Water Change

[hammad]

since i dont have RO system therefore i add 2 to 3 liters water in my sump due to evaporation.
since new water is added in my tank...Do i still need to change partial water of my tank or not? if yes then how much water and after how many days?
regards

 

[flower]

Hello,
What you added due to evaporation is called topping off. It's done only to keep the water level of SG the same. A water change is a swap of old water for new mixed saltwater...which replaces the elements absorbed by the critters that live in the tank, and removes unwanted build up of such things as nitrates and phosphates.
RO water is such a must, or you will have big problems in your future if you keep using tap water. At all costs you need to find a way to get your own unit or find a place where you can get it and fill some jugs up.
Most do a water change once a month. The longer you go... the larger the water change. For example on a 100g tank.... if you do a daily water change a gallon is perfect, if you do a weekly water change then 10g (1%) is a good swap, but if you wait a whole month then 33g (1/3) would be the amount to swap. Unless there is a sever problem such as an ammonia or nitrite spike, I woud not recommend more than 1/3 water change at one time.

 

[hammad]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476487
Hello,
What you added due to evaporation is called topping off. It's done only to keep the water level of SG the same. A water change is a swap of old water for new mixed saltwater...which replaces the elements absorbed by the critters that live in the tank, and removes unwanted build up of such things as nitrates and phosphates.
RO water is such a must, or you will have big problems in your future if you keep using tap water. At all costs you need to find a way to get your own unit or find a place where you can get it and fill some jugs up.
Most do a water change once a month. The longer you go... the larger the water change. For example on a 100g tank.... if you do a daily water change a gallon is perfect, if you do a weekly water change then 10g (1%) is a good swap, but if you wait a whole month then 33g (1/3) would be the amount to swap. Unless there is a sever problem such as an ammonia or nitrite spike, I woud not recommend more than 1/3 water change at one time.
thanks for the reply, well i added manually RO water in my tank....... i dont have RO system connected with display tank.
Should i remove water from the sump and add same quantity of new water in sump or should I change water from tank directly?
please advise

 

[beaslbob]

FWIW water changes alone will not maintain anything in our tanks. Which is why we need to dose calcium, alk, magnesium, drip kalk, run calcium reactors and the like.
See my old discussion here
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/369985/beaslbobs-water-change-analysis
to me what is important is to balance out the system so as much as possible things simply don't change. I used macro algaes plus crushed oyster shells in a wet/dry filter plus the diy two part. The tank (a 55g) ran for years with no water changes, heavy bioload, some corals, and unmeasureable nitrates and phosphates.
Just my .02

 

[mr. limpid]

Hey Beaslbob, did you use the crushed oyseter shells as the wet /dry media or did you just have in the bottom like a sand bed?

 

[beaslbob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476770
Hey Beaslbob, did you use the crushed oyseter shells as the wet /dry media or did you just have in the bottom like a sand bed?
Let me describe my highly technical, difficult to build wet/dry. It was a wastbasket with the bottom cut out and replaced with plastic window screen.
I filled it with crushed oyster shells, then a window screen, some landscape lava rocks, and a small tupperware plastic tub to spread the draining water out. The water drained to the wastbasket directly from the display and it emptied out to a refugium. Every 6 months or so it would clog up and I would rinse the top screen or shells.
I had crushed coral in sand in my substrate. but in decades past some would use a mix of sand and oyster shells.
The oyster shells were from a feed and seed store to feed chicken and cost about $8 for 40 pounds. One bag lasted for years. calcium increased from 320-350 to over 400ppm in a few weeks but then alk started dropping down. So I eventually wound up doing the diy 2 part anyway.
So as a direct answer the shells were the filter material in my diy wet dry.
my .02
oh yea BTW the wastbasket full of wet shells was very heavy. LOL

 

[mr. limpid]

Quote:
Originally Posted by beaslbob http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476790
Let me describe my highly technical, difficult to build wet/dry. It was a wastbasket with the bottom cut out and replaced with plastic window screen.
I filled it with crushed oyster shells, then a window screen, some landscape lava rocks, and a small tupperware plastic tub to spread the draining water out. The water drained to the wastbasket directly from the display and it emptied out to a refugium. Every 6 months or so it would clog up and I would rinse the top screen or shells.
I had crushed coral in sand in my substrate. but in decades past some would use a mix of sand and oyster shells.
The oyster shells were from a feed and seed store to feed chicken and cost about $8 for 40 pounds. One bag lasted for years. calcium increased from 320-350 to over 400ppm in a few weeks but then alk started dropping down. So I eventually wound up doing the diy 2 part anyway.
So as a direct answer the shells were the filter material in my diy wet dry.
my .02
oh yea BTW the wastbasket full of wet shells was very heavy. LOL
I total agree with your design some time the simplest and the basic works the best. I had a similar system 20 years ago, glass trays filled with crush coral and shells. I converted to a new system after I remodeled the basement. The old sump was messy from salt spray put did a better job of keeping prams, as long as you cleaned it and changed out media. I enjoyed re-reading your elephant water change thread, I was here when you first wrote and enjoyed it back then too. I understand the concept, my understanding is if you test for the depleted minerals and have the correct items growing in your system to removal unwanted elements, there is no need for water changes. I don't so I do water changes in hope to keep up with it, so far so good. You have inspired me to add crushed coral and shells to my sump.

