Water Changes

[TMartinez]

When should I be doing water changes? I was told not to do one for a while when the tank was first set up. When should I start doing it and how often?

29 gallon tank. 1 Ocellarius clownfish, 1 diamond goby, a couple hermits and snails

 

[we4wieners]

You will get several theories. This is my experience. I did not do a water change for a month after I set it up, then one a week. You will get a million theories, biology lessons, so on. Thats just what I did. I have never had any problems....plus drop a load of nassarius snails and blue leg hermits in there, and I mean a ton

 

[thebase#1]

depends on the bioload and the amount of live rock, but to be on the safe side, i'd be doing it weekly.

 

[FLESHY]

It depends on too many things to actually go over, but really it depends on the needs of your animal.

You want nitrates at least under 20ppm at all times. Do your h2o changes to meet that goal. You will need to at least test for nitrates to determine what works for you and your animals, as you add more animals, or change filtration, you are going to want to closely monitor your nitrates again.

Another thing that helps me is setting up a water change day.

It is just a day you set aside to be h2o change day. There are no excuses, you just wake up in the morning and do it because that is what you always do, and it is automatically part of your plans. Otherwise water changes can get pushed to the end of the priority list, and sometimes they dont happen. I enjoy h2o changes actually, every water change saturday.

 

[TMartinez]

I mean my numbers are staying at 0 ppm. I don't have alot of bioload because the tank is rather scarce as of currently.