Major water change or minor ones over a period of time?

[nivek]

Hi all,

I'm sorry to say that I've neglected my tank for quite some time and thus most of my corals are gone. However my fishes are still ok and the question now is should I do a major water change or small portions over a period of 2 weeks?

I'm afraid of stressing the fishes out with a major water change.

 

[CarlaW]

I think I would do a bunch of smaller ones, maybe each day for about a week and see what happens. What size tank are we talking about here?

 

[nivek]

Ok thanks. Its a 110gal.

 

[CarlaW]

Ok thanks. Its a 110gal.

Yeah, maybe 10 gallons a nite for the next week, that shouldn't be to much for your critters. Sorry to hear 'bout your looses tho, that's a drag!!!

 

[Scooterman]

I suck out 30g when I do wc on my 100g tank, fish better learn to deal with it lol, most of the time I do it while they are sleeping, never heard one complaint. Problem with doing ten wc's is every single one of them you actually replace a portion of the 10g you replaced the night before, so your in effect not doing a 10g wc anymore after the very first one, so think about it, if your tank is really bad off, your fishes will love you once it is done but not until it is all over and cleared up.

 

[NaH2O]

Kevin! Great to see you! I'm also sorry to hear about your losses.

Have you tested your water parameters? I would try and do a larger water change first. That way you are making a larger impact right away. Just make sure the salinity, temperature and pH are as close as possible to your tank, in order to reduce the possibility of physiological stress.

 

[nivek]

Nikki!!! Great to see you too Been a long time.

 

[Jeff]

I wouldn't worry about doing a 20-30% water change right off the bat. Now over 50% I would break it up. Just make sure that your change water is close to the same parameters as your tank water, temp, salinity, ph, alk, etc. You actually change more water when you do a 30% water change as opposed to two 15% changes.

 

[spongebob lover]

hi !!
I would have to say that i agree with doing a 20% water change.
I'm really sorry you lost your corals , but at least you didn't get something else instead.
Like me, i got flatworms from just not taking good care of my tank