Water changes-- Really?

[minibowmatt]

I will be the first to admit that not doing regular waterchanges is just asking for something to go wrong in a tank. However, I almost never take my own advice.
I haven't done a waterchange in about 3 months. Call it expirementation or stupidity.
I was just doing some really good top down studying of my tank and I have to admit, I am having a growth explosion across the reef. SPS Zoas,Softies,LPS are all doing amazingly well. I had all intentions of doing a major waterchange today, but now I am re thinking it. I ran my tests and everything is acceptable. Nitrate was registering just a trace. My fuge is also growing like crazy. I am really torn as to whether I should let it go and monitor everything, or do the waterchange because it has been way to long?

 

[MarvinsReef]

interesting... whatever you decide to do, pls keep us posted...

 

[minibowmatt]

funny.. I havent been adding anything but kalk. I do expect that if the sps continue, I may need to add a ca reactor.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If you do decide to do a water change after all that time, I'd so it in small increments, nothing major.

 

[Marine Flora]

I've known a few people with very nice tanks that hardly ever did water changes. Just need to make sure your adding trace eliments to the tank that you won't be getting from the water changes. Glad the tank is doing well.

i have a friend that didn't do water changes for 2 years. all sps tank also his corals looked great and thriving. he did mention that he added trace elements bi weekly.

 

[minibowmatt]

If you do decide to do a water change after all that time, I'd so it in small increments, nothing major.

Not that i disagree entirely, but in my nano I would do 9-95% WC's about once every 4 months. It also was a bulletproof tank, that many local reefers have seen. Anthony Calfo has said that he does 100% WC once a week in his nano.

I do think in this case smaller may be better so as to minimally impact the current tank stability.

 

[TyreeUM]

the one problem I have always seen with people that have tanks that do not do water changes (me at a point in my reefing experience) is that there always seems to be a point when the tank will crash-and when that happens it is usually an algae problem of unreal proportions. Just think of everytime you put your bare hand in your tank-and without doing water changes any small residue on your hands that goes into the tank builds up over time. Corals grow incredibly because of how stable the tank is and how gradual any changes in chemistry are undergone-plus the added levels of nitrogen give the coral constant nutrition for growth. Just be careful-I have seen this method be a huge problem in the long run. Just my 2 cents

 

[Pufferpunk]

"Anthony Calfo has said that he does 100% WC once a week in his nano."
1x/week is fine. I do 80-90% weekly on all my FW tanks. I would never attempt that though, if I wasn't already doing this weely. Way too big of a swing of water conditions, between tank water & new water.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Wow 100% a week? Thats wild.

 

[minibowmatt]

Yep. 100%. He gave a lecture/talk to our local club 2 years ago, and one of the questions was regarding nanos and WC's. I think he also had it posted in his old RC forum.

 

[Ike]

I very rarely did waterchanges on my old 125 reef, the tank was running for nearly 10 years and included thriving (but pretty brown ) SPS corals back when SPS corals were just being figured out. In particular the easier things like zoanthids, LPS, and softies did very well in this tank and growth rates were quite good. It's also important to not I dosed heavily with lots of things. Who knows what of those "things" helped and what didn't...

My current tank I do regular waterchanges and only dose calcium and buffer. I feel this is the better way to go about things, but there is certainly more than one way to be successful in this hobby. With things like zoanthids, slacking a little on the waterchanges isn't going to do much harm. The higher nutrient levels may even help a little.

 

[Xavier]

i have heard of people that have AMAZING tanks that only do 2-3 gallon water changes only to replace what their skimmer takes out

 

[Absinthe]

Matt

Let me tell you something. I am a lazy point of sale when it comes to tank maintenance.

I hardly ever did water changes on any of my tanks and nothing ever seemed like it suffered. Added 2 part calcium and topped off with RO. Had a fuge running overtime and didnt feed more than I should.