Downgrading... Need advise.

[denzil]

In the early stages of my tank, I've been doing 25% water changes every week or every other week until I hit the six month mark. It may go on longer or end earlier, it's really dependent on how stable my water parameters are at that point time.

Once the tank stabilizes, I'll probably do less % water changes and then eventually do them less often. Eventually at some point the system will reach a happy equilibrium.

 

[Nav]

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.

I've decided to stay with my current setup and make some changes with maintenance and see how things go in the next few months. Here's my new plan:

• 10G water changes every two weeks (currently weekly)
• Spot feed coral once a week (currently twice a week)
• Continue dosing everyday (Alk, Cal, Fuel) - trying some automation here

I'll probably reopen this thread if things get worse Thanks for the advise & support!

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Good luck with that

 

[monkeybiz]

I have a white 16 nuvi with matching acrylic pedestal. I even have the IM nuvo aqua gadget media reactor. Lmk if you're jnterested.

 

[HiFidelity]

As another option you could also do 5g weekly water changes, I personally do that but every 10 days since my system is starting to mature and it's super easy;

• mix salt in 5 gal bucket
• drain 5 gal in another empty bucket
• unload freshly mixed water into sump, done.

Total time this takes after water has already been mixed is 15-20 minutes (this includes wiping things down after and dumping old water). I typically take an hour or so when I do this to do things like top off my fresh water bucket or refill my kalk container or if those don't need to be done I'll take a few moments cleaning off glass or cleaning skimmer cup and maybe test some parameters. Can't get easier than that which is why I absolutely love 40-50 gallon systems.

 

[650-IS350]

Smaller tank means smaller room for error or fluctuations.

On bigger systems with more water you have more room for error. take example of water evap, on a smaller tank 1" of evap would have greater affect than a 250gal. alk, ph, salinity less affected compared to a 5 gal.

 

[neuro]

I set up a 10g nano at my work in the past; I thought I could just do water changes every week and be done with it. The little sump area in the back of the tank I built was much bigger than what you'd see on a regular all in one tank, but I still had a hard time cramming everything in there. I ended up almost starting a fire a few times because I forgot to plug the ATO back in after a water change and evaporation drained out the tiny all in one sump area. Why was the ATO unplugged? Because putting my hand in the tank to clean rocks triggered the Tunze Osmolator high level alarm. That small amount of evaporation (1 gallon maybe) caused a HUGE swing in the salinity. I accidentally shut off the ATO on my 140g tank in the past and didn't notice it for a week with no issues.

You're also at a good point where you're going to be stable enough you can leave things to just run on auto pilot with your 40g.

However, I can fully understand what time constraints can do to you. At one point I had a dream of a 600g+ tank, but now that I know the amount of work involved I doubt I'll go down that road ever.

Oh jeez, your story reminds me of all the times I've done something in my 10 gal that I am too embarrassed to tell. My heart jumps a beat everytime I think about what I did in that 10 gallon. Poor creatures...

 

[Justin Daugherty]

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.

I've decided to stay with my current setup and make some changes with maintenance and see how things go in the next few months. Here's my new plan:

• 10G water changes every two weeks (currently weekly)
• Spot feed coral once a week (currently twice a week)
• Continue dosing everyday (Alk, Cal, Fuel) - trying some automation here

I'll probably reopen this thread if things get worse Thanks for the advise & support!

I think you made the right choice. The biggest issue I have with a bigger tank is the drive to fill it up... you're already there. Smaller tanks I find to be more headache because of the lack of space for equipment and stocking. I miss my 200 everyday!