- Location
- Stamford, CT
6 Months ? No Water Changes
About 6-9 months ago there was a really interesting post about water changes. Pretty much how little we really know about water. I commented in the thread that I was going to stop doing water changes all together. I wish I could find the thread because I wanted to post 6 month observations.
All levels, with the exception of Nitrates, remained the same. During the past 6 months I removed the filter sock, carbon, and GFO. For the most part I neglected the system. There was no smell or no adverse effects on fish or corals. A matter of fact everything seemed to thrive.
Stock List
Sailfin Tang
Yellow Tang
Purple Tang
Powder Brown Tang
5 Clowns
5 Chromis
1 Wrasse
1 Damsel
Cleaner Shrimp
Blood Shrimp
& more
Coral
LPS
Wall Hammers
Branching Frogs, Hammers, Torches
Multiple Acans
Multiple Chalices
Zoas
Palys
Leathers
Shrooms
Montipora
& much more
About a month in I stopped doing test. Four months into the stretch I started dumping A&B, and some milky reef stuff, and iodine, into the sump. A cap here, a cap there. Just squirted the stuff in or dumped straight from the container. I just wanted to keep my Alk and Cal stable. Which I did. Even willy nilly my parameters were perfect. As Dubs would say, ?I went Renegade?.
Six months in I started to notice some rather ill effects. It started with green and red algae. It wasn?t everywhere, just on some of the rocks and a few quarter size pieces on the sand. The glass became harder and harder to clean. There was a surface layer of algae that came off with a swipe of the magnetic cleaner but the layer under that, the layer that snails made tracks on was quite difficult to remove. All the corals are doing fine with the exception of one Devils Hand. This is what prompted me to take some tests. The devils hand stopped flowering. It kind of shrunk in on itself and started to shed. One of it?s fingers started to tear away. All test results were normal except for Nitrates. Nitrates climbed to about 160. Test water was virtually red. Water clarity was pretty bad.
A few weeks ago I put the Carbon and GFO back on the system. I can?t honestly say that I saw a noticeable effect in water clarity?..but the water in the sump was crystal clear.
Knowing how far I pushed the level of Nitrates I started to panic. Fear set in. I didn?t want to loose anything so I decided this past weekend to do a 70 gallon water change on a 120DT 30Sump system. The leather immediately perked up and started to flower again. My lobos however shrunk in on themselves. And my Sun Coral popped out in full bloom, mid day. After about 24 hours after the water change the algae on the glass came off much easier. Water clarity is amazing. I?ve never seen the water so clear and clean. I planned on doing another water change this weekend to get the Nitrates as close to 0 as possible but after taking the test the results came in so well I?ve decided to wait. The water in the test vial was yellow. That?s pretty darn good!
About 6-9 months ago there was a really interesting post about water changes. Pretty much how little we really know about water. I commented in the thread that I was going to stop doing water changes all together. I wish I could find the thread because I wanted to post 6 month observations.
All levels, with the exception of Nitrates, remained the same. During the past 6 months I removed the filter sock, carbon, and GFO. For the most part I neglected the system. There was no smell or no adverse effects on fish or corals. A matter of fact everything seemed to thrive.
Stock List
Sailfin Tang
Yellow Tang
Purple Tang
Powder Brown Tang
5 Clowns
5 Chromis
1 Wrasse
1 Damsel
Cleaner Shrimp
Blood Shrimp
& more
Coral
LPS
Wall Hammers
Branching Frogs, Hammers, Torches
Multiple Acans
Multiple Chalices
Zoas
Palys
Leathers
Shrooms
Montipora
& much more
About a month in I stopped doing test. Four months into the stretch I started dumping A&B, and some milky reef stuff, and iodine, into the sump. A cap here, a cap there. Just squirted the stuff in or dumped straight from the container. I just wanted to keep my Alk and Cal stable. Which I did. Even willy nilly my parameters were perfect. As Dubs would say, ?I went Renegade?.
Six months in I started to notice some rather ill effects. It started with green and red algae. It wasn?t everywhere, just on some of the rocks and a few quarter size pieces on the sand. The glass became harder and harder to clean. There was a surface layer of algae that came off with a swipe of the magnetic cleaner but the layer under that, the layer that snails made tracks on was quite difficult to remove. All the corals are doing fine with the exception of one Devils Hand. This is what prompted me to take some tests. The devils hand stopped flowering. It kind of shrunk in on itself and started to shed. One of it?s fingers started to tear away. All test results were normal except for Nitrates. Nitrates climbed to about 160. Test water was virtually red. Water clarity was pretty bad.
A few weeks ago I put the Carbon and GFO back on the system. I can?t honestly say that I saw a noticeable effect in water clarity?..but the water in the sump was crystal clear.
Knowing how far I pushed the level of Nitrates I started to panic. Fear set in. I didn?t want to loose anything so I decided this past weekend to do a 70 gallon water change on a 120DT 30Sump system. The leather immediately perked up and started to flower again. My lobos however shrunk in on themselves. And my Sun Coral popped out in full bloom, mid day. After about 24 hours after the water change the algae on the glass came off much easier. Water clarity is amazing. I?ve never seen the water so clear and clean. I planned on doing another water change this weekend to get the Nitrates as close to 0 as possible but after taking the test the results came in so well I?ve decided to wait. The water in the test vial was yellow. That?s pretty darn good!
