My last water change was August 29th.

[danmhippo]

I've done close to 100% WC, it was for emergency only, and I am not advocating people to do it.

I did not lose anything that were thriving before the WC.

The toughest part of making WC that large is to prepare water with matching pH, temperature, and alkalinity. The tank was in my office, and getting close to 200G of RODI mixed in with salt for 6 hours plus several heaters and pumps, I could only do them after work hour for whole night. Needless to say, the office is a mess.

IMO, if you really have to do it, make sure the parameters, especially the temp is matching.

 

[Anonymous]

But I would imagine that in a tank setting (live rock, and sand) and change that large would inevitabl;y stir a lot of stuff up. Not too mention there is a lot more bio diversity to crash than a few coral frags.

Rover, I do it all the time. In fact, most of the water changes my established systems get are near 100%

 

[Anonymous]

So how do you do a > 90% water change without really disturbing the rocks, sand and so on?

 

[Anonymous]

So how do you do a > 90% water change without really disturbing the rocks, sand and so on?

Well, none of my systems have any sand in them whatsoever. Sand doesn't belong in a coral tank, period. They're also all drilled for a drain. Open the drain valve, drop the water, close the drain, pump new water in.

 

[Anonymous]

So how do you do a > 90% water change without really disturbing the rocks, sand and so on?

Yeah, I'll be emptying my entire tank. (it will be an excellent time to clean the bottom corners, always a chore!) I don't see how most people could do that big of a change without making a big mess. I'm sure not looking forward to it!

jayo

 

[Anonymous]

If you look, you can see the drain sticking up dead center, with the black fiberglass screen over it. Right behind the maze brain.

 

[K9coral]

Change 50% now and %50 in 3 days.... in made my corals open up WIDE.

 

[danmhippo]

So how do you do a > 90% water change without really disturbing the rocks, sand and so on?

Why? that's not too hard. All you need is a siphon hose and an anchor to keep the hose just above the sand.

Galleon is a perfectionist. I, on the other hand, hate to see bare bottom.

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to take the chance on shocking things by doing a 50% or more water change if things are running "okay".

If say your Macro went ka-flooie or the kids decided to feed the fish a bag of Oreos I can see doing something drastic.

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to take the chance on shocking things by doing a 50% or more water change if things are running "okay".

If say your Macro went ka-flooie or the kids decided to feed the fish a bag of Oreos I can see doing something drastic.

There is nothing shocking about it.

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to take the chance on shocking things by doing a 50% or more water change if things are running "okay".

If say your Macro went ka-flooie or the kids decided to feed the fish a bag of Oreos I can see doing something drastic.

There is nothing shocking about it.

Are you willing to take the chance? Prudence costs nothing.

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to take the chance on shocking things by doing a 50% or more water change if things are running "okay".

If say your Macro went ka-flooie or the kids decided to feed the fish a bag of Oreos I can see doing something drastic.

There is nothing shocking about it.

Are you willing to take the chance? Prudence costs nothing.

What chance? Reefs experience constant changes in water, temperature, salinity, nutrient levels all day and all night. As long as they are in the range that the corals tolerate, there isn't really going to be a shock. Did you read my earlier posts? I do it all the time.

What if nutrients in his tank are near the critical threshold of causing coral mortality?

 

[Anonymous]

wgscott:

Sounds to me like your system went for four months with no water changes and the only effect was to one coral.

Seems you might take a look at the one coral. feeding lighting current etc etc etc. And just resume your normal things you did that allowed the system to run for four months without a water change.

After all if it's not broke don't fix it.

 

[Anonymous]

What chance? Reefs experience constant changes in water, temperature, salinity, nutrient levels all day and all night. As long as they are in the range that the corals tolerate, there isn't really going to be a shock. Did you read my earlier posts? I do it all the time.

What if nutrients in his tank are near the critical threshold of causing coral mortality?

I did read your earlier posts, and do understand that conditions on the reef change. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

An analogy...My dog has a nice fur coat, stray homeless dogs also have fur coats. Stray dogs survive in the subzero cold with no shelter therefore my pampered house dog should be the same, right?

Does that mean I can throw my (indoor 70 degree) acclimated house dog outside into sub zero weather without shelter i.e. radically change her environment, and expect her not to be stressed? Would she survive? Probably. Will she be stressed? Certainly. Could that stress contribute to say a shortened life span or otherwise affect her? Maybe.

My point is why unduly stress out the inhabitants unless, as you said the water quality is near toxic levels? In which case the end would justify the means.

 

[Anonymous]

I have posted this before, many months ago, and I STILL have not done a water change.

It would be a lie if I said I haven't changed a gallon in a year, but in March or April it will be one year and I will have changed only about 10 gallons on my 75 gallon in that entire year. 8O

It is stocked with tons of corals, many fish, and everything is extremely healthy and doing very well.

All parameters are perfect, except for calcium and alk, which are both only slightly low due to my slacking on additives for a few weeks, but low levels are the easiest to correct and that is not caused by lack of water changes.


Of course just because you CAN doesn't mean you should, but I seem to be able to get away with it, so I do. I keep a vigilant eye on things to make sure it all doesn't go south, but I am now so used to not doing water changes, that I don't know what I would do if I had to start again! :lol:

My LFS guy has a 75 gallon display, his main store display, and he hasn't done a water change in probably just as long as I have. He has a nicer display than most of us here, and he gets away with it too, so it's not just me.

 

[Anonymous]

Manny:

Nothing new about that. I have ran fw and a simple fo salt tanks for up to six continuous years with no water changes. Plus I have done no scheduled water changes in two years on my current 55g.

All water changes do is slow trends not correct them.

So IMO if you want a stable, unchanging system stop changing things. The key is establishing a system where the steady state is acceptable. (0 nitrogen and phosphates, 400ppm cl, 2-2.5 meg/l alk, 1200-1300ppm mag etc etc etc.) Which is easily obtained.

So I am not suprised at a tank that is fine after 4 months.

Just go back to what he was doing before.

No need to fix something that isn't broke.

 

[K9coral]

I really need to check into this more!

 

[Anonymous]

Just wait. I'm sorry, but everything looks fine and dandy until it crashes. Do a water change, do a water change, do a water change. There's really no reason not to except laziness.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm with Matt....regular water changes is simply a good practice.

 

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify -- I am not advocating this. I simply calculated the risk of leaving a tank with someone who was inexperienced for four months and decided it was riskier to have him screw up water changes than just top off evaporation with fresh water.