havnt done water change in.....

[mr_z]

a whole month. and all params seem fine i have a feeling that if i do one now itll destabilize everything. what should i do? will adding maybe some aditives work out? or what can i do. i barely have time for my tank anymore and its only a 12 gallon nano. and like they say the smaller they are the more attention they need.

 

[Smitty]

Just do a small water change...doing a larger water change to a stable system can throw it off.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Several small WC throughout the week.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

a whole month. and all params seem fine i have a feeling that if i do one now itll destabilize everything. what should i do? will adding maybe some aditives work out? or what can i do. i barely have time for my tank anymore and its only a 12 gallon nano. and like they say the smaller they are the more attention they need.

I think water changes are the equivalent of opening a window and exchanging 50% of the air in a smoke filled room. So long as the temperature is the same, and other parameter are the same, is it really possible to exchange "too" much air at once?

 

[SkullV]

Just do a small water change...doing a larger water change to a stable system can throw it off.

This. Small water changes are always preferred. To be honest though, unless you see a problem, just get back into your weekly/biweekly regimen. No need to take any special action.

 

[Captmrbles]

I tried doing a wc once a month.. that only lasted for a few months bc I noticed algae accumulating on some of my lr. I looked into algae and it would seem that because phosphates are bound up so quick in our system (taken up quickly as algae or macro algae ect) it is hard to get a phosphate via water test unless our tanks are spitting phosphates out of our sand bed ect (which is a whole other prolbem.) The short of it is to do small weekly to every other week... I do 10% once a week (about 3gal for me.) Keeping in mind that each system setup has it's own needs so yours may be different

 

[mr_z]

I usually do 2 gallons every week but I think Ima do 3 every 10 days and see how that goes

 

[fastrc]

I did a 25 gallon change on my 125 last week for the first time in over a year! I'm glad i don't try to do them like all of you i would ware myself out on my tanks, I'm a believer that evaporation and replenish is all i need since my 125 goes through 5 gallons a day and my 180 will use about 5 gallons every 3 days is enough. Never had any spikes or any problems with mine.

 

[fastrc]

Guess overkill on filtration and reactors suits my reefs fine!

 

[OpTiCz]

Here's a dumb question. should you clean the sand every time, or is it more important to just get fresh water in? My changes are always a big hassle because I spend so much time on the sand...

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

 

[Tangency]

Here's a dumb question. should you clean the sand every time, or is it more important to just get fresh water in? My changes are always a big hassle because I spend so much time on the sand...

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I switch it up between cleaning sump, cleaning sandbed and just exchanging dt water.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I never touch the sand bed. There are live critters in there that should keep it clean. If you must, don't go deeper than about 1/2". All my WC are from my sump, while vacuuming the bottom. 1-2x/year, I'll stir up my fuge & clean that out.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I never touch the sand bed. There are live critters in there that should keep it clean. If you must, don't go deeper than about 1/2". All my WC are from my sump, while vacuuming the bottom. 1-2x/year, I'll stir up my fuge & clean that out.

+1, I never mess with my sand bed except to mix it up at the front glass because I hate seeing algae etc. below the sand line.

Nice white sand there makes the tank look much cleaner.

 

[Smitty]

+1 everyone...my sand sifters take care of the sand.

 

[SkullV]

I vacuum my shallow sandbed weekly. Keeps it sparkly clean. I have never seen anything in the bucket that I would want to keep in the tank. I wouldn't touch a deep sandbed though.