No more water changes needed

[Eckolancer]

First want to start by saying only comment if you are not doing water changes or are doing them at say 6 month intervals or greater.

My tank is about 6 months old now. My last water change was 3-15-14, and only 5 gallons. My setup is 108 gallon rimless, running about 1000 grams of biopellets, no sand all man made ceremeco rock. Skimmer is vertex 150 with neck cleaner which is fed right from reactor. 2 wp40s. Currently I'm growing mostly sps on rocks, acans on sandless bottom, with zoas on one 18 plug frag rock. All corals are doing great with only dosing cal and alk 4 times a day with apex. Fish are a larger blue tang, larger foxface, 2 yellow tangs, clown tang, flame angel, sixline, my phosphates sit around .02 with hanna, nitrate sit less then 5, nitrite and ammonia 0, alk 7.8, cal 420, sal 1-025 mag 1350-1400. ok enough with that info.

My main question is what do I need to dose for long term as far as trace elements? I've done a couple cap fulls of iodine in the last 3 months as well as amino acids a couple times. Feeling like there will be a deficiency long term.

Are there any good test kits that will help test for trace elements? Are they truly needed long term? Seen a few very nice tanks that have not done water changes in a year or more. Only addition of salt from time to time. Ive had to add 1.5 cups of salt in the last 3 months. The reason is some evaporation or skimmer removing some.

Here is a couple pics of the tank and corals. Most were frags kept from last tank when I took it down.

 

[Eckolancer]

 

[Pete polyp]

Until last week I went 6 months without changing the water. I did have a little Bayer dip get into the tank about a month ago which caused some harm. The first 4 months everything was looking awesome, better than it ever has. Even before the accident with Bayer colors started to fade, growth slowed. It progressed to stn, loss of a couple sps and colors fading to being non existent. Fast forward to a week ago... I changed 4 gallons (in a 29) and since colors are returning, growth is showing. I can't say with certainty the water change was the reason, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. I'm going to go back to changing 4 gallons every 2 weeks to see what happens.

To answer your question, seachem reef plus is a good trace element to dose. I personally use ocean blend 2 part which contains a broad assortment of major and minor trace elements.

 

[TrialandError]

I went forever with no water change. Now it's biting me in the rear. Having a horrible algae problem and then some. Don't slack on water changes or you may regret it later.

 

[Eckolancer]

Pete as for rtn you may have been running alk or cal too high as well as iodine depleted. I have had 2 start rtn dosed iodine and stopped all rtn and dropped salinity, alk and cal down closer to bali water levels.

Trialand
Depending on what type of system you had you may have not been exporting nitrate and phosphates fast enough. I did have algae growth in the beginning but is wiped out now after biopellets fully kicked in also had to add a little more to keep up with everything.

 

[Pete polyp]

Actually my alk and calcium were at the low end of the scale normally used for ulns at that time. 7 dkh and 360 ca. As far as iodine depleted I seriously doubt it. I feed frozen heavily (6 times per day) and there's plenty of iodine left over. If I had to guess I would say the orp got out of whack and caused the problems.

 

[scottishreefer]

Since May 2013 I have only changed 10% of my system volume on 4 occasions. I haven't done a water change this year. I am dosing Balling Classic plus a couple of extras. I regularly check parameters and keep an eye on salinity. All levels have been stable. Readings today were

Salinity 35ppt
Alkalinity 8.3
Calcium 430
Magnesium 1350
Potassium 400
Strontium 3.0

I top up with RO/DI. I have also been dosing Nualgi for the past 6 weeks. Corals and tank are looking the best I've seen it. I know some of you will be saying that I'm heading for a fall with no water changes and it'll soon bite me, but while my corals and fish continue to look healthy I'll carry on the way things are just now.
Here's a pic if my tank..

 

[rock_lobster]

It usually takes 1-2 years for the problems to begin when you dont do water changes (if you have good filtration). There are several reasons, 1) accumulation of phophates in the rock and sand, 2) imbalance of elements/loss of elements, 3) airborne particles could be accumulating and etc.

 

[ngvu1]

Interesting concept. I have read about ways to avoid water change like using Algea Turf Scraper .... No one like water change. I change water weekly or by weekly. I seem to have algea growing like crazy if I let it slide for 3 weeks....I have not tried the pellets method though.

 

[Pete polyp]

It usually takes 1-2 years for the problems to begin when you dont do water changes (if you have good filtration). There are several reasons, 1) accumulation of phophates in the rock and sand, 2) imbalance of elements/loss of elements, 3) airborne particles could be accumulating and etc.

Wouldn't #2 depend on how many corals you have?

 

[scottishreefer]

It usually takes 1-2 years for the problems to begin when you dont do water changes (if you have good filtration). There are several reasons, 1) accumulation of phophates in the rock and sand, 2) imbalance of elements/loss of elements, 3) airborne particles could be accumulating and etc.

