How a saltwater aquarium is created Part 17: Regular water changes

01.10.2018

Opinions will certainly not always be unanimous on the subject of regular water changes. Some aquarists "run" their system entirely without water changes, others work with a 10% water change every week, or even 20% every 2-3 weeks. We belong to the 10% change group.

I still remember our first large 1000-litre seawater aquarium quite well. It was in top condition for many years, but then the problems started little by little. Today, this is known as "OLD TANK Syndrome". Of course, we did water changes back then but certainly not as often as is often propagated today. 

Today, we do not change the water in the tank as often as we do today.

It is now believed that the concentrations of certain substances have caused the pools to then  deteriorate. It is considered very likely that this could have been avoided with much more intensive water changes.

With regular water changes, many unwanted substances are quickly removed from the cycle and at the same time desired substances are added to the aquarium.Water changes thus prevent both deficiencies and enrichment and stabilise the entire system in the long term. 

The following points are particularly relevant:

* Discharge of nutrients such as nitrate (No3), phosphate (Po4) yellows, nettle poisons, toxins etc.

* Balancing the values of magnesium and calcium

* Supply of other trace elements

In addition, there is no denying that you can usually see the corals in the aquarium every time the water is changed.  

So today we are strictly sticking to that and changing 10% the week.

Of course, we also filmed the first water change in the Armatus 400. Even though this should be obvious, a few more tips. It is best to turn off the lights for the time of the change (protection of the corals), the pumps and the skimmer anyway (protection against overflow)

If you like it much more comfortable, you can read the article here. The automatic water change is described there.

Automatically changing water - Sometimes it's the little things.... by Immo Gerber

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