No water changes in over 4 months and better results then ever

[jcs11236]

i do water changes every month or so in my 10 gal. everything seems so open up more the longer i wait!

 

[dagreatbadfinger]

honestly i do water changes every 4 months or so if im lucky - granted i dose part A and part B and have an ATO but other than that - my coral grows like weeds! im running a RSM

 

[topmav1]

I didnt do a water change in a couple of months and things looked so so ... Did a 10$ last week and re-aquascaped. Not sure what was to be credited with the change but all my fish look so happy and relaxed and corals look bright and fully open.

Not a weekly water change guy but maybe one every 4-6 weeks.

 

[bizarrecorals]

Not trying to start an argument here, but just curious, what are you trying to put back? what are additives for? what are test kits for? For most people, their tank crash are not due to lack of w/c, is more or less that they assume that everything is fine and forgot to test their water, I guess everyone is different, no rights and wrongs here.

+1 if is not broken, don't fix it!

 

[bizarrecorals]

crap, forgot to quote

Here is the respose to your question.

for a good system a water cahnge is mostly to put back in rather than to take out


J, I did the same last year, and at the 5th. month corals did not look as happy. Started doing my weekly 20% water changes, and all the animals have improved.

 

[cali_reef]

Not trying to start an argument here, but just curious, what are you trying to put back? what are additives for? what are test kits for? For most people, their tank crash are not due to lack of w/c, is more or less that they assume that everything is fine and forgot to test their water, I guess everyone is different, no rights and wrongs here.

+1 if is not broken, don't fix it!

Can you come up with a magic additive that can replenish EVERYTHING that's used up? I bet you can make some serious $$ if you have this snake oil.

How long ago did you set up your tank? I like to see some established tank picture that didn't have any regular water changes.

 

[jab161]

for the three years ive had my tank ive had ZERO luck with sps. i havenot changed my water in at least four months because i am renovating the house im moving into. I had a red and a green plating monti which died shortly after i bought them. over the last month the green one is growing shelfs like crazy and the red one is slowly coming back. beats me

 

[MIKE NY]

Can you come up with a magic additive that can replenish EVERYTHING that's used up? I bet you can make some serious $$ if you have this snake oil.

How long ago did you set up your tank? I like to see some established tank picture that didn't have any regular water changes.

x2...I totally agree with Pierce.....I do a weekly 10% WC removing any settled detris in the sump and fuge , but mostly to replemish lost trace elements....although every system is different my tank just responds better with this regiment than any other I have tried.

 

[bizarrecorals]

Can you come up with a magic additive that can replenish EVERYTHING that's used up? I bet you can make some serious $$ if you have this snake oil.

How long ago did you set up your tank? I like to see some established tank picture that didn't have any regular water changes.

lol, if you knew what your doing, magic additives do exsist.

 

[Awibrandy]

Hey guys one point I should make is that although I have corals in my tank, they are easy to keep ones such as mushrooms, polys and a softies (I had trouble keeping corals due to copper getting in tank). So this advice might not be best for people with advanced reefs, but my point is more that the mere cleanliness and lack of algae has to indicate lack of nitrates and phosphates. I do think I could do a better job in adding all essential elements beyond the 3 basics (cal, alk, mag) but just that overall the calurpa which has the water completely passing through it and all the 200 lbs of rock seem to be keeping the ecosystem together.

I am basically noting that this tank seems to be significantly cleaner than my former 54 sps reef that I did 10 gallons a week on religiously. I am not saying that it will win "reefer of the month" or anything but merely noting that it is almost completely without algae and the last time I had trouble with algae was immediately after doing a 40 gallon W/C...I will try and post pics later...

Peace all and dont take this thread as an excuse to neglect your tank, but merely assess what is necessary and what is "overtraining" (metaphor).

J, perhaps you should copy & paste this on the end of your 1st. post.lol
You know how many newbies will read your 1st. post, and take it as an excuse not to do the maintance on their tanks.:Hydrogen:

 

[Awibrandy]

Not trying to start an argument here, but just curious, what are you trying to put back? what are additives for? what are test kits for? For most people, their tank crash are not due to lack of w/c, is more or less that they assume that everything is fine and forgot to test their water, I guess everyone is different, no rights and wrongs here.

+1 if is not broken, don't fix it!

