i started doing 10% water changes for the first year when I started. I stopped doing water changes ever since and its been at least 4 years+ since my last water change. I run a carx and dose red sea trace abcd with quarterly ati icp testings.
What salt mix you use?
- Thread starter ReeferRey
- Start date
What are you doing for nutrient export?
nothing. i run high par with high nutrients. i dont grow any chaeto. just a large skimmer and a ton of media blocks.
ask @Srt4eric how many blocks he counted last time.
Too many to count.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
You change 20 gallons weekly for the IM75?
I do 15-20 each week in my 300xl
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
Why is that?
I feed a lot. I have a mixing station. It's easy.
divewsharks
Supporting Member
I have used many different salts over the years. Been using TM Pro the last 5 at least; main reason is how clean and quickly it mixes, so little residue in the mixing container.
JustinBolton
Supporting Member
And let’s be honest, nothing feels better than doing a nice large water change.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
I agree with that. I just feel these larger water changes on a weekly basis would be a tool to fix things vs a standard measure. However, I recognize you all feed a ton so I can see that this is a better way to control nutrients than using GFO or excessive amounts of LC. I have just not seen this as a general practice tbh and was thinking of its value. Also, I do actually the same for the nano tank at the moment which has excessive phopshates (0.3) despite feeding once a week.
JustinBolton
Supporting Member
I like the fact I can see all the crap and ditritus in the sand disappear. I do 30 gal biweekly for my 220gal system. Tried AWC and never found my tank “as clean” as when I did manual siphons. Now one could argue go bare bottom but that’s not my style. Nothing bad came from doing large water
Changes (assuming parameters are close)
Changes (assuming parameters are close)
My nano struggled with phosphates for the longest time (0.3-0.4), (large) weekly water changes didn’t do much, passive GFO was a waste of time and I now use LC to maintain 0.05.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
Strongly agree on the reason for water changes in a tank with substrate - at least 50% is to clean the substrate - not something AWC can do as convenient as it might seem. Bare bottom can and does work in some instances but it takes out a lot of the fun with all the critters which live there.
Re phosphate: Mine only has one fish so the phosphate is not justified really. Could be the lack of good skimmers for nano tanks - like a nano Reef Octopus or Deltec. But it just tells me that moving (saturated) rock from established tanks might not be what i will be doing going forward (another thing I am not seeing folks in Europe doing which is very common here).