Water Change??

[ericmcj31]

This poll is a question I was wondering about; I was always told to siphon the bottom, but someone else told me that when you siphon the bottom-you are possibly removing beneficial "stuff." What is your opinion??

 

[jade76]

i do my water changes through my sump. so that I dont have to disturb the display and stress out the fish anymore than nessc. I do a 20%change everyweek. And then once a month only, I will lightly vacume the bed of my display. I depend highly on my massive cleaning crew to do the rest....

 

[gwhiz]

I siphon a portion of the sand bed about every other change and I try to change water weekly. So all of the reachable sand bed gets touched about monthly.

 

[FutureInterest]

I stir up my shallow sand bed all the time and siphon it to get detrius out. In a deep sand bed that's a recipe for death so I can understand why someone told you not to.

As for water change schedule... its sparse. Once every two months or so.

 

[liverock27]

I do 10-15% water changes on Sundays and only hit the areas of sand where anything has deposited.

 

[stanfill reef]

We do 10-20% water changes weekly. We siphon out of the water column but will also siphon the LR and top of the sand bed if we see anything that we want out of the tank.

 

[tanner86]

I do a 30gal water change on my 140gal every two weeks. I stir up my 4" sandbed right before I siphon the water out. I always get the pump right at the bottom of the tank to remove the water that is more likely to be stagnant for longer periods of time.

 

[cameron]

I baster all the rock and sand then suck from the sand bed here and there.

 

[bobz]

I typically do about 20% every other week pulling water from the sump and siphon the surface of the sand. I usually try and pull out any detritus that builds up in the bottom of the sump.
Bob

 

[schwaggs]

I siphon the gunk off the floor of my sump first. Then siphon out any unwanted algea. Then if I need to remove more water, I take it out from anywhere.

 

[roland jacques]

Great question,
In your survey, Is shiphoning off the bottom the same as vaccuming the sand?
I would like to Know how many people vac their Shallow bed sand.

 

[dakota9]

I diatom filter with the vacuum hose the top 1/2" of my DSB, removing all the crap, then I syphon 15 percent out once a month.

 

[ralph atl]

I siphon about 8-10% ,monthly from my sump. I only siphon a portion of my sand once every couple of months or if I see cyno on it.

 

[daitheflu20]

I'm with most of you it seems...siphon from the top of the water column (I heard a statistic that something like 80% of pollution is in the top 2 or 3 inches of the water column. Not sure how true it is or if it applies to aquariums with sumps) and spot vacuum the sand bed when I notice something dirty in/on it. Although sometimes I do my water change solely from the sump so as not to disturb the fish.

 

[jwils27]

i do a 10-20% change weekly and i siphon my sand i don't have the best clean up crew though when it improves i may stop siphoning .

 

[saltwater junky]

I Have Never Siphoned Mine

 

[jaustin]

I do 7% every two weeks, i do like to take a pump and stir up anything sitting on the rock that builds up over time.

 

[triga22]

I take out anything I can see and then the rest I just take out from different spots in the tank.

 

[lifestudent]

After squirting the aquascape and siphoning anything that gets into the water column from that excercise, I siphon from the top and remove any skim/oils. After that, I just siphon.

I do either a 7G change once a week or 14G whenever I miss a week on my 75G tank.

 

[mitchelliii]

I admit I have been bad with water changes, but know the tank looks good and wonder if I should start changing it more ot let it continue to work.

I had ACL surgery in December and have not been in the basement and (was bad about it even before then.) I have just been adding topoff RO water and not performed a change in 2-3 mos.

It seems to be working and while I know not standard protocol, should I just keep the tank doing what it is doing? Flatworms are getting better and I have posted pics. I don't mind being chastised if it's in order, but please consider the tanks "happiness" before judging. I do have a sandbed/miracle mud filled 75 gal tank with a million sponges in the basement where the sump is. The only think I do is from time to time, add a little buffer.

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