How to cheat on water changes?

[Droberts0724]

Just wondering if anyone gwts away with skipping or cheating on a water change? For example, I have not changed my water in 3 months. I have a 125 gallon dose calcium, magnesium, Alk and trace elements daily. I use filter socks and floss with purigen in the sock. I also have a skimmer and UV sanitizer but run little pumps in my sump to add to the flow. I add microbacter7 weekly and shut down the skimmer to help with excess nutrients. However recently I started adding a cup of dissolved salts to the tank once a week too. I also will clean any GHA I see weekly by scrubbing the rock. Tank seems happy and numbers are good. What works for you? Comment and leave me a pic!

 

[salt2salt]

I don't change water to much. I've never gone longer than 3 months without changing out 10%. When I first started i would change 5% every week and my tank would look great. it would start looking bad if i missed a couple weeks. Now that it's established it takes a few months or more to start going down hill.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I haven't done a water change since July.

 

[salt2salt]

I haven't done a water change since July.

Looking kind of cloudy, and your corals will do better if you change 10%

 

[Droberts0724]

I don't change water to much. I've never gone longer than 3 months without changing out 10%. When I first started i would change 5% every week and my tank would look great. it would start looking bad if i missed a couple weeks. Now that it's established it takes a few months or more to start going down hill.

Yes I'm finding there are ways around a water change. I guess just good husbandry and additives. I was wondering if anyone actually added the dissolved salt (red sea) weekly and I would say about a 5 gallon bucket of RODI tops off in about 2 days so water is always being added as salt water evaporates.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Looking kind of cloudy, and your corals will do better if you change 10%

I think its just the picture, its crystal clear lol. Nah, I dose and everything. Not worth the effort. Tank runs pristine. No Algae, no pests. Those pictures are actually a bit old. The tanks doing better than it ever has.

 

[Droberts0724]

Looking kind of cloudy, and your corals will do better if you change 10%

That's my crappy camera...the water is crystal clear!

I think its just the picture, its crystal clear lol. Nah, I dose and everything. Not worth the effort. Tank runs pristine. No Algae, no pests. Those pictures are actually a bit old. The tanks doing better than it ever has.

A better pic....I definitely agree a camera does the tank water no justice...it's crystal clear...

 

[User1]

There is no cheating. This is the honest to goodness truth. Many may not agree but there are no short cuts.

Now, with that out of the way you can design a system such that water changes are not required or not required as much. This is true. Sort of contradicts what I opened with but for clarity the difference is that the hobbyist has to design the system such that it can sustain it. Much like our body needs food and sleep corals need trace elements to grow and replenish energy. It doesn't all come from light. So if the system is designed such that it refills things extracted from the water for growth and life then yes, you can go with reduced or no water changes.

Balling comes to mind. Triton, DSR, Zevoit, Red Sea, Brightwell, and others are all starting to create methods to meet these design needs. Design. Implementation. Consistent. It works.

Flipping a switch and saying we don't do water changes and expect results isn't going to end well long term without refueling. Plain and simple.

 

[Hugh Mann]

In theory, as long as your nutrient export is good enough, FW top ups and maintaining salinity from losses via skimmer and such, and dosing the appropriate micronutrients, you could have a zero WC system. Very delicate balance though, I would imagine.

 

[Droberts0724]

There is no cheating. This is the honest to goodness truth. Many may not agree but there are no short cuts.

Now, with that out of the way you can design a system such that water changes are not required or not required as much. This is true. Sort of contradicts what I opened with but for clarity the difference is that the hobbyist has to design the system such that it can sustain it. Much like our body needs food and sleep corals need trace elements to grow and replenish energy. It doesn't all come from light. So if the system is designed such that it refills things extracted from the water for growth and life then yes, you can go with reduced or no water changes.

Balling comes to mind. Triton, DSR, Zevoit, Red Sea, Brightwell, and others are all starting to create methods to meet these design needs. Design. Implementation. Consistent. It works.

Flipping a switch and saying we don't do water changes and expect results isn't going to end well long term without refueling. Plain and simple.

Yes I will still do a 20% water change every now and then but have found with adding the red sea trace elements and my daily regulars the tank is thriving and doing well. I get the occasional patch of GHA but my CUC handle most of it and what they don't, I do. My water is clear and numbers are good. My tang are fat and happy and all seems well. Just wondered if anyone had any extra suggestions to keep things a little more pristine. I also have a biocube so I have a lot of work daily.

 

[sp1187]

how do you add salt and not raise salinity?

