R Water Changes Necessary?

[WillyWonka]

i've always been a believer in weekly water changes to keep nitrate levels down. But i've tested, and for about two weeks my levels have been at 0 consistently. I'm just wondering if water changes are necessary at all if all levels are good?

[reefitis]

imo, the reason all your levels are zero is because u do water changes. also water changes are needed to replace essential trace elements and calcium from the depleted supply...

 

maybe u don't have to do them as frequently as weekly...imo

[C2187]

If you have a deep sand bed you could probably get away with less water changes, but you will still need them.

[tinyreef]

there are some wackos (like myself) who do not do water changes. a couple of us reside at about.com's forum and hack around. i haven't done a water change in my main tank in over a year (laziness more than anything). my nano hasn't had a change since around april (the wierder of the two because it IS a new tank, lazy sob that i am).

 

some people swear by not changing water, i think that's irresponsible (i know that's hypocritical when i don't do them myself). my view is that unless your tank is really settled in, do additives, and set to export nutrients you really should do water changes as replenishments.

[anthony812]

Tiny- i know a few people that does not believe in water changes also..but they normally owns a bigger tank with all the automatic dosing machenisms...all they do is add top off water..IMO, that is fine with a larger tank but with a nano, water change is essential for a few reasons. first, to replenish all the trace elements, to keep the nitrates down, keeping the water clean, since in a nano there is no specific sump or filtration area where the excess wastes will gather. As your tank matures with DSB, you can get away with less changes as the DSB will do most of its jobs..but it has to be matured. When you do water changes, you will also feel more interactive with your fish and corals, as they need as much TLC. Reach your hands in (make sure its clean) and pat on your corals and fish like a dog..hahahhaa..i do that! ok..i am an idiot...but they seem to like it...

Just make sure you don't change too much water at once..5-10% per week is ideal i think...or 10-15% every 2 weeks...as of now..i am doing 5 gallon change every week on my 55..

[tinyreef]

anthony812,

 

oh yeah, i totally agree. i'm sorry, i didn't want to promote 'no water changes', on the contrary. all i meant was while it is possible it should only be attempted after a long time of settling in (i've heard people say one year, imo two at least). some guys say 'aw you don't need to', bulls**t imo. that's irresponsible for people to advise that to a newbie in the hobby to follow.

 

like you said, for a nano that's even more reckless. (i'm reckless, lazy actually) but to maintain stability water changes are a must. you're gambling otherwise (like me). there was a time i did 10% changes every week. now i have more kids, work, and school. :*( that kind of time is not allowed anymore (yes dear! five more minutes with the fishies? thank you dear!) :*(

[OscarBeast]

I have a friend that went 3 years without doing water changes. It didn't last forever though. Finally his tank hit a point where it couldn't take it anymore and it almost crashed. At this point he has to do a series of massive water changes.

 

Now everything is doing much better. He also noticed how much faster his corals were growing and how much more polyps and things were expanding.

 

While you can go extended periods without changes in a large tank, I think it would be very unwise to do so in a small nano. Our heavily stocked little tanks deplete trace elements and add toxins much more quickly to the water than a large system does.

 

I have found that doing a 1-gallon water change out of my 10-gallon tank every two weeks works best for me. While I can't really test for a difference between doing one and two weeks, I can see that my corals seem to do look much better if I change water every two weeks.

[Strife]

water change is very important for any reef tank regardless its size...i know people that does water change in their 50 and 200 gallons every other week.

water change causes expotential dillution to your water causing it to prevent nitrates from developing, i too have waited up to 3 weeks to perform water change and still see that the parameters are stable... its okay to do it every other week as long as you double or tripple the normal weekly amount.

 

at times that i feel lazy doing water changes...i usually wait and watch till my snail's shell starts to hang, or they start to lag..snails are really sensitive to water parameter changes...which tells me its time to do water chage...hehe

but i do not recommend anybody doing this too..its a bad habbit..

 

good luck,

mike

[WillyWonka]

a lot of you guys mentioned trace element replenishing. doesn't that get added with daily doses of B-Ionic Alkalinity and Calcium supplements.

[spectre]

If you do frequent water changes (read = once a week) with a good salt mix, the amount of supplements needed should be minimal, I use Kent Tech A&B for Ca and Alk stabability, but as far as trace elements, your not replenishing any of those with these products..JMTC

[Strife]

actually, if you perform weekly water change and dont use carbon or skimmer..all vital elements will be replenished. you dont really need b-ionic or any other calcium additives.

test your water before and after water changes without using additives..and that should give you an idea of what you need..

if PH level is stable, theres really no need to add alk.

[mxpro32]

you guys that arent doing water changes are you using protein skimmers? just curious. i went about 4 months on my 2 gallon with no skimmer and no water changes. all it had in it was some hitchhiker xenia and some gsp and a peppermint shrimp. i fed the tank a small pinch of food about once a week. i kept a close eye on everything and it seemed fine so i left it alone as an experiment. then finally i did a water change just because i felt like it.

[tinyreef]

mxpro32,

 

i always run skimmers on all my tanks. water changing is a chore for me and not doing them is a recommendation i would never give. like oscarbeast says the system may eventually crash. i'd rather not go into more detail on the export/additives because it's sounding like a recommendation.

 

4 mos. on a 2g is quite a run though and no skimmer :x (jk) but like you and styf3 mention using visual cues as guides versus test kits are sometimes very good immediate indicators of health.

[freckles]

The longest I went on my 20g was 2 weeks, and the water started to get ugly looking (cloudy). I havent done that again.

[Metznreef]

i set my tank up late june and have not done a water change yet. i have yet to have any ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in my tank. everything looks healthy and happy but i plan on doing a water change this week.

[Sahin]

I do weekly water changes currently as my setup is fairly new, but I plan to increase the water change period to 2 weeks or more depending on how it performs. I have seen Contesinis tank and its performing rather well without water changes. I guess this will be a test for my tank.

[Dave ESPI]

I have 1 tank I havent changed the water on in 4 years...... I top-off refill with trace elemets, and use my normal supplements It runs great....... BUT every tank is different.... Chemical warfare is bad and rough on some corals... It all depends on the husbandry.

You can have some corals that will be ok, others will kill in less that 2 weeks time if U dont do a W/C.

[tinyreef]

dave,

 

soup's on! four years!? you lazy sob!

 

but you're right about the chemical warfare, very good point! and dead on about individual setups. to each their own. what works for the guy/gal raising predominantly toadstool leathers isn't going to work (most likely) with the guy/gal raising sps.