Water change?

[Koa]

I haven't done a water change for at least a month i was wondering when I should water change all my parameters are looking great and fish eat and swim around a ton both of my clowns look very healthy same with all my inverts just bought a chiller so my water wont be in the highish 80s, I'm afraid if I do a water change it'll mess up my whole tank with cloudy water and different salt levels what is the point of doing a water change anyway?

 

[RyanCSGO]

water changes are used as a nutrient export method and to replace trace elements.
if all your parameters are completely in check then a w/c may not be necessary.

there are plenty of successful tanks out there that rarely, if ever, do water changes. trace elements are just supplemented as additives instead.

 

[beaslbob]

It is possible to balance out a tank with algae (macros, algae turf scrubber) so that parameters like ammonia/nitrates, phosphates remain undetectable.

in that case all a water change can do is degrade the tanks. Sometimes resulting in the cloudiness you reference.

If you further maintain calc, alk, and mag with dr randy holmes-Farley's improved diy two part as well then there is no reason to do water changes in my book.

Meanwhile you may want to check nitrates and kh to see if you're getting a slow changes. Increases in nitrates decreases in kh.

my .02

 

[Koa]

I forgot to mention I have a 10g nano

 

[beaslbob]

small amount of algae and even photosynthetic corals can work wonders.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here's why I recommend some water changes:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

Water changes are a good way to help control certain processes that serve to drive reef aquarium water away from its starting purity. Some things build up in certain situations (organics, certain metals, sodium, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, etc.), and some things become depleted (calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, strontium, silica, etc.). Water changes can serve to help correct these imbalances, and in some cases may be the best way to deal with them. Water changes of 15-30% per month (whether carried out once a month, daily or continuously) have been shown in the graphs above to be useful in moderating the drift of these different seawater components from starting levels. For most reef aquaria, I recommend such changes as good aquarium husbandry. In general, the more the better, if carried out appropriately, and if the new salt water is of appropriate quality.

Calcium and alkalinity, being rapidly depleted in most reef aquaria, are not well controlled, or even significantly impacted by such small water changes. In order to maintain them with no other supplements, changes on the order of 30-50% PER DAY would be required. Nevertheless, that option may still be a good choice for very small aquaria, especially if the changes are slow and automatic.