No water change method 32gallon Nano

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 11, 2020

Hi from the Netherlands!

Its a very sensitive topic and debate can go on and on but since I saw the Instagram post from R2R about no water change. So I'm sharing my tank. For me a no waterchange reef tank is more than possible! you just have to find a solid method that can guide and support you all the way and I found it 13 months ago.

I'm originally from New Zealand and started my reefing journey there. I had 13 gallon reef but man!!! that was a hardwork hobby. Doing waterchages 2x a week was a mission and being a first time dad.

(My first aquaone nano reef 55liters)

In 2018 i have sell my first ever reef because i have to moved to the Netherlands.

Early 2019 I was talking to my reefing friend from New Zealand as I was planning to build a nano again and my friend told me about this DSR method that I should try it since I live in the Netherlands anyway. Since trying it i never looked back.

This my 32gallons/125liters nano 50cm cube.
Tank is running the DSR method (Dutch Synthetic Reefing) its a no waterchange method. This tank been in this method since day one 13months ago.

Tank lighting is AI Hydra 26HD with 4 ATI t5 bulbs 2x blue plus and 2x actinic.

Tank parameters are.
Alkalinity 9dkh
Calcium 440ppm
Magnesium 1350ppm
No3 2.5ppm
Po4 0.04ppm

hmmmmm · Oct 11, 2020

Yes a lot of reefers here use the DSR method, seen some great tanks that have been up for years. And more affordable then Triton or KZ! Personally I'm a fan of water changes over the long run but the results are hard to argue with.

Great tank, especially love the red\orange gonio!

Perry · Oct 11, 2020

Stunning nano, very mature and colorful corals

Well done, those stony corals must deplete minerals quickly, and to maintain balance is very challenging, are you balling, not sure of chemistry management with DSR method, whichever, seems like your strategy is working

Thanks for sharing!

najer · Oct 11, 2020

Looking very good, love the dsr tanks.

Jdubyo · Oct 11, 2020

Wow, I have heard and seen triton and KZ but not this one! I am very curious to know more

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 11, 2020

hmmmmm said:
Yes a lot of reefers here use the DSR method, seen some great tanks that have been up for years. And more affordable then Triton or KZ! Personally I'm a fan of water changes over the long run but the results are hard to argue with.

Great tank, especially love the red\orange gonio!

Yes! Thank you! This was my gonio 4 months ago

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 11, 2020

Perry said:
Stunning nano, very mature and colorful corals Well done, those stony corals must deplete minerals quickly, and to maintain balance is very challenging, are you balling, not sure of chemistry management with DSR method, whichever, seems like your strategy is working Thanks for sharing!

The trace elements supplement is called EZ trace (magnesium and trace elements) which is 50% dosage from the amount of EZ calcium (ca and strontiom) dosing. For example if im dosing 10ml of EZ Calcium then the amount EZ trace i need to dose is 5ml and it should replenish the trace elements that has been used by the corals.

Jdubyo · Oct 11, 2020

Are you dosing manually or with a dosing pump for this?

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 11, 2020

Jdubyo said:
Are you dosing manually or with a dosing pump for this?

Dosing in dosing pump. Its not possible dosing manually anymore. Dosing 60ml of Alkalinity in a day 15ml of calcium 7ml of trace 5ml of carbon.

Cole.mormon · Oct 11, 2020

Calc to 550

DonDrummond · Oct 11, 2020

Beautiful reef!!!!

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 11, 2020

Cole.mormon said:
Calc to 550

No, mine stable at 440ppm calcium

Chaz D · Oct 11, 2020

Are you running a power filter on this system?

Jdubyo · Oct 12, 2020

Ianne.Guinares said:
Dosing in dosing pump. Its not possible dosing manually anymore. Dosing 60ml of Alkalinity in a day 15ml of calcium 7ml of trace 5ml of carbon.

Do you mind me asking what day one was like for dosing? Did you have as many frags as you do colonies now? Or was it more gradual? How much were you dosing at that time? I am setting up a new nano now (see my build thread

) and I am strongly considering trying this method.

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 12, 2020

Chaz D said:
Are you running a power filter on this system?

Yup! In my sump and soon in my dispay too

Ianne.Guinares · Oct 12, 2020

Jdubyo said:
Do you mind me asking what day one was like for dosing? Did you have as many frags as you do colonies now? Or was it more gradual? How much were you dosing at that time? I am setting up a new nano now (see my build thread ) and I am strongly considering trying this method.

Dosing was not that hard in early days. We have a calculator that really helps us guide all the way through. We test every week for Alk, Ca, no3 and po4 and every 3 weeks for Mag. We test and adjust dosing pump according the consumption
from our tank. Like for me my tank my alk drop 0.3-0.5ppm every 7 days and my calcium normally changes every 2 weeks or 1 week.

Most corals are the same from 8 months ago. They all colored up and grown. Only the birdnest in the middle are newish.

coolblueatx · Oct 17, 2020

Beautiful nano. I'm glad to see someone successfully running an all-in-one with no water change. Whenever I asked about this in the past, I just get shot down. Saying you can't do it because you don't have a sump, calcium reactor,etc.

I have a fairly new IM 20G peninsula all-in-one and would like to try this method. I'm interested in your setup.

Are you running a skimmer? What about filtration?

Thanks