 90 gallon reef tank. And some time even 10 gallons a day.