Water Changes ?

aquareef123

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Is it possible to do to much of a water change. I have not been able to keep up on this for a little while do to so many crazy things going on lattly. But I'm back up on it now. just wondering is a 50% or more water change to much at one time. 65 gal tank, 30 gal sump. sps, lps, zoas and polys.
 

Ladipyg

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Yeah...I think that's just a little much unless you do it very slowly...30% would be better and than get in the habit of doing it regularly. I have pretty much the same set up as you, 65 gallon bowfront with a 30 gallon sump/fuge. I do a 5 gallon water change daily...it's easy as pie...5 gallons out, 5 in and I'm done. I keep a water storage tank filled with mixed saltwater, a pump and heater. I have a Maxi-jet 1200 powerhead with some tubing attached plugged into a powerstrip (easy on and off) I blow any gunk off the rocks with a turkey baster and as it makes its was to the sump, I put the powerhead in the sump, turn it on with the power strip and pump out 5 gallons of funky water. Turn off (that's where the power strip is handy...no yanking on plugs..just push a button) Pull out the Maxi, put it in the clean water and pump 5 clean gallons back in. This means I am changing 35 gallons of water a week, but it only takes a couple of minutes a day.
I believe the NUMBER 1 thing we can do for our tanks to keep them pristine and the colors bright is regular, small, consistent water changes. Since I started doing this the colors on all my corals, SPS, LPS, zoas, etc have exploded...so has growth. And instead of having to block out an hour or so to get things done, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes...everyone can spare 5 or 10 minutes.
Just make sure you check the salinity of the water so that there is no evaporation in the saltwater holding tank and you pump in the water at a higher salt concentration. Add a little fresh RO/DI water or whatever you use to get things matched up.
If it's hard to do or time consuming, we put it off...a couple of minutes a day is easy and your tank will love you for it.
 

Frank

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my theory

Last summer my boss had me working65 70 hrs week. The tank went south my rbta got small, my leathers got small, my nitrates went above any scale I could find. I have a 65 gallon. I changed 30 gallons ever 2 to 3 days for almost 2 weeks. I noticed within days of starting this, things were looking up. When i got my nitrates back to under 30PPM my RBTA started to split my leaters got huge and everthing started to grow like crazy. I have zoas, palys, colt all types of coral they were about dead. I did not loose one item. I made sure the temp was the same, salinity the same and had an air pump in the make up water. I am not looking forward to this summer. Good luyck and I hope all goes well:angel: with you.
 
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aquareef123

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Thanks for the replys. I did do 30 gal. will probly do a few more smaller ones over the next week. The good thing I was able to remove most of the algae that has grown lately. Think my corals will thank me. Now I hope I'll be able to keep up on things.
 
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