 

[mr. limpid]

WOW beaslbob, after reading that article I'm even a stronger believer in testing. I'm going to start test my water mix salt, aways test PH but now I will test for all prams. I didn't know that water changes could be a bad thing, if not testing it first. The one thing that wasn't brought up was the removal of nitrates by macro algae. Is alkalinity return if macro's consume the nitrates?

 

[hammad]

Quote:
Originally Posted by beaslbob http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476790
Let me describe my highly technical, difficult to build wet/dry. It was a wastbasket with the bottom cut out and replaced with plastic window screen.
I filled it with crushed oyster shells, then a window screen, some landscape lava rocks, and a small tupperware plastic tub to spread the draining water out. The water drained to the wastbasket directly from the display and it emptied out to a refugium. Every 6 months or so it would clog up and I would rinse the top screen or shells.
I had crushed coral in sand in my substrate. but in decades past some would use a mix of sand and oyster shells.
The oyster shells were from a feed and seed store to feed chicken and cost about $8 for 40 pounds. One bag lasted for years. calcium increased from 320-350 to over 400ppm in a few weeks but then alk started dropping down. So I eventually wound up doing the diy 2 part anyway.
So as a direct answer the shells were the filter material in my diy wet dry.
my .02
oh yea BTW the wastbasket full of wet shells was very heavy. LOL
can u please show me the picture of this method?
thanks

 

[snakeblitz33]

Bob, could you explain the reason why your calcium would increase and your alkalinity would decrease with this method? Would alkalinity decrease if you were using a different medium - such as crushed coral - or even just your basic crushed aragonite?

 

[acrylic51]

Crushed coral will do very little for buffering affect on your system

 

[snakeblitz33]

I know that acrylic. Lol. I just dont understand how oyster shells could provide all the calcium needs for the tank but lower alkalinity. Just curious.

 

[beaslbob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Limpid http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476912
WOW beaslbob, after reading that article I'm even a stronger believer in testing. I'm going to start test my water mix salt, aways test PH but now I will test for all prams. I didn't know that water changes could be a bad thing, if not testing it first. The one thing that wasn't brought up was the removal of nitrates by macro algae. Is alkalinity return if macro's consume the nitrates?
Been a little while since I posted here and I was surprised by the responses.
Glad you enjoyed the galloping elephants.
The alk return was in a dr holmes-farley article on alk or nitrates in marine aquariums. What happens is alk is used up by the h+ ions generated in the ammonia->nitrites->nitrates aerobic bacteria cycle. Then as nitrates are reduced by either plant action or anaerobic bacteria (dsb) the alk is returned in the same amount as was used up. Unfortunately I couldn't find that article a few weeks ago. And your alk would probably decrease overall as calcium/alk is used up.
IMHO pH is the least important parameter to test but I did have a pH drop in a cycling tank the degraded everything. Once I added macro algaes pH rose to as stayed above 8.4 api high range test kit.
my .02

 

[beaslbob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammad http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476950
can u please show me the picture of this method?
thanks
Actually no. tank was take down 2 years ago when we got a new house. It did run for 7-8 years before that with no water changes.
There are some old pictures on another site but this site is much better.
my .02

 

[beaslbob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/391804/water-change#post_3476967
Bob, could you explain the reason why your calcium would increase and your alkalinity would decrease with this method? Would alkalinity decrease if you were using a different medium - such as crushed coral - or even just your basic crushed aragonite?
Possibility.
I was using IO salt and calcium rose from 350 to 420 or so over three weeks. alk went from 4 meg/l to under 2 over a couple months.
The added calcium lowered alk and vice versa balance.
I also has play sand with crushed coral on top.
I also noticed that pH dropped from 8.4+ to 7.9 at night just before lights on.
I speculate that the alk dropped, so the nighttime pH which then dissolved some calcium. And that could have even been stable in that if calcium consumption increased, the pH dropped lower at night and returned more calcium to the system.
But eventually I did the diy two part and the higher alk seemed to prevent the nightly pH drop. So the oyster shells became just a filter media.
my .02