Not sure what you are asking me. I am not dosing anything that I cannot measure. What is added to my reef is what ever trace & essential elements that are in the salt mix, what ever those may be.:kiss: Granted I do not know what they are, hence I let the animals tell me that they are happy with my choice of salt mix manufacturer I have chosen to get the job done.
Additives from my understanding is to replace what gets depleted by the animals, and since there aren't test kits for every single element I choose not to go that route. So much simpler to just do a water change that takes me at the most 20 min. a week.
Test kits, the few that are available, and even fewer that I use are here to help me make sure that I am on right track.
I never stated that tank crashes are due to lack of w/c, nor that w/c will prevent such.:smoker:

What I did say, and will say again is that I have done what JLaudio has done, and that ignoring our systems is not the best way to go from MY experience with MY 155 gallon mixed reef! But just the opposite, regular w/c seem to be the best for MY system.

So what is the point you are trying to make?

Also, what are your "magical" additives that you speak of?:kiss:

 

[emmanuel]

I have been doing biweekly 15% water changes and everything looks great .
I used to do monthly 30% and things looked ok.
I have skipped water changes for 6 weeks and tank didn't look so good as a result I had to follow up with weekly water changes so I recommend biweekly and if you have a nano tank weekly
as a side note I have a friend who is a newbie even though his tank has been running for a year he never researches anything about tanks and Never did a water change and I have to say his Softy tank looks great not a piece of algae but the tank is all soft easy corals mushrooms ,kenya trees etc.

 

[Awibrandy]

as a side note I have a friend who is a newbie even though his tank has been running for a year he never researches anything about tanks and Never did a water change and I have to say his Softy tank looks great not a piece of algae but the tank is all soft easy corals mushrooms ,kenya trees etc.

I can 100% see this! I suspect many softy corals suffer malnutrition in alot of our tanks, especially mixed reefs as we tend to keep our tanks low in nutrients. As a matter of fact it was my experience that all of my lps & softies w/the exception of zoas did nicely during those 5 months that I totally neglected my reef.:Yikes:

 

[AlohaTropics]

The issue with water changes is not simply to add elements that have depleted. It is Ionic Balance. Ca, Mg, Strontium, and many many trace elements are all present at certain balanced levels which creates an Ionic Balance found in natural seawater. As these elements get depleted through various means (coral consumption, precipitation, etc...), your water loses this Ionic Balance. Corals calicify and grow depending on the correct concentration and direct correlation in element balance. Mushrooms, softies, most of these corals do not calcify and therefore can exist in waters that are out of Ionic Balance. On the same note, ionic balance does not correlate with PO4 and NO3 so algae growth is not affected either.

The suggested method to restore Ionic balance is with small 10% changes every week, therefore keeping the balance as close to 100% as possible. There will always be a small offset in balance because the change is exponential over time. But Ionic balance is even worse when you do large changes over time. The balance offset is even greater and exponentially gets worse over time.

I have found that many times, people lose corals, sps lose color and die off, and they test and say their levels are perfect. Sometimes, Ionic Balance is the mystery culprit.

 

[reseter5]

i have a friend who builds designs and maintains high end reef tanks.. his personal tanks never get a water change .. onyl topoff.. he is firmly against water changes... and his tanks are amazing... obviously he doses a certain amount of things... but non the less no water changes besides topoff...

 

[AlohaTropics]

What type of Corals does he keep?

 

[TimberTDI]

 

[sjlesq]

pictures

I do not advocate not changing your water. I have not changed my water for almost two years. I keep sps, lps, leathers, and a bunch of fish. I had a bad algae problem called cladymporphia(sp?) and let my tank go natural. I basically let the algae and corals grow to fight it out. I have had ok sps growth. I have a 220, with a G3 skimmer and a calcium reactor. I use RO water and a Kalk reactor when i have time to fill it. I have been dosing Vodka for almost two years. I have MH and VHO lighting and a sump with chaeto.

All this being said, I am about to do a water change to see if I can get some more SPS color and growth. I am going to vacuum out my fuge - about 30 gallons to start.
I will post some pics.
There are pictures in my gallery - I am trying to figure out how to add to post

 

[Reefdoc22]

I have been in the hobby for years and while working at a LFS I realized the customers that had the most problems were ones that were doing frequent water changes and the ones who eventually got frustrated and almost gave up, ended up having amazing aquariums. Since then I started doing water changed about every 3 months and now I have some of the most beautiful Corals imaginable and tanks doing better than I could have guessed

 

[AlohaTropics]

Well, these are pretty amazing cases because they go against all we know! I'm glad you guys have seen success. My personal experience, everytime I do a 10% water change, my corals respond with visibly clearer signs of health. I have let my system go a few weeks without changing the water and frankly nothing bad has ever come out of it. But after I do make that water change, everything responds quite well.