Water Changes and In Between?

Do you dose anything beside 2part between water changes? How long do you go between water changes? Do you even do water changes? What do you consider to be a healthy amount to change out?

I actually went a total of 22 days without one. Longest in my 5yrs of reefing. This last period between water changes my tank has never looked better. Only reason I forced myself into doing one was to replace consumed trace elements. I don't dose for them. I am wondering if I should, if I continue with this WC schedule.
I changed only 5g. Total volume of my system is around 47g.

Water changes in my personal opinon are critical but misunderstood by many at the same time. Let me start with my definition of an aquarium. The aquarium is actually nothing more then a beautiful toilet! Sounds weird but true. With that said I will add how I recommend changes. First to be considered is what the bio load is. I always describe this as two types. One being trace depleting (coral) and the other contaminating (fish). With these definitions in place it's important to understand we can not completely replicate what the oceans do to sustain life but can come close enough to maintain livestock in our clear toilets. With that said it's easier to develop a Maintnace plan. General rule of hand is 10% of estimated water volume per week and I agree with that if you have one Fish for every ten gallons of water or very delicate coral which require consistant levels. If your bio load is mainly coral with only a few fish then you have a depleting Eco system which can be doased to maintain trace elements which will allow you to do less water changes. Understand this guideline is for medium to large water volumes.(disclaimer) if you become the A typical reef geek eventually your toilet becomes a contaminating dominated Eco system because we can't leave fish at the store so it becomes nescasary to do larger and more frequent changes to help keep a balance or level of contamination that our limited nitrifying cycle can handle. I personally recommend to these reefers 15 to 25 % weekly changes and once a month to double that. Observation and testing will tell you which system your dealing with. With that said the wife and I have developed an easy method of keeping things healthy and growing(other then our savings account) without having to run every gizmo on the market. Whew!! That turned into a lot of typing! This is my system and in no way am I saying I know more then anyone or saying anyone is doing it incorrectly. Just saying once we started to look at things this way after 25+ years of this hobby it became much more enjoyable. I think your on the right track to understanding your personal Eco system(toilet) Jamie. Just stay on top of your testing and observing how your coral are reacting. Just my .02 tho
For example :the wife and I do a 25 gallon weekly water change and every fourth week we do a 50 gallon change. This much water is due to the 20+ fish we have in our toilet.Every day we doase a carbon base food source to maintain the nitrifying cycle and doase two part automatically to maintain Alk and calcium levels. We do hand doase trace elements using brightwell's replenish additive in the middle of the week.

Thank you Chuck for taking the time to reply. You've helped me in that I feel more secure knowing I'm on the proper track with my tank.
With just 3 lil fishes in my water volume, water stays pretty clean. Dosing 2part keeps things stable. I'm definitely going to pick up some BrightWell's Replenish, if I choose to continue on with this WC schedule.
On a side note, this was also my first time changing my water by removing/replacing via my sump. The DT was not disturbed in any way. I'm loving that!
What is a "carbon based food"?

I use brightwell's Bio Fuel. It is about as safe a way to doase carbon to feed the live benifical bacteria in your water column. Many people use Vodka also. Tho many times you will hear it is for the sole purpose of controlling an algae break out. But they really are feeding the bacteria responsible for the nitrifying cycle which corrects the imbalance that allowed the breakout in the first place. If you Decied to go this route don't forget to keep up on the bacterial doaseing also. I use the bio digest personally but MB7 or similar live bacteria will work just as well. With only three fish in 47 gallons of water I think your on the right track for your water change requirements. The better job you do in keeping the biological filter part of your water the more stable your tank will be and the less you'll need to do water changes. That is tell you get more fish. Hope this helps

Helps a bunch :) I only plan on adding 1 more fish, further down the line. I've absolutely no algae other than what's in my fuge area-lol. Not sure if this is really a good thing though, snail wise. Even the notorious green film algae that always seems present on the glass, is absent in my tank.
Do I really need to be feeding the bacteria in my tank?

Your call really. If it was me I would, The bio fuel actually recommends cutting their recommended doase in half once the nitrifying cycle is in a productive mode. An ounce of prevention is worth.......

@stevediaz1 , I moved your question to a new thread since its not related to the original topic of this thread. Here is the link to the new thread:

http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/ha...ch-flow-39696/

Thanks Jim!! [emoji2]

Thank you Jim I'm new so I don't really know how to search or ask for help on the site I'm new to these type of forums how would I search a topic in a correct forum For a problem should occur in the future and how can I ask a person for help thank you for taking the time to help a newbie it must be frustrating but I appreciate all the help I can get