Why do water changes

[4Fish]

My 125 reef is looking great. Everything is big and expanded. Have not completed a water change for 6 months, aside from replacing evaporated water. So, I feel guilty and proceed to empty and clean my sump, about 20 gallons. Now my tank looks hurting, I know everything will come back, and yes, I should use RO water, but I wonder what is in the water that impacts coral quickly, and is probably killing us slowly.....

 

[Awibrandy]

All sorts of minerals, chemicals, and God only knows what else!

 

[Breezp]

well when you change the water the coral get slightly stressed because the water parameters are being changed, and if your using tap water your adding things such as phosphates and floride and a whole bunch of other stuff thats not even good for us to be consuming, they get stressed because it disturbes their peaceful balance that they had for so long. Water changes only matter if your not using a protein skimmer. If your using a protein skimmer thats skimming atleast 3x the amount of water you have then refilling the sump would be just fine for a water change. If you have no skimmer then you should atleast do a water change every week to every other week depending on how much water you are changing.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Your pipes are copper too.

 

[Awibrandy]

On another serious note; Water changes done with ro/di, and a good salt mixture replace trace elements otherwise lost as time goes by. To me a water change done once a month, or even 6 months is very beneficial to the inhabitans of our glass boxes.

My animals do not react badly to w/c ever, on the contrary they seem to enjoy it.

 

[HanKami]

my choice is to do a water change once a month, i do 15 gallons of my 60 gallon system. my corals tend to feed off of the water change for 3 days. i also turn my skimmer off for the 3 days.

 

[Imbarrie]

I have seen this tank and it looks really nice. I cant believe its using water just from the sink. There is no nuisance algae and everything is in bloom.

Next water change use RODI.
You can borrow my 5 gallon buckets and use the self service dispenser at Pets Warehouse. Its the easiest place to get fills.

 

[Awibrandy]

PW gives ro/di water for free? WOW

 

[Imbarrie]

I didnt say free, I just said easy.

I think it's @ .70 / gallon.
I fill about 20-25 gallons per month for changes and top off until I get my own filter.

But you dont have to grab a sales person to do it.
They have a pvc outlet valve in the back of the store that you use.

 

[4Fish]

Hey Barrie. Thanks for the compliment!!!! I think for now on RO water, or I will set up RO in my house. I will tell my wife it is worth the money since "showering" in RO water will make her skin softer.

Your tank is looking good as well.

By the way, went to Fishtown today. Some nice stuff came in.

 

[Imbarrie]

You have the life.

I will be at my desk until 730-8pm today

If you get a whole house RODI I will help you plumb it in.

I used to run RO systems on boats. It makes a big difference showering.

Watch out if you plan to drink it though. It is chemically pure which means it could remove trace elements from the body through diffusion.

 

[Yen]

I don't get it, if everything is fine and in bloom, why change your routine?
I mean, why "fix" what is working?

I have seen this tank and it looks really nice. I cant believe its using water just from the sink. There is no nuisance algae and everything is in bloom.

Next water change use RODI.
You can borrow my 5 gallon buckets and use the self service dispenser at Pets Warehouse. Its the easiest place to get fills.

 

[Imbarrie]

My suggestion was to try RODI once to see if the immediate results from a water change would be less drastic to the appearance of the life.

IMO you want to set up the best possible environment within reason.
I dont think adding RODI to a water change routine would be unreasonable. Especially with all the evidence that points better results with RODI.

I know 4Fish outside of this community and he has been in this hobby much longer than me. He is patient and deliberate when it comes to implementing new procedures, and he can make his own decisions regardless of my input.

 

[Yen]

Hi Imbarrie,

I didn't mean to question your suggestion. My apology if that was misunderstood.

The reason I was saying that is because I'm trying to make use of the huge amount of "waste" water from the RO/DI filter by using that for my koi pond. Now winter is coming, I won't be changing water from the pond, I feel guilty having to waste that "waste" water. I mean, if I could do away with that RO/DI, I would

Yen

 

[4Fish]

Hey, thanks for all the feedback. I been keeping fish fo 35 years. I even had an "Oakland Lake" tank for those who live in Queens. Back in the day, before Oakland Lake became over grown, there was a sandy beach area where you could all kinds of minnow, darters, shiners and various sunfish.

The other thing that is amazing about fish keeping is how small that big tank you have becomes over time. At one point, I was happy with a 55 gallon reef, then a 75 gallon, now a 125 gallon, and now that is looking small - time for an upgrade???

Hey Barrie, how is the bubble tip doing.

 

[Imbarrie]

Im not sure what to do with the waste water. It would be higher in mineral content than normal water. If I were a homeowner I would save it into a container and use it for watering plants or a garden.
Globally water is scarce but locally it seems to be very abundant and cheap. If that changes in the future we may all be rethinking RODI.

 

[Imbarrie]

Great,

The clowns are all over it now. They took about 3 weeks to take to it.

Im looking into more lighting now.

Friday night my macro went sexual. I caught it in time and took about half out. Everything is fine now.

Last weekend I made a really slick media reactor from a skimmer collector tank. Running in my sump right now.

 

[mcnuggget]

theres an old saying "if it aint broken, why fix it?"
how about posting some pics of this great looking tank?

 

[pdnyc69]

i do my water changes every 3 months. i use addatives inbetween water changes tho. +1 on the "if its aint broke dont fix it"