Water Changes Every Day....What Do You Think?

bigjohn

New Member
Please offer your suggestion, even if you agree with other people. I work out of my home so time is not an issue. Is it better (or equally effective) to change five gallons a day, everyday, or wait and do the regular 10-25% water change once a month. It seems that the larger water change would be more effective at removing unwanted material. I have a 125g reef tank with about 10 fish.
 

kahnsell

Member
A good local reef store owner told me that he does it that way. He said that it was the best way to keep the quality of water up w/o having to dose the tank regularly by adding the C-Balance buffer and Alk mixes daily.
However, a lot of people tell me that it is an unstable environment b/c of the new mixture every day and can "crash" easier...
I tried it, and did not notice a lot of changes. After awhile, it got to be too cumbersome considering the lack of results, and returned to the once a month/15% routine. I have a 175 reef with a bunch of fish in it as well.
Sorry I couldn't answer your question, but I'm curious as well if there is actual evidence of people who do small changes every day and notice different results...
 

sammystingray

Active Member
Very small ones everyday would be better, but most don't have the time. This would just keep it more stable...a larger less frequent change has more impact on water chemistry. 5 gallons a day seems a bit much...more like one gallon a day......5 gallons a day would be over a 100% water change every month.
 

leigh

Active Member
Even if time isn't an issue, daily water changes just seem like they'd get annoying. As Sammy said big water changes are more likely to 'shock' a system. I'm a fan of 5% weekly water changes.
 

dpdiver

Member
at 5 gallons a day that would be a small fortune in salt. Eventhough this is an expensive hobby I think I'll stick to the 15% every 2 weeks for my tank. :p
 

broomer5

Active Member
In my opinion, it depends on your reason for the water changes.
For example, if you're wanting to lower nitrate levels, or correct water quality problems ... doing larger water changes several times a month would seem more effective as mentioned above. You'll only lower the nitrate level by the percent of water exchanged with new.
Providing the new saltwater is nitrate free, and little additional nitrate is being produced in the tank.
If you do a 5% water change - you'd expect to only get a 5% drop in nitrate ( at best ).
But if you're levels are pretty good - I think doing a small daily water change would be ideal.
As long as the new saltwater is mixed/stored well, I don't see a problem.
Then again ... some will argue if the levels are pretty good to begin with .... why do the water changes ???
But as stated above, by bringing in a small amount of "new" saltwater each day, you may find that you need not dose the tank as often, that the tankwater chemistry becomes more stable and the obvious "less-shock" to the system.
I think you'd have to do this over a long period of time ( months ) before you would notice any benefits.
Kind of depends on the tank size, number and type of fish, existing water quality, evaporated top off schedule and whether you're running carbon, skimming or using a refugium too.
Lots of factors can affect "each" of our need to do water changes.
 

bigjohn

New Member
thanks everybody! I'm going to keep trying a 5g water change everyday and see what happens in a month or two.
 
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