If doing daily AWC’s in a 125g with approx 30-40 gallons in the sump, how many gallons a day would be good to exchange?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Daily AWC
- Thread starter NanCrab
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Depends on how much you want to change. 10% per week would be just under two and a half gallons a day
10% would be 16.5 estimating on the high end. I’d do 8 gallons if you’re doing it daily which would be about 5%. Imo unless you think you’re really needing that much fresh sw, 5% should be plenty. And correct me if I’m wrong but your tank is pretty new?
8 gallons per day is ridiculous that would be a 100% water change every 3 weeks. A continuous water change it is more stable than a weekly water change. With your new tank I would start with one gallon per day and as the maturity and bioload increase as you can look at increasing it
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This is great feedback. Even still, with your tank being new and not being too sps heavy, you can get away with AWC further down the line. It's not necessary right this moment.
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Hell, even I don't do AWC, and my tank is SUPER sps heavy
With your size tank and the fish you have stocked now, and the tank being so new going through the ugly stage, you might want to hold off on the automatic water change and just do a little bit of manual change to siphon off the diatoms. You can siphon more by returning the water to the sump after filtering out the diatoms. Using 160 gallons as the water volume 15% every two weeks would be 2 gallons a day. This would be overkill for you right now. When you become more heavily stocked and want to change 20% every two weeks, thats 10% a week, that would be 2.3 gallons a day. 5% a week is 1.15 gallons a day, more than plenty for trace element replacement for your corals now. Just be sure to continue to monitor ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phoshphates.
I think your water changes are determined to a large extent by what methods you use in your system. I would have no problem recommending awc’s in the name of stability.
For example, years ago it was necessary to do very large water changes to maintain good water quality. Not just for trace elements, but mainly as a way to dilute wastes, like nitrate & phosphate. It wasn’t unusual and may still be common to do 100% water changes monthly on systems with a high density of fish. Such big changes however, are not what many believe to be ideal for sea creatures.
More recently, carbon dosing and denitrification began to help mitigate much of the waste issues. These do not inherently help with maintaining trace element levels.
Some are now using newer/more complete methods, from vendors like Zeovit, Red Sea , Triton and Tropic Marin to cover a wider range, including both wastes & ion balances. I like Tropic Marin’s All for Reef & believe it to be a complete & simple approach. My target is 20%/month awc’s using a Masterflex pump. Whatever you choose, your goal should be the most consistently stable water parameters possible, imo.
Once your system begins to mature, say after about 6 months, is about when you should be dealing with increased bioloads which result in the greater waste and trace issues.
Some reefers increase populations of fish and corals much more quickly. That might make the dino, cyano, diatom things happen quicker, in greater proportion & possibly in bigger battles. Slow & steady is best for Freddy
-My $0.02
For example, years ago it was necessary to do very large water changes to maintain good water quality. Not just for trace elements, but mainly as a way to dilute wastes, like nitrate & phosphate. It wasn’t unusual and may still be common to do 100% water changes monthly on systems with a high density of fish. Such big changes however, are not what many believe to be ideal for sea creatures.
More recently, carbon dosing and denitrification began to help mitigate much of the waste issues. These do not inherently help with maintaining trace element levels.
Some are now using newer/more complete methods, from vendors like Zeovit, Red Sea , Triton and Tropic Marin to cover a wider range, including both wastes & ion balances. I like Tropic Marin’s All for Reef & believe it to be a complete & simple approach. My target is 20%/month awc’s using a Masterflex pump. Whatever you choose, your goal should be the most consistently stable water parameters possible, imo.
Once your system begins to mature, say after about 6 months, is about when you should be dealing with increased bioloads which result in the greater waste and trace issues.
Some reefers increase populations of fish and corals much more quickly. That might make the dino, cyano, diatom things happen quicker, in greater proportion & possibly in bigger battles. Slow & steady is best for Freddy
-My $0.02
Thanks so much for your feedback!! With both of us having severe back issues carrying buckets is really hurting my back. We finally got holes drilled through the wall today so hoping to be completely automated soon. I can start off with small daily water changes and increase if necessary. Just noticed coralline algae today!! Yay! @ichthyoid I did add a lot of corals all at once but they had been together in a 13g coral QT for 2 months so figured I could move them all to the 125+40 sump without too much trouble. I’ve only added 2 frags and 2 fish since we got it cycled. Too late now I guess but I think it will be OK.
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I haven’t had much problems adding corals as with fish. The nutrient load is what usually causes problems.
I’d be careful with sps, but mostly due to their sensitivity's, sheer number of nuisance critters and the $$$!
I’d be careful with sps, but mostly due to their sensitivity's, sheer number of nuisance critters and the $$$!
