>Water stays good?

[beaver]

I have had my 29 gal up about 9 weeks now and so far every thing is goine very well. My question is this. If my water peramaters are good.. should I still do a water change every week? My ammonia is always zero, my nitrites are always zero and my nitrates where at 30 last week, this week at 20... (no water change done in 3 weeks). It seems every one talks of weekly water changes. I would assume that my setup is no better then any ones. Cheep jebo skimmer, 25 pounds LR, in tank fuge, So what gives? :thinking:

 

[reefnut]

What kind of water are you using to make up the salt water??
My system is going on 2 1/2 years old and still gets weekly water changes!! Both nitrates and phosphates are undectable... have been for years.

 

[trainfever]

Water changes do not need to be done weekly. They should be done monthly. Most people do a small water change every week or every other week because it is less stressful on the fish to do a small water change verses a large water change. By small I mean a 10% and a large change would be 20%. The reason for doing a water change is not only to remove the nitrates but also to replace the trace elements that are being used up. So by not doing regular water changes, you are letting your trace elements be depleted which could be harmful to your fish and corals.

 

[darth tang]

I have always wondered, when everyone talks about replacing trace elements, are they referring to the elements that exist in the water naturally or the elements added to the water by mixing in the salt?

 

[reefnut]

Originally Posted by Darth Tang
I have always wondered, when everyone talks about replacing trace elements, are they referring to the elements that exist in the water naturally or the elements added to the water by mixing in the salt?
The trace elements are in the salts. Synthetic salts are made to "try" to replicate natural sea water with all the same elements at the same levels. Ideally the water would be RO/DI water which would be free from ALL elements.

 

[beaver]

I use RO/DI water from LFS. Since I havent been changeing water I have added trace elements a few times. I planed to do that every other week or so. Other then that I add PH buffer.. use to have low ph. I add Calcium also when it drops below 450ppm. Thats all I have been doing.

 

[mudplayerx]

The danger of doing monthly water changes instead of weekly ones stems from miscalculation. For instance, most people that do monthly water changes replace 20% of the tanks volume. This is borderline stressful for the critters. Take into account that most people don't subtract the volume of substrate and live rock from the total tank volume when calculating 20%.... it is quite possible they are actually changing way more than 20% of the actual water.

 

[pensky]

I have been doing a 20% water change or more to my tank every week 29gal with 6gal water changes. when you take into affect the 25#LR and 40#LS it is much more than 20%. I quess I should stop that OPPS :notsure:

 

[reefnut]

IMO monthly water changes are more effective than weekly changes... for me it's just that weekly changes are easier.
pensky, if it works for your tank... go with it. There is no way anyone can say xx% will stress your tank. When I was running my 6g I did 1g a week which is 17% per-week without taking out accounting for the rocks and sand and it did GREAT. I do think you could get by with less though, assuming you have the filtration.

 

[acrylic51]

Yeah need to do water changes