1st water change

ok unclejed, this is an arguement that my boyfriend and I have a lot. I feel like smaller more frequent water changes are better for the tank environment. I guess I feel like if you let the water go for 4-5 weeks, it's like waiting for your water to get filthy and then changing 50% water. I feel like it's similar to cleaning your house little by little as it gets dirty rather than letting crap pile up, then taking a whole day to clean all the built up dirt. What do you think about that philosophy?

 

I think that makes sense, i will try to do it that way but, seems alot to change at one time. also got to get 2 more buckets to fill up. but the other person that posted also made a good point about the comparison on cleaning house. I think ill do something in between, every 1 week, not full blown reef yet either. Just 4 small fish and some inverts.

 

To address this, and there are differences of opinion of course, your analogy HS doesn't hold up for this reason. In a "closed" system as in an aquarium we imploy various "on going" filtration systems i.e. cannisters, sumps, refugiums, live rock and live sand to mention the most frequently used. Your house doesn't have an "on going" system (although who ever invents one will be rich) so that analogy doesn't work. Now, in the closed on going system, eventually we need to replenish the minerals and trace elements used up by our denizens of the deep. This is where the removal of "spent" water and the addition of "replenished" water comes in, plus the dilution factor explained earlier. Cool?