What are the benefits of water changes? | #AskBRStv

[randyBRS]

Reefers,

Since Ryan was sick this week and couldn't finish his Tank Maintenance Rhythm video for the BRS/WWC Series, I thought I'd explore a very common question we see asked throughout the reefing hobby pertaining to the value of water changes.

Hopefully this helps to highlight some of the benefits to doing water changes.

 

[Whiskeyboy84]

Thanks for the video as always @randyBRS I follow you guys and love what y’all are doing I modeled my first ever build a 200g DT off the BRS160 build an went with a Triton style custom built sump all in all I am quite pleased wished I wouldn’t have gone with the AP700 lighting though! But back on topic I run a calcium reactor and do minimal water changes probably 10% weekly and haven’t had any issues with the softies I keep I like the movement plus I tried acros and bleached them in two days time so I figure I will stick to easier corals until I get better at reefing!!

 

[Lor]

when you say 10% weekly, 20% biweekly, where do you base the water volume? water in display + sump water - rocks?

 

[randyBRS]

when you say 10% weekly, 20% biweekly, where do you base the water volume? water in display + sump water - rocks?

That's pretty much the general calculation, but it's really an estimate more than anything. Like for my 93gal cube, I would just do 15gal each week because three buckets was easy to manage.

 

[chad vossen]

I would like to see the theoretical math vs. actual math of an automatic water change.

Test tank would be a bare reservoir. Dose copper to 2.5ppm, double tested with a hanna checker. Perform automatic water changes with a Neptune Dos and test the copper levels to determine the % of copper removed via water change, and compare to the % of water volume passed through the system. That would tell us what a 50% auto water change actually is, for example.

 

[Burrito]

if my salt mix is at levels are slightly out of where i want my levels in general, could i just dose my NSW container used for auto water changes vs dosing straight into the tank everyday? i do 1.5g changes every night on my 100g