Never change water if no fish and skimmer?

[Gomer_Pyle]

Hi

I have a question.

 

If I have a super powerful filter and a really good protein skimmer with no fish, just coral.

 

Also, if I add calcium as needed.

 

Can I get by without changing the water?

 

Please explain why or not not?

 

The way I see it. The protein skimmer is skimming the junk out of the water before it has time to become ammonia or nitrites. right?

 

So is there really a need to change the water for the coral?

 

Please let me know.

 

Thanks.

[Physh1]

There is no need to but in my opinion you should do water changes once in a while. Water changes offer you a change to siphon out some of the detritus that builds up and "freshen" things up (especially trace elements).

 

Calcium is NOT the only thing you'll need to dose. You'll need to keep your eyes on and dose at least calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, and maybe iodine. All these plus a bunch of trace elements are all important in coral health.

 

Filters help a ton but I never rely on them 100% to keep the water quality good and nutrient levels low. Skimmers and filters don't replace bacteria that eats waste!

 

You don't need to do a water change but it does help a lot and can be very helpful to do occassionally.

 

Cameron

[harbingerofthefish]

Not sure what kind of replies you'll get this.

 

Couple schools of thought on this I guess.

 

There are people who don't do water changes at all and have great results. Of course they also have every chemical supplement on the market under thier arms. The salt mix helps replenish trace elements used up in the daily life of the corals. So with out them you need to replace them another way.

 

I would think it could be done. Before I added my fish, my water never developed a skim on top, I still did water changes though, since I don't reguarly dose anything. I think a reef bio-load changes dramatically when you start adding fish.

[jdsabin1]

Without fish and using a skimmer, water changes probably aren't 100% necessary. However, with that said I wish everyone could see what happens to my tank the day of my weekly water change. It's truly amazing to see all my corals appreciate that water change when they get it so I for one strongly recommend a water change even if it's not at regularly scheduled times. I have seen what it does firsthand.

 

HTH!

[coralreefengr]

I find that in my pico frag tank, things are happier when I add some water from my nano. I don't have any fish in there and nothing else that is producing any waste so anything that benefits from nutrients in the water tends to suffer unless I do this since I don't feed that tank either. It's not your traditional water change, but it's still a water change.