Max Water Changes?

d2mini

Reef enthusiast
What's the max amount of water changes you can do without the chance of harming inhabitants or creating cycles? Both % of tank volume and frequency.
 
i would say no more than 5% every day or no more than 40% once a week and the only reason i would do a 405 change out is if there was something really wrong
 
I would say 10% - 25% ,anything more then this you should do over a period of time like every 2-3 days for about a week. Then let you tank recover for a couple of weeks before any more water changes are done. Little at a time is a much better way to go there less of a chance of things going wrong.Only change more then 25% if you absolutely have to.
 
I've done a 50% water change before, with no adverse effects on my tank...the way I see it is the larger the change, the more the dillution, but no more than 50%.
 
while i would agree that larger changes do infact provide better dilution of things in the water in your tank, think about this, your in a hot tub, then all of a sudden, someone walks by and drops in a single 10 pound bag of ice, you might feel a cool spot for a few min, but little if anything, now, lets say replace half of the hot tubs total volume with ice, now your gonna jump up.

Your fish dont have the option to leave the hot tub to get away from the change.

Personally, i wouldnt do more than 20% per week,(in a single shot) unless you have a really good reason, or say 5-10% every 3rd or 4th day...

the main idea here is to change things more slowly so as to not stress anyone out.

The other thing to think about is just how close the "new" water is when compared to the "old" water, if its exactly the same SG, and exactly the same temp, then i would say that you can go with higher % changes, cause it will cause less stress.

Just my thoughts, YMMV
 
Personally, i wouldnt do more than 20% per week,(in a single shot) unless you have a really good reason, or say 5-10% every 3rd or 4th day...

Trust me, i'm not one to WANT to bother with a water change so I'll look to do as little as possible. But I'm trying to hit this algae outbreak as hard as possible since nothing else seems to work. So ya, i kinda do have a good reason which is why i'm looking for the max yet still safe amount.
 
When doing a water change do I include the total of th tank and sump or just tank? I currently do 10gal (slightly over 10%) weekly but my parameters of the tank always seem to be on the low side while the water I am using for the change are where it needs to be in Alk, Calc & PH. I am curious if I am just not changing enough water weekly to replenish the elements being used up, so I thought I would bump the weekly changes to 20 gals (25% of the tank and sump) to try and help replenish the elements being used up. Am I on the right track?
 
What an old thread!

But you can try upping your water changes, but what are the levels in your newly made saltwater. Some saltmixes are low stuff.
 
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