The overflow from my tank drains directly into quite a large refugium with chaeto and a small blade caulerpa sp. This then drains into my sump where I have my skimmer (BM NAC7). I also run biopellets and a reactor with phosphate remover and carbon.
You mention an imbalance of elements. I dose calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, NaCl free salts, magnesium chloride, potassium iodide, strontium chloride therefor keeping an eye on salinity and other levels. Skimmer runs quite dry skimmate, this way skimmer output helps balance salinity and I top up with RO/DI.
I have noticed my rocks and sand have actually looked cleaner in the last 6 weeks while dosing Nualgi. So surely phosphate levels in rock must be decreasing.

 

[reeffirstaid]

IMHO, deciding not to do water changes, or simply doing them every six months, is a bad idea. When I worked in a public aquarium, the biggest problem we dealt with, was not being able to replace marine water, with fresh synthetic marine water. Since the Pittsburgh Aquarium is in Pittsburgh, quite a distance from natural sea water, it was rare that a fully complete water change could be done. At times, water would be changed in the reef systems, but in the much larger tanks (100k gallons +) water was pulled through a powerful filtration system, then returned to the tank. Lots of things can happen. Nutrients can overload the water, old tank syndrome (rapid accumulation of phosphate) can occur, trace elements will not remain in balance - and the list goes on.

Like was mentioned, you can get by a year or so, without water changes, but sooner or later, the levy breaks. What's amazing, in about 20 minutes a week, you can cheaply and quickly, take care of all these concerns by changing 10% of your water, 5% at a time. Today, they are automatic water changing devices that can be tuned to provide slowly, day long water changes. The money you will spend on trace elements, and the time for testing a dosing, seem to me like a waste, when a bucket of salt mix, a RODI unit and some elbow grease, can help keep your reef healthy. In reality, the ability to produce high quality synthetic saltwater, is one of the best advantages we have, in this hobby.

 

[scottishreefer]

If no water changes are such a bad idea, how do you explain glennf's DSR reef. He's not done a water change in 8 years and you've got to admit, his tank is stunning.

 

[rock_lobster]

If no water changes are such a bad idea, how do you explain glennf's DSR reef. He's not done a water change in 8 years and you've got to admit, his tank is stunning.

It is possible....... Its just not good advice to give anyone. It is a gamble and 9/10 tanks where people do zero water change end in failure.... Yes you can measure every single ion in the water with ion chromatography and obviously keep a saltwater tank, but it is not that easy nor practical for most people in the hobby.

 

[scottishreefer]

It is possible....... Its just not good advice to give anyone. It is a gamble and 9/10 tanks where people do zero water change end in failure.... Yes you can measure every single ion in the water with ion chromatography and obviously keep a saltwater tank, but it is not that easy nor practical for most people in the hobby.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advising anyone not to do water changes and I'm not saying that I'll never do another one. It's my choice not to at present. If I ever have any concerns with my tank levels, if need be I'll do a water change then.

 

[Beradd]

to me saying "no water changes needed" is kinda like saying I don't need to take my dog outside I can use floor cleaner and fabreeze to clean it up.... doing water changes is super simple and effective. what can possible be gained by not doing water changes? is "aged water" better? one or a few persons success with this method cant outweigh the majority who do water changes...sounds like a path to trouble to me.

 

[Eckolancer]

Since May 2013 I have only changed 10% of my system volume on 4 occasions. I haven't done a water change this year. I am dosing Balling Classic plus a couple of extras. I regularly check parameters and keep an eye on salinity. All levels have been stable. Readings today were

Salinity 35ppt
Alkalinity 8.3
Calcium 430
Magnesium 1350
Potassium 400
Strontium 3.0

I top up with RO/DI. I have also been dosing Nualgi for the past 6 weeks. Corals and tank are looking the best I've seen it. I know some of you will be saying that I'm heading for a fall with no water changes and it'll soon bite me, but while my corals and fish continue to look healthy I'll carry on the way things are just now.
Here's a pic if my tank..

Thanks for this post this is what I was looking for. What test kits are you using for potassium, strontium?

BTW everyone I have been in the hobby for a little over 15 years now. Tried Just about all methods of keeping fish and corals.

 

[scottishreefer]

Thanks for this post this is what I was looking for. What test kits are you using for potassium, strontium?

BTW everyone I have been in the hobby for a little over 15 years now. Tried Just about all methods of keeping fish and corals.

I use Salifert kits. I have been told that Red Sea kit for potassium is better/more accurate. I've never used it so I can't comment.

 

[jordsyke]

Hey eckolancer, I am trying same thing as you. How long till ur pellets kicked into overdrive? and did you dose anything for the pellets to seed?

 

[nphsmith]

Google "Triton Method". It's becoming quite a thing in Europe, (Like all new methods, quite controversial). One part of it is an (allegedly) extremely precise test using something called an ICP, which tests for huuuuge amounts of trace elements.