No Water Changes - FarmerTy Reefing Method

Jimbo662 · Sep 6, 2015

We all wish we could master Ty's method so we have a tank as great as his!

Ty, you want to be a god parent to my tank and come take care of it for me???

FarmerTy · Sep 7, 2015

As long as I don't have to attend all your tank's birthdays, I'm in! [emoji6]

FarmerTy · Oct 1, 2015

Well, so much for the no water changes. I went 3 years with the last tank but made it about 1.5 years into this one and I could tell something was not making my acros happy. I did a 150-gallon water change over the span of a week and lo' and behold... everything is happy again. My suspicions are the newly added marinepure ceramic block I added that I was not too diligent in rinsing well first. The two blocks I have in the new tank are the real only difference from my old tank that I ran 3 years with no water changes on.

I hope this was a one-time event to flush out whatever may have come off the marinepure ceramic block. I'll keep everyone posted... in the meantime... here's a fun update video.

jasonandsarah · Oct 1, 2015

Idk if it's just me, but the video keeps saying private?

Russ265 · Oct 1, 2015

i think no water changes means that you dont have a schedule.
it would be silly not to wc when something is amiss. technically i did a huge wc when i had a dino outbreak. but i still keep the no wc schedule.

steelheader.262 · Oct 1, 2015

Look's amazing!!!!

FarmerTy · Oct 1, 2015

jasonandsarah said:
Idk if it's just me, but the video keeps saying private?

User error entirely... that's what I get for uploading late at night. I switched it from private to public. The video is a "go" now!

FarmerTy · Oct 1, 2015

Russ265 said:
i think no water changes means that you dont have a schedule.
it would be silly not to wc when something is amiss. technically i did a huge wc when i had a dino outbreak. but i still keep the no wc schedule.

Thanks Russ. I just wanted to be upfront and mention any large water volume changes so I don't give any illusions that aren't true. Hopefully this is the one change I'll actually need and it removed whatever accumulation/deficit that occurred in my tank. Time will tell.

FarmerTy · Oct 1, 2015

My triton results when things weren't happy.

Orly20 · Feb 28, 2016

Hi Farmer,

You still not doing water changes? What are the list of elements you test for and replenish on a regular basis, without using Triton?

FarmerTy · Feb 28, 2016

Orly20 said:
Hi Farmer,

You still not doing water changes? What are the list of elements you test for and replenish on a regular basis, without using Triton?

Yes, no water changes still. I don't replenish anything but the big 3, Ca, alk, and Mg. I do dose aminos 2x/week however.

Jimbo662 · Feb 28, 2016

How do we really know there are no water changes????

FarmerTy · Feb 28, 2016

Jimbo662 said:
How do we really know there are no water changes????

Well... I did have to replenish water when I sold a bunch of frags a couple weeks back...

Jimbo662 · Feb 28, 2016

Oh..."did I do that?"

Orly20 · Feb 28, 2016

So other then the 3 ,no trace elements at all? I thought you had to replenish them at some point due to them being used up. I am trying to understand this method a litte better.

stunreefer · Feb 28, 2016

FarmerTy said:
I've never gotten to see close up shots of his tank so at least for me, the jury is still out on coloration of his SPS.

FarmerTy · Feb 29, 2016

stunreefer said:

I have no doubt its a stunning tank, like mentioned, I've never seen close up shots of his corals. I've seen this FTS before and it looks amazing. The scientist in me would prefer some close shots as well if you can understand. [emoji4]

I'm all for finding different ways to make amazing tanks!

FarmerTy · Feb 29, 2016

Orly20 said:
So other then the 3 ,no trace elements at all? I thought you had to replenish them at some point due to them being used up. I am trying to understand this method a litte better.

I would assume so too but I haven't needed to yet. I think I will experiment though on increasing potassium to 600-700ppm and seeing if that improves coloration of acros.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 29, 2016

FarmerTy said:
I would assume so too but I haven't needed to yet. I think I will experiment though on increasing potassium to 600-700ppm and seeing if that improves coloration of acros.

Wow, that's pretty bold. A number of folks have reported problems at substantially lower levels.

Sabellafella · Feb 29, 2016

Orly20 said:
So other then the 3 ,no trace elements at all? I thought you had to replenish them at some point due to them being used up. I am trying to understand this method a litte better.

Pretty sure hes using a calc reactor, i dont kno much about the levels of trace elements in media but its used to melt media that is primarily made up of all the trace elements that corals take in