(sigh) Water Change Wednesday is Coming Up

(sigh) Water Change Wednesday is Coming Up

Not doing water changes? I recently saw a thread on Reef2Reef that caught my attention. It implied that freshwater (FW) aquarium keepers do more water changes than saltwater (SW) aquarium keepers. The thread also implied that SW keepers try their best to avoid water changes by spending a lot of money on equipment and additives.

There were comments from folks that were religious about their water changes and from comments from others that did only 1-3 water changes a year. In this particular thread, there were no comments from people that did 0 water changes.

The thread made me think about my personal aquarium husbandry habits and why I have them. In my home I have a 360-gallon mixed reef saltwater aquarium with a 100-gallon sump. I also have a 20 gallon-long freshwater aquarium that holds my daughter’s Axolotls.

Ideally, my goal is to do weekly water changes on both of my home aquariums. The reality is that I am currently averaging water changes every two weeks. It fluctuates between weekly and bi-weekly with bi-weekly being the average.

On my 360-gallon mixed reef aquarium I change out 60 gallons or about 13% at a time. On the 20-gallon, I change out 5 gallons or about 25% at a time.

So why do I change out 60 and 5 gallons per water change? It’s due to the size of my water containers. I use two food grade 60-gallon plastic barrels for the big tank’s water change and two 5-gallon plastic jugs for the small tank.

I use an extra-long siphon to dig into the sand bed and pull the dirty saltwater into a 60-gallon barrel for measurement. I then push new saltwater with a basement sump pump from the other 60-gallon barrel into the aquarium. I then use the basement sump pump to push the dirty saltwater into the laundry washing machine drain. You can’t pour the saltwater on the lawn or it will burn and kill all of the vegetation.

The same kind of process is used with the 5-gallon jugs on the small aquarium. On the small aquarium, I just lift the clean water jug and pour it into the small tank. I pour this dirty freshwater onto the outside plants and shrubbery. It’s full of nutrients for watering.

I still haven’t answered the WHY I choose this maintenance route? For me, I like to keep things as simple and affordable as possible. I’ve found that my saltwater fish and corals and Axolotls are a lot more vibrant and my parameters are in the “good” ranges when I’m consistent with my water changes. I also don’t have to, or less frequently, add 2-part calcium and alkalinity or magnesium or other additives when I’m consistent with my saltwater changes. The nitrates in both of my tanks are better held in check with consistent water changes.

I manually test my water parameters on a weekly basis and when something is looking or smelling “Off”.

The interesting thing is that once I’m actually doing a water change, I usually get into a happy place kind of zone. It’s the getting to the water change part on my personal aquariums is that is sometimes the challenge for me and I surmise it is the same with most folks who happen to miss Water Change Wednesdays.

Would I advocate for water changes if I didn’t own an aquarium service and maintenance company? The answer is Yes! I’ve only ever been successful in the aquaria hobby when I was consistently doing water changes.

One of our mottos at Fish Nerd Aquatics is, “Let us do the grunt work so you can simply sit back and enjoy the peace and serenity that comes with owning an aquarium.” Maybe I should hire myself to come out and service and maintain my aquariums 😉

Joking aside, we generally answer most questions free of charge via email, text, or Chat through our Google Business Profile page.

Stay Slimy Ya’ll! ™