 

[Droberts0724]

In theory, as long as your nutrient export is good enough, FW top ups and maintaining salinity from losses via skimmer and such, and dosing the appropriate micronutrients, you could have a zero WC system. Very delicate balance though, I would imagine.

It definitely would be hard to eliminate them totally all together but with the bigger tank and right chemicals and clean up crew...I'm definitely stretching them out with success.

 

[Droberts0724]

how do you add salt and not raise salinity?

I have a 125 gallon so I just do 1 cup of dissolved red sea salt for the extra trace elements and my salinity stays between 1.024 and 1.025. I have gotten that down to a science with the top off bucket too. It's mostly 1.024 and never really budges...I would assume the tank size has a lot to do with the reason the salinity doesn't move. I only add 1 cup salt to 1 cup dissolved water to the sump....just started but so far so good!

 

[Hugh Mann]

how do you add salt and not raise salinity?

As the skimmer removes water, it would get replaced by an auto top off, same with spills, wet hands, anything that removes water. Not a big deal short term, and usually adjusted by water changes, but I would think long term it would cause a net decrease in salinity. Adding salt every so often would counteract that.

At least that's how I imagine it would work.

 

[User1]

Yes I will still do a 20% water change every now and then but have found with adding the red sea trace elements and my daily regulars the tank is thriving and doing well. I get the occasional patch of GHA but my CUC handle most of it and what they don't, I do. My water is clear and numbers are good. My tang are fat and happy and all seems well. Just wondered if anyone had any extra suggestions to keep things a little more pristine. I also have a biocube so I have a lot of work daily.

Sure. What you are doing is resupplying some trace elements by adding the Red Sea items. I do not remember exactly what is in the Red Sea kit but some of what it is adding would be similar to what a water change does. May not be a 1 to 1 match but you are in essence adding trace elements back into the system.

If you didn't then it may be a different discussion. For what it is worth I live in California and our weather sometimes yields low rain years. Back to back to back years and, well, we are in a drought. Making RO/RI water doesn't make sense in these times of years so I have two options.

Option 1 - reduce or stop all water changes and go additive base. I use Tropic Marin in this case and it works well for me.

Option 2 - go with natural sea water. This is actually my preference but after moving I've not setup proper storage yet so probably won't be back to doing this until the summer. It works well because I can knock out a day of diving and then collect it on the way home

In either case I do think in our current world situation that additive based mixed with minimum water changes is ideal. Just looking at it from a waste perspective.

 

[speedstar]

I have a 125 gallon so I just do 1 cup of dissolved red sea salt for the extra trace elements and my salinity stays between 1.024 and 1.025. I have gotten that down to a science with the top off bucket too. It's mostly 1.024 and never really budges...I would assume the tank size has a lot to do with the reason the salinity doesn't move. I only add 1 cup salt to 1 cup dissolved water to the sump....just started but so far so good!

it will eventually creep

 

[Droberts0724]

As the skimmer removes water, it would get replaced by an auto top off, same with spills, wet hands, anything that removes water. Not a big deal short term, and usually adjusted by water changes, but I would think long term it would cause a net decrease in salinity. Adding salt every so often would counteract that.

At least that's how I imagine it would work.

Yes it seems to keep my salinity completely stable

 

[Droberts0724]

it will eventually creep

Yes that's what I'm watching for. I will just adjust as I have some play in my numbers. I was never really able to keep my salinity much above 1.024 probably due to a "wet" skim which I assume dissolves more of my salts.

 

[Droberts0724]

Sure. What you are doing is resupplying some trace elements by adding the Red Sea items. I do not remember exactly what is in the Red Sea kit but some of what it is adding would be similar to what a water change does. May not be a 1 to 1 match but you are in essence adding trace elements back into the system.

If you didn't then it may be a different discussion. For what it is worth I live in California and our weather sometimes yields low rain years. Back to back to back years and, well, we are in a drought. Making RO/RI water doesn't make sense in these times of years so I have two options.

Option 1 - reduce or stop all water changes and go additive base. I use Tropic Marin in this case and it works well for me.

Option 2 - go with natural sea water. This is actually my preference but after moving I've not setup proper storage yet so probably won't be back to doing this until the summer. It works well because I can knock out a day of diving and then collect it on the way home

In either case I do think in our current world situation that additive based mixed with minimum water changes is ideal. Just looking at it from a waste perspective.

Yes I can stretch the inevitable but can't eliminate it totally.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I had a tank I deemed "successful" without doing waterchanges for YEARS. Only time fresh SW was added was replacing water that was used for acclimation or when I bag and sell coral and have to replace that water. But I am currently going through a crash where I lost 95% of my sps. But I will most likely never be doing weekly waterchanges.