A gallon a day...

[JT101]

Very often I get weird ideas and I just wanted to bounce this one off the audience.

Let's suppose I somehow found the personal discipline to change just one gallon of tank water everyday without fail. I calculated that in my 46 gallon with sump I have a total of 59 gallons, so ONE is only 1.69% of total volume.

Would there be any merit to doing this? I know that it can't HURT, but is it even WORTH it?

BTW, I would STILL keep doing my regular weekly 10 gallon (16.94%) water changes.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Mike389]

Very often I get weird ideas and I just wanted to bounce this one off the audience.

Let's suppose I somehow found the personal discipline to change just one gallon of tank water everyday without fail. I calculated that in my 46 gallon with sump I have a total of 59 gallons, so ONE is only 1.69% of total volume.

Would there be any merit to doing this? I know that it can't HURT, but is it even WORTH it?

BTW, I would STILL keep doing my regular weekly 10 gallon (16.94%) water changes.

Thanks for any input!

Sounds like it would be really annoying... Having to do that every day

 

[al0ha]

Umm, but why? I would just let the corals and or other organisms take in the calcium and magnesium from the reef crystals and just do the weekly wc to replenish it

 

[JT101]

Sounds like it would be really annoying... Having to do that every day

I agree that it would get old pretty fast unless I made it as "painless" as possible.

 

[JT101]

Umm, but why? I would just let the corals and or other organisms take in the calcium and magnesium from the reef crystals and just do the weekly wc to replenish it

My reasoning would be to keep the parameters more even between the weekly WC. I would imagine that they would seesaw between "the big one" and this would be an attempt to even out the dips.

 

[albano]

I do not remember the exact 'math' behind it, but I believe that the daily changes calculate to a larger % of change. So that if you compare 1 gal a day (6 days) and 10g the 7th day (total 16g) to doing ~2.28g everyday (total 16g) ...the 2,28g is actually a bigger/better % change

 

[JT101]

I do not remember the exact 'math' behind it, but I believe that the daily changes calculate to a larger % of change. So that if you compare 1 gal a day (6 days) and 10g the 7th day (total 16g) to doing ~2.28g everyday (total 16g) ...the 2,28g is actually a bigger/better % change

Thanks albano for the input. Oh definitely, the math is spot on but as you move from 1g/day up to ~2.28g/day the "pain in the arse factor" goes up. A gallon jug out and a gallon jug in is sort of manageable, over 2 gallons seems a hassle.

 

[Dre]

Thanks albano for the input. Oh definitely, the math is spot on but as you move from 1g/day up to ~2.28g/day the "pain in the arse factor" goes up. A gallon jug out and a gallon jug in is sort of manageable, over 2 gallons seems a hassle.

You got your answer. In my words he's saying 1 gal a day change on your tank is point less and a waste of time.

 

[JT101]

You got your answer. In my words he's saying 1 gal a day change on your tank is point less and a waste of time.

I kind of felt that way but just wanted to be sure.

Has anyone ever experimented or done any studies on what would be considered the smallest daily WC that would be considered effective at improving parameters? Is it 2%? 3%? 4%?

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

My reasoning would be to keep the parameters more even between the weekly WC. I would imagine that they would seesaw between "the big one" and this would be an attempt to even out the dips.

Are your parameters actually dipping that much in 1 week to make this worth while? Maybe 2 x5g changes a week would make more sense?

 

[Affordable Aquatic]

That's pretty common with fresh water systems where they set up a line that runs directly into a drain, and then continually refill the tank through a very small 'drip' type hose. It would work fine on a marine tank, but unless you were using an endless supply of free NSW, it would not be very efficient. While you would do much to reduce the buildup of waste in the water, you would be discarding water which still had much of its calcium and trace elements remaining unused.