Are water changes REALLY necessary?

[scoobysnack77]

I have a question , if I'm running an sps dominated tank with about 10 fish, dosing a 2 part as well as dosing the 31 trace elements(red sea 2 part and coral colors), running carbon/gfo (dual reactor) what would be the purpose of a water change? my phosphates and nitrates are always zero when i test weekly and all my parameters are in line. im also running a fuge loaded with chaeto. i have a sandbed in both the display and my fuge. Does the swing in parameters upset sensitive acros during a water change? Any thoughts?

 

[JMSKI333]

A lot of people run successful tanks just like you without water changes or maybe just a water change once a year.

I believe an advantage of a water change that you aren't providing that a water change does provide, is re-ionizing the water. I should note that I am not a scientist and I am just throwing information out there that I believe that I read somewhere haha. So take it as you wish.

 

[scoobysnack77]

A lot of people run successful tanks just like you without water changes or maybe just a water change once a year.

I believe an advantage of a water change that you aren't providing that a water change does provide, is re-ionizing the water. I should note that I am not a scientist and I am just throwing information out there that I believe that I read somewhere haha. So take it as you wish.

doesnt my skimmer re-ionize the water?

 

[tonizzy22]

In your situation water changes does not benefit you for nutrient control but it will help you for accumulated trace elements

 

[tonizzy22]

and chemical coral warfare. Regular smaller water changes will stop swings in any of your parameters.

 

[scoobysnack77]

In your situation water changes does not benefit you for nutrient control but it will help you for accumulated trace elements

well im using the red sea 2 part and coral colors in my dosing scheme so do you mean water changes will help remove the accumulated trace elements im adding via dosing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

doesnt my skimmer re-ionize the water?

What does reionize mean to you?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a question , if I'm running an sps dominated tank with about 10 fish, dosing a 2 part as well as dosing the 31 trace elements(red sea 2 part and coral colors), running carbon/gfo (dual reactor) what would be the purpose of a water change? my phosphates and nitrates are always zero when i test weekly and all my parameters are in line. im also running a fuge loaded with chaeto. i have a sandbed in both the display and my fuge. Does the swing in parameters upset sensitive acros during a water change? Any thoughts?

I think the answer is clearly that it isn't "necessary", but I think they are helpful in maintaining an optimal environment.

Adding trace elements cannot ever lower things that are accumulating, and you likely have no idea if the amount added is too much, just right, or not enough.

Water changes can also keep some of the major ions in line, such as chloride, sulfate, and potassium.

It also remove organics that are not easily skimmed or bound to GAC.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

well im using the red sea 2 part and coral colors in my dosing scheme so do you mean water changes will help remove the accumulated trace elements im adding via dosing?

Or add those which you are not adding enough.

 

[PatW]

Water changes offer a number of benefits.

Nutrient export - this is the removal of primarily nitrogen and phosphorus. I think you probably have decent control here. But a water change would not hurt.

Removal of complex organics especially produced by corals in chemical warfare but other toxins and wastes are produced. These can be controlled by using charcoal filtration or an ozone reactor. Again, a water change will help this.

And finally replacement of trace elements of the removal of accumulating trace elements. Adding trace elements helps but without accurate testing of the element concentration, you really cannot be sure. Again water changes help.

Now you seem to be enjoying success with you current routine. And you may continue to be successful.

However, anytime one wants to promote stability in a complex system having redundant measures to back each other up will promote long term stability. I would say that in your system, water changes would provide a certain amount of insurance. it all depends on whether you want insurance.

 

[scoobysnack77]

I think the answer is clearly that it isn't "necessary", but I think they are helpful in maintaining an optimal environment.

Adding trace elements cannot ever lower things that are accumulating, and you likely have no idea if the amount added is too much, just right, or not enough.

Water changes can also keep some of the major ions in line, such as chloride, sulfate, and potassium.

It also remove organics that are not easily skimmed or bound to GAC.

well as of now ive been trusting in the Red Sea 2 part and coral colors which is the basic foundation elements (alk & cal) and the 4 part which is the other 31 trace elements and micro nutrients. i was told by red sea to dose 1ml of each coral color bottle (4 in total) for every 10ml of calcium i dose to my system. so im trusting that they did the work figuring out formula for not overdosing. so far so good though. but i do agree about the organics that arent removed by gfo and carbon. i have been doing weekly water changes but i just wanted to know if it was necessary to do every week since my nutrients are always low.

 

[eyezclozd]

If I changed just 15% of my total water volume, what would the minimum amount of water changes you guys would recommend per year?

 

[jackson6745]

Without speculation, I never saw a full blow SPS tank that I admired that didn't incorporate a somewhat "normal" water change schedule. IMO yes they are necessary, why?, I can't explain. Beat it up all you want, proof is in the results.

 

[scoobysnack77]

Without speculation, I never saw a full blow SPS tank that I admired that didn't incorporate a somewhat "normal" water change schedule. IMO yes they are necessary, why?, I can't explain. Beat it up all you want, proof is in the results.

agreed, I've always done weekly water changes. Just wanted to know why. There have been some insane tanks I've seen that have never done a water change. I was reading about it last night. Interesting concept.

 

[ReeferEric]

If your doing that many chemicals then I think you'll be ok. I stopped doing water changes due to too clean of water but will start back on it soon. It's all in preference, I would still recommend water changes from time to time to refresh everything.

 

[mikellini]

I think there's something to be said for stability, and against the routine change of large percentages of water. And changing smaller amounts means that you lose the benefits of dilution (removing some organics, toxins, accumulated trace elements). The only solution to this imo is to implement a continuous water change system that swaps out a large percentage of water without affecting stability.

 

[mikellini]

I think otherwise it's better to not do them at all, or just very small amounts infrequently and as needed

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

well as of now ive been trusting in the Red Sea 2 part and coral colors which is the basic foundation elements (alk & cal) and the 4 part which is the other 31 trace elements and micro nutrients. i was told by red sea to dose 1ml of each coral color bottle (4 in total) for every 10ml of calcium i dose to my system. so im trusting that they did the work figuring out formula for not overdosing. so far so good though. but i do agree about the organics that arent removed by gfo and carbon. i have been doing weekly water changes but i just wanted to know if it was necessary to do every week since my nutrients are always low.

I wouldn't attribute any special knowledge to Red Sea of an area that is quite complex and poorly understood.

FWIW, there no way that a single recipe can be the correct dosage of 31 different elements to 10,000 different aquaria with totally different needs.

One only needs to look to the wide range of trace element data that folks are getting with Triton testing to see that what is needed and what is building up varies considerably from tank to tank.

 

[mikellini]

I wouldn't attribute any special knowledge to Red Sea of an area that is quite complex and poorly understood.

FWIW, there no way that a single recipe can be the correct dosage of 31 different elements to 10,000 different aquaria with totally different needs.

One only needs to look to the wide range of trace element data that folks are getting with Triton testing to see that what is needed and what is building up varies considerably from tank to tank.

This is also what makes me wonder about the benefit of water changes in supplying or removing trace elements. It seems that some salt mixes have unexpectedly high amounts of some elements (I've seen tin, lithium, aluminum), while some are low, and that this varies from batch to batch, never mind manufacturer to manufacturer. So while you might think you'd be 'leveling out' trace elements by doing a water change, you might actually be removing too many or supplying a toxic excess. Plus, when measuring at such small concentrations, any amount of contamination could have a big effect on results...

It sure would be nice to have a pipe running in from the ocean...

 

[Pete polyp]

I went 5 months without a water change and I saw negative results. The corals (sps in particular) lost some of the intensity and luster they had before and after resuming water changes