skimmerless tank with no water changes

jasonandsarah · Jul 29, 2015

jared graves said:
It's really hard to tell just looking at a picture. Can you post a few more pics from the sides?

Now your asking me to clean the sides of my glass? Ludacris! Lol jk
Not the best pics but I just took them with my cell.

jasonandsarah · Jul 29, 2015

Idk why the first one is upside down?

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

jasonandsarah said:
Here's my 75g and I estimate there to be around 75-100 lbs of liverock? Am I under estimating it?
I know it's not a 265g! Lol just wondering?

judging by the size of the plugs, you appear to have quite a few boulders back there which would have me agree with you.

I would guestimate 60-80 lbs.

Not sure about 100 unless it was pretty dense

reefndude · Jul 29, 2015

I run a skimmerless system, 3 years now. Always used carbon and just recently added gfo. I do water changes, 5 gallons weekly on a 160 gallon system. Heavy bioload

asandbox · Jul 29, 2015

I've herd story where people add DSB and got no skimmate, as long as you keep good flow to your rocks it should be fine, you don't want old tank syndrome where DSB and live rock get depleted and start leaching out phosphates and nitrates

reefndude · Jul 29, 2015

Here's a few photos. I do use dsb, have about 70 lbs. of rock.Use refugium with macro and ats, which neither really grow much

maroun.c · Jul 29, 2015

What I would worry about more than the nutrients which can be handled is defficiencies in certain elements other than Alk and Ca which get used by growing corals and other inhabitants. Eevn a skimmer would not be able to handle everything and this is where water changes play the biggest role.
Also I'd worry about accumulation of certain contaminants that come in with 2 part dosing as well as with food.
Would be great to send a water sample after 5-6 months without water changes to get it tested and get a better idea about what's accumulating and what's being consumed in your water.

vladimir4076 · Jul 29, 2015

Hi all so how you guys manage salinity?with out water changes

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

maroun.c said:
What I would worry about more than the nutrients which can be handled is defficiencies in certain elements other than Alk and Ca which get used by growing corals and other inhabitants. Eevn a skimmer would not be able to handle everything and this is where water changes play the biggest role.
Also I'd worry about accumulation of certain contaminants that come in with 2 part dosing as well as with food.
Would be great to send a water sample after 5-6 months without water changes to get it tested and get a better idea about what's accumulating and what's being consumed in your water.

That is a good idea....

I think I will get a Triton test, wait 6 months doing my typical 5-10 gal

vladimir4076 said:
Hi all so how you guys manage salinity?with out water changes

how would it change?

TheSaint216 · Jul 29, 2015

No skimmer here. Water changes every 2 or 3 weeks. Just Macro in the sump.

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

TheSaint216 said:
No skimmer here. Water changes every 2 or 3 weeks. Just Macro in the sump.

you have plastic fish and corals too? lol i j/k

jared graves · Jul 29, 2015

maroun.c said:
What I would worry about more than the nutrients which can be handled is defficiencies in certain elements other than Alk and Ca which get used by growing corals and other inhabitants. Eevn a skimmer would not be able to handle everything and this is where water changes play the biggest role.
Also I'd worry about accumulation of certain contaminants that come in with 2 part dosing as well as with food.
Would be great to send a water sample after 5-6 months without water changes to get it tested and get a better idea about what's accumulating and what's being consumed in your water.

that would be very interesting! wanna pay for it

jared graves · Jul 29, 2015

for those of you asking for parameters i just did my red sea nitrate test and it came back 0ppm for nitrates

reef4beer · Jul 30, 2015

Amazingly i can agree with the OP.

I ran my 65 gallon tank for about 2 years, it was set up previously by someone for about 8 years. Did maybe 1 water change in a year, the only thing I actually dosed was Aquavitro fuel and Brightwell calcion. After maybe 4 doses I realized my alk and calcium maintained itself so stopped dosing. No skimmer and all i would add would be RO water.

Unfortunately after about 2 years I started to get some corals not doing so well and eventually upgraded to a 110G.

beaslbob · Jul 30, 2015

vladimir4076 said:
Hi all so how you guys manage salinity?with out water changes

we do top off.

Anyway water changes will limit but not correct changes in anything. Assuming that thing is increasing/decreasing. Which is why we have to dose two part even with water changes.

my.02

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 30, 2015

jmanyoma said:
Amazingly i can agree with the OP.

I ran my 65 gallon tank for about 2 years, it was set up previously by someone for about 8 years. Did maybe 1 water change in a year, the only thing I actually dosed was Aquavitro fuel and Brightwell calcion. After maybe 4 doses I realized my alk and calcium maintained itself so stopped dosing. No skimmer and all i would add would be RO water.

Unfortunately after about 2 years I started to get some corals not doing so well and eventually upgraded to a 110G.

What sort of corals? I don't see how hard corals or coralline algae could grow in a tank with no source of alkalinity.

jared graves · Jul 30, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What sort of corals? I don't see how hard corals or coralline algae could grow in a tank with no source of alkalinity.

I have to dose reef fusion 1 and 2 daily to keep all my acropora and montipora

reef4beer · Jul 30, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What sort of corals? I don't see how hard corals or coralline algae could grow in a tank with no source of alkalinity.

Mixtures of zoanthids and lps - never was able to hold sps.

Amazingly the alk maintained itself... how? No idea tbh. The only thing i dosed every often was brightwell calcion and some superbuffer I had but very rarely. I found it crazy how the system literally maintained itself with no dosing. Ofcourse it all came to a halt one day when all my acans just died out with the water quality in prestine condition. Prior to that they were growing like crazy and the heads were huge.

jared graves · Jul 30, 2015

jmanyoma said:
Mixtures of zoanthids and lps - never was able to hold sps.

Amazingly the alk maintained itself... how? No idea tbh. The only thing i dosed every often was brightwell calcion and some superbuffer I had but very rarely. I found it crazy how the system literally maintained itself with no dosing. Ofcourse it all came to a halt one day when all my acans just died out with the water quality in prestine condition. Prior to that they were growing like crazy and the heads were huge.

How long did it last without dosing essential elements and such?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 30, 2015

jmanyoma said:
Mixtures of zoanthids and lps - never was able to hold sps.

Amazingly the alk maintained itself... how? No idea tbh. The only thing i dosed every often was brightwell calcion and some superbuffer I had but very rarely. I found it crazy how the system literally maintained itself with no dosing. Ofcourse it all came to a halt one day when all my acans just died out with the water quality in prestine condition. Prior to that they were growing like crazy and the heads were huge.

Zoanthids don't use calcium and alkalinity, and LPS sometimes grow quite slowly. The buffer you added boosted the alkalinity, and even in a hard coral tank, alk won't drop especially low because they stop calcifying if the alk drops much below 6 dKH.

The deep portions of a sand bed can slowly dissolve, releasing calcium and alkalinity, but not generally enough to maintain significant amfounts of growing hard corals or coralline.