How often do you change your water?

[BlueWater]

I'm having doubts of getting a 50 gallon now and just stick to the 30.

I ran into someone who told me he has to change out %30 every week. Replaced with ocean water. This stuff is expensive. Especially when you change more than 20 gallons.

Is he just being over cautious, or can you get by using mixed tap water w/Ocean salt? I've been maintaining a mini-reef and only used Distilled water from the grocery store and ocean water.

[Triggers]

well, not sure who you spoke with?? Dude seems a bit out of touch with reality.
first off, it is recommended that not more than 25% of the tank water is changed at any one time, unless you have some serious disease or contaminant issue.

as a norm, you would change either 25%/month or some people do 10-15% weekly or biweekly changes.

if you change with ocean water, why would it be expensive??

i believe that 99% of aquarists use some sort of synthetic sea salt for their water. I use IO.
depending on the condition of your tap it may be fine enough. I sometimes filter water through a deionizer.

[Bughead]

I usually do about a 20% bi-weekly change on the two tanks. I only do weekly changes if I'm having a problem. Like you said, that salt water is expensive. Also, once you get your tank stablized, you should disrupt the system as infrequently as possible. I know people who do much fewer changes than I do, and we even used to have a board member who never did a water change in 3 years. It seems to me I have fewer problems if I leave the tank alone, altho no change in 3 years is the extreme of the extreme.

[BlueWater]

The guy I ran into was some other customer at an LFS.

My tanks been established since May 2001, so a little more than a year.

Sometimes I use IO and mix up the distilled, sometimes I use the Ocean water. I do a 20% change every 3 weeks on my 15gallon. Should I probably do one bi-weekly?


Ive seen a tank online which only has powerheads as the filtration. No skimmer RO unit, nothing.

[tendar]

I have been doing about a 20% water change once a month and have had great results.
30% is way to much and ecpecially once a week. Just me anyway.

[the_blue_tuna]

I use IO and try to change 10% every other week. That seems to work well for me.