Chaeto instead of water change?

[Dciaccia]

So my tank is slowly approaching the end of its cycle and I know afterwards a water change should be done to bring nitrates down to a more suitable range for livestock and corals but was curious if anyone has experimented with just using Chaeto to bring nitrates down. It would probably be a lengthy process to bring it down but just something I was curious about and couldn't seem to find anything from the search option.

[jball1125]

Lets say you can effectively lower nitrates with chaeto, which would probably have to be a lot of chaeto. You are not replacing the other needed nutrients that a reef tank needs to thrive. So in essence you might be able to lower the nitrates with chaeto but thats all you will be doing, wont work in the long run. You will probably also have problems with phosphates.

[blindreef]

Ive done this with my tank. 18 gallon w/ a ten gallon fuge. I drip kalk with added strontium and molybdenum as my topoff water to keep the minerals high. Ive changed 5 gallons on three occasions during cleaning. I do not have a heavy bioload though, and the tank doesn't look as good as other tanks here. Macro algea overgrowth is harder to control than doing waterchanges. I think your better off doing the water changes.

[Dciaccia]

Ive done this with my tank. 18 gallon w/ a ten gallon fuge. I drip kalk with added strontium and molybdenum as my topoff water to keep the minerals high. Ive changed 5 gallons on three occasions during cleaning. I do not have a heavy bioload though, and the tank doesn't look as good as other tanks here. Macro algea overgrowth is harder to control than doing waterchanges. I think your better off doing the water changes.

 

Yeah I plan on doing the water change still just was curious and pondering lol

[Deckoz2302]

Tank has been water changeless for the better part of a year..done one water change in march. Rowaphos. Denitrate and two fuges. Red sea coral care program. No problems here....

 

This is 37 total gallons with 17 snails. 2 hermits. 1 emerald. 3 pompoms. 4 sexy shrimp. 1 tiger pistol. 2 clowns. 1 gold assessor. 1 aurora goby. 1 helfrichs fire fish. 1 marbled fromia

 

January

 

 

June

 

Yesterday

 

Water changeless can be done. Don't let anyone tell you it cant

[markalot]

Well sure it can, as long as nutrient imports = exports then no need to change the water. Question is, are you managing it or is it building up somewhere and someday will crash?

 

I look at the 40 year old tank of PaulB and look at his equipment and maintenance. He correctly understands and manages imports and exports, which is why his tank has been running well with few water changes for 40 years. Cleans the gravel, flushes the buildup in his gravel bed, runs an algae scrubber, cleans the rocks, etc.

 

A lot of people claim no water change success and everything looks great and then the posts stop and they are never heard from again.

 

It's really quite simple. When you add stuff to the tank it must be removed or it will build up somewhere until the tank crashes. I don't believe algae can remove all the nutrients added to a tank, so the remaining nutrients end up in the sand bed which becomes a ticking time bomb.

 

Even with water changes you will need to make sure to stir up the sand bed to help remove the detritus. This is one reason some have turned to bare bottom tanks, where the detritus is easy to see and remove. I'm not a fan of bare bottom, I like sand and critters.

[JamieSheffield]

I run chaeto in my fuge and do water changes...I believe that chaeto does help me to export nutrients, but like the water changes for additional nutrient export as well as bringing the chemistry back into line through the introduction of those chemicals that may have been depleted over time in my tanks.

 

I try to do a 30-60% WC in my tiny tanks, and a 10-20% WC in my 20G tank, every 1-2 weeks. I also add Kent Essential Elements after every WC.

 

Jamie

[doppelganger]

Tank has been water changeless for the better part of a year..done one water change in march. Rowaphos. Denitrate and two fuges. Red sea coral care program. No problems here....

 

This is 37 total gallons with 17 snails. 2 hermits. 1 emerald. 3 pompoms. 4 sexy shrimp. 1 tiger pistol. 2 clowns. 1 gold assessor. 1 aurora goby. 1 helfrichs fire fish. 1 marbled fromia

 

January

 

 

June

 

Yesterday

 

Water changeless can be done. Don't let anyone tell you it cant

 

Although I'm always for natural filtration and the least amount of maintenance possible, OP might want to remember that Deckoz2302's reef tank is quite advanced for the average person. It's running a denitrator, multiple plumbed systems, many different macro algae's etc. Even clams and GSP can lower nitrate. It's a beautiful tank but it is a mature and advanced system. New people should strive to aim for something like this in the future but it's not something that should be tackled right off the bat. You'll need to do water change religiously until you understand your system.

 

I'm all for any natural way tho but until everything reaches a balance, water changes are you're friend and will help you learn the in's and out's if your reef and avoid the headaches that everyone goes through at the beginning like GHA etc.

[Deckoz2302]

Well between me sifting and siphoning the sand bed detritus into the filter sock in my sump. My pistol sifting the sand bed. Basting the rocks. 2 liters of zeolite rock in a reactor(denitrate). Two fuges with 5 types of macro. My skimmer. Rowaphos. Monthly sump cleaning...lol its doing plenty fine with me feeding twice daily. If your talking about my inactivity on this board then its because of some members.

 

As far as what DG said at first do water changes until you understand...once you learn the balance its all easy peezy. That and denitrifying bacteria takes time to establish itself...good few months depending on bioload. The heavier you feed the faster both nitrates and denitrifying bacteria build up. At first this will cause rediculous am mounts of water changes. Eventually it starts evening off and you increase your bioload or feed enough to maintain the self revolving cycle. Corals like it dirty but clean. Balance is when you can feed as much as you want and no matter what your system will never spike. It takes time. But something I strived for because 50 in salt every month was ridiculous

[jedimasterben]

Tank has been water changeless for the better part of a year..done one water change in march. Rowaphos. Denitrate and two fuges. Red sea coral care program. No problems here....

 

This is 37 total gallons with 17 snails. 2 hermits. 1 emerald. 3 pompoms. 4 sexy shrimp. 1 tiger pistol. 2 clowns. 1 gold assessor. 1 aurora goby. 1 helfrichs fire fish. 1 marbled fromia

 

January

 

 

June

 

Yesterday

 

Water changeless can be done. Don't let anyone tell you it cant

i miss that clam. one of the reasons i even considered getting one in the first place.

[Deckoz2302]

My pink clam ;(....iron and protozoa don't do well around clams

[krackerjacksna]

My pink clam ;(....iron and protozoa don't do well around clams

 

Good to see you active again deckoz

[doppelganger]

As far as what DG said at first do water changes until you understand...once you learn the balance its all easy peezy. That and denitrifying bacteria takes time to establish itself...good few months depending on bioload. The heavier you feed the faster both nitrates and denitrifying bacteria build up. At first this will cