Why do we need to do water changes?

[BaaMNYC]

I remember having a brief conversation with stargzr a while back and talking about other people's tanks and with the right setup you can possible go without water changes at all or very few water changes a year.

I know water changes replenish the cal/alk/mag and trace minerals as well as export out phos and nitrates. But if you are dosing and have the right macro algae and running carbon/gfo wouldn't that cover the basis of what I listed? Would water changes be necessary then?

Interested to see others feelings about this and experiences.

 

[prattreef]

If you can adequately balance the imports and exports of nutrients then WC's become less important. For most folks, the easiest way to ensure you are doing that is via regular WC's. Many advanced aquarists are less diligent about WC's than you would think, though many are also super rigorous. I'm very lax about it myself, but I have a lot of experience and know my system well enough to sense what is going on.

 

[BaaMNYC]

I've noticed that. A few reefers I met tell me they know when to do a water change from seeing the subtle changes in their tank instead of being on a strict wc regiment.

 

[reefman]

i do it cause i need the exercise. lol!

 

[homegrowncichlid]

I don't do any changes at all, aside from toping off a gallon each month to replace what the skimmer takes out.

 

[BaaMNYC]

I don't do any changes at all, aside from toping off a gallon each month to replace what the skimmer takes out.

Can you elaborate? Topping off one gallon a month or what? Ro water?

At the very least I refill my Ato 5 gallons every 5-7 days since I'm only using a 5 gallon container. Refill my part a &b for dosing and change out my clean out skimmer ,carbon and gfo every month.

It feels wasteful to throw out water for water change if it's not necessary since I'm dosing and running carbon gfo and macro. I may just be throwing money out the window.

The water I'm throwing out has everything I'm putting in. Lol

 

[albano]

Can you elaborate? Topping off one gallon a month or what? Ro water?

+1, please explain

 

[Jim]

I understand that with experience comes knowledge but I think with water changes you eliminate a possibility that something will go wrong. I've heard experienced reefers say " I can tell when something is off just by looking at the corals".

My fear is that when I notice something wrong it might be too late and then have to do a frantic water change. I believe in this hobby consistency is key plus I have a pretty heavy fish load so I'll stick with what is working and do my water changes.

Also from what I've read, there are trace elements that you can only replenish with a water change so why risk it.

 

[BaaMNYC]

Well I don't know if esv has all the trace elements but they claim to replenish trace elements.

Sure water changes is the surest way but I believe some have had success with an adequate refugium with macro algae and dosing. I would love to see someone's setup.

 

[lnevo]

There is a very similar thread that started last week on WAMAS. I think this post explains best why when dosing you need to do water changes.

http://wamas.org/forums/topic/59465-eliminating-water-changes/page-3

There's a few good links as well in that thread.

 

[arnaldolex]

i went almost 9 months with out a water change this year then i changed 40 gallons now i got two months and counting gonna go for 9 months again all my levels were good i did it just incase lol and i feed about 2-3 times a day have tonz of corals a mix between everything even sps and everything was doing great have about 9 fish biggest my hippo at 7 inches

 

[BaaMNYC]

i went almost 9 months with out a water change this year then i changed 40 gallons now i got two months and counting gonna go for 9 months again all my levels were good i did it just incase lol and i feed about 2-3 times a day have tonz of corals a mix between everything even sps and everything was doing great have about 9 fish biggest my hippo at 7 inches

But the question I have is. Do you have Sps? Do you see good color and growth? I think you have most zoa that is more tolerant. Lastly what steps did you take to create a system that can survive with once in a 9 month wc. Dosing, macro? Anything?

 

[SanmanReefer]

I've done both and while running a system with no water changes worked after awhile it developed an "old tank syndrome" I think I went six months without a water change doing exactly the same thing every week, feeding, changing socks, cleaning skimmer, etc.. I prefer doing water changes and its working great for me, I do them twice per week now and while it seems like a lot of work it only takes me approximately 20-25 minutes and I have piece of mind. Hope this helps.

 

[BaaMNYC]

I've done both and while running a system with no water changes worked after awhile it developed an "old tank syndrome" I think I went six months without a water change doing exactly the same thing every week, feeding, changing socks, cleaning skimmer, etc.. I prefer doing water changes and its working great for me, I do them twice per week now and while it seems like a lot of work it only takes me approximately 20-25 minutes and I have piece of mind. Hope this helps.

