How much

I have a 34 gallon cube half reef half fish. I'm doing 10 gallons a week on water changes. Is it best to take out 10 gallons first? or would it be better to do 5 at a time?

Also when I do all 10 some of my rock and a coal get exposed to air.

 

You will change out more of the water with one 10 gallon change. Most corals can survive out of water for short periods. Kind of like low tide. Just try to make this time as short as possible.

 

Thanks bro I kind of thought so. I usually don't let the coal exposeed long just about 3 to 5 min.

 

For a 34gal you'd be fine with 5 gallon water changes weekly instead of 10. With 10 gals a week you're changing over 100% of the water every month- which imo is alot. But it's obviously up to you.

 

while we are on this topic...i have an ammonia spike and changing water alot...is there such a thing as to much of a water change...will it affect my bacteria that break down the ammonia and nitrites?

 

That really is a large water change per week 20%+, I would prob drop it to 5gal.

 

You could also break it up, 5g on weds and the other 5g on sat. The general rule of thumb is 10%-15% of total vol a month. Luna

 

I do 5g a month in my 24g and never have issues, you may want to cut down on the amount of water your changing

The ammonia spike is probably caused by the fact when you take 10g of water out of the tank, when you start to pour the new water in it disturbs the substrate stirring things that have been sitting up into the water column again

 

I am not a fan of weekly water changes unless you have a 14 gal. or smaller tank. Once every 4-5 weeks is adequate and poses less stress on the tank inhabitants. Too many changes in a short period of time does reek havoc on the bacteria and possibly the chemistry of the water.

 

Ok cool thanks for the input I also thought the 10 gallons was kind of high but again my LFS said so,,,, they even said do 50% a week I thought that was just to much..

Thanks for the input fellas. My tank just cycled not to long ago and everything it looking pretty good.