Water Change - Free System

[Dom]

If you wanted to build a system that didn't require water changes, could it be done?

Water changes do two things:

1. Remove nitrates and other waste products from the water.
2. Replenish nutrients.

As I see it, in theory, if your tank ecology was managing the bio load from your inhabitants, waste management would be self sufficient, leaving only consumable nutrients to replace.

What am I missing?

 

[Desmond]

There is a thread on here by GLENNF'S DSR TANK i think this tank has been running 12 years or so without any water changes.

 

[Desmond]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/glennfs-300-gallon-dsr-reef.138700/page-64#post-2995100

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Gotta take into account all the extra compounds that are formed during addition of elements, foods, etc.
I will say over the years there seems to be a delicate balance between too many water changes and too few and each tank I've had seems to be slightly different. I would guess it's all geared by the temperature, but there's a definite difference amongst them...

 

[wowkingjames]

Thanks for the thread.

 

[Eckolancer]

I went 13 months without WC only reason was I had a sump light fall into tank and caused some copper to leach into the water. That's 2 months ago now everything looking great and growing with no WC in site. I also stopped skimming about 6 months ago and corals are looking brighter now.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

FWIW I don't feel that one should ever really do away with PWCs completely (unless you don't plan on ever adding anything new to the system and even then the logic is questionable). At one of our fests, Bob Fenner spoke about many things but the talk mainly centered around reef chemistry and things you should do to acclimate new additions into your system. One of the factors was that chemical warfare within an established system sort of balances out and bringing in something new 1) the new addition needs time to get used to that chemical mix and 2) the existing inhabitants can (usually will) react to the new addition. New chemical boundaries are set up and this is a stressful period. Limiting that stressful period by non-contact acclimation (meaning, not in the same physical space but in the same water system) allows for both sides to adjust.

Now, not doing water changes for a prolonged period of time means that whatever is in the system is used to the chemical soup that it is in, but these chemical boundaries are harder to "break" through. Doing water changes breaks this down so that new additions can more easily adapt and the existing inhabitants can more easily accept new additions.

That's basically the gist of what I learned. I probably missed something or got it wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm almost there.

Not to mention, if you dose, you're eventually going to skew some parameter and there's usually 1) no easy way to tell exactly what this is without lab grade test equipment and multiple tests over a period of time, and 2) probably no easy way to "fix" that, at least one that is significantly cheaper than doing even a minimal 10% PWC per month.

But that's JMO

 

[Bruce Burnett]

There are many ways of looking at what a water change is: Simply put it is the removal of water and replaced with fresh mix. It can be done for the removal of detritus, to makeup for protein skimming, the cleaning of reactors or to export and import various elements. In 8 months I have added approximately 150 gallons of salt water to a 300 gallon system only for water lost through skimming and cleaning of reactors. Next month I will be doing a water change but only what it will take to remove the detritus and other sediment from my display and sump. It will be first time cleaning detritus from system.

 

[Sabellafella]

Its possible, with things like heavy maintenance,skimming, also with the use of a calc reactor/balling method/ carbon dosing

 

[DLuce510]

Calcium reactor and a refugium gives me everything I need to keep my system happy. Used to use triton elements. I turkey bast every thing so the detritus goes into my filter socks.
Water changes has led to inconsistencies in parameters for me and I have had problems with some salts. I have acros that cost way more than a bucket of salt so I'll have to pass.