What's old tank syndrome?

 

[arnaldolex]

i prob got 5 sps pieces and there all doing great, i have a euro reef protien skimmer that i run only during my white light cycle my sump has a chamber full of algae and i got a uv light thats been of for a few months but works lol and i also have a reactor for my phosphates clean my sock once a week pretty good clean up crew tonz of hermit crabs and about 8 shrimps

 

[ming]

What's old tank syndrome?

Its usually when a tank is older, 5-10+ years and doing the same thing doesn't seem to help and corals start to die for unknown reasons.

But my take is that its usually when there is an imbalance of nutrients (possibly phosphate or nitrates) and the excess nutrients, such as phosphates gets absorbed into live rocks/sand since those are porous, or nitrates getting absorbed into deep sand beds which turn to sulfur in the sand. Over time, usually 5-10 years(varies depending on how much you feed/how much rock/sand you have), the rock/sand becomes saturated and then the tank starts having corals dying since you've been doing the same thing for so many years and the only reason why it has been kept in balance is because the rocks/sand has acted as your natural filters, but those filters are full now.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

My tank is about 18 years old. It's 55 gal, and for years I did water changes every 2 weeks. Lately, I'm simply not involved. I barely do anything to my tank....I do water changes every 4-6 weeks. In part it's disinterest, because after 18 years enthusiasm flags. Lack of enthusiasm also means less expense. The only $$ I put into my tank anymore goes to maintenance, like buying salt once a year and DI cartridges, Ca supplements. My tank can't support new additions anyway, since the collapse of my 30 gal put 3 extra clownfish into the 55. Partly its also health- had major abdominal surgery in May, limiting my ability to carry heavy weights like a bucket of water, and also putting me in the hospital for 11 days. Came home to find a cyano oubreak. Ultimately, that turned out to be due to lower alkalinity. Its gone now and my parameters are fine. As it is, my tank, without frequent changes, is doing fine, healthy, and self supporting. I rarely feed, except to toss in a sheet of nori or clump of collected Ulva for my tang. When I eat clams, scallops, or squid, the fish get the scraps...otherwise, I don't really feed, yet all fish are plump and healthy. My interest will continue to decline, as I face another major surgery next month, but I'm sure my tank will do well.

 

[Aquadicted]

I don't do any changes at all, aside from toping off a gallon each month to replace what the skimmer takes out.

so many people wanna chime in with their info from their surviving tanks claiming it works. There is a clear difference in surviving tanks and thriving tanks...

 

[Aquadicted]

As far as the topic of water changes. Like most have said already. I think water changes replenish GOOD and dilute BAD. There are so many reactions and affects we have yet to find out. And GOOD can even be phosphates and nitrates in some cases and BAD can be excessive minerals. The point is, we don't know why our tanks react so much better with consistent water changes. I'm sure the answer is different for almost every tank.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Agreen with e.Muehlbauer, except I do have to do a lot of maintenance, to make sure I don't have to do any water changes.
I guess the proof is in the photos. Again to clarify, no water changes, no water filters, just aged tap water from the faucet, after running for a minute to flush out metals. As I said earlier, I only top off a gallon of seawater once a month, which is just to replace the volume from the skimmate. I do have a aquaripure denitrifier (which is the secret to my success) and running GFO, about 12 tablespoons every 6 months. Every fish has a job to do, eating some pest or algae, (except the clowns and chromis) and have a full clean up crew (blue-leg hermits, snails, etc). I acutually have a very high fish load, 4 tangs and a dozen damsels, above and 2 tangs, a 6-line wrase, 3 algae eating mollie miller blennies below.

Zoom in on the acros.

Zoom in on the digitatas (taken dec 2012) 8 months ago

And finally, I'm sharing my success. Some close ups of colonies I'm selling on the trade forum.

4 year old photo (2009) back when the tank was a year old, showing the basic setup of the 65 gallon tank with 38 gallon refugium/sump, 6" deep sand bed. 5 bulb T5 above, 4 bulb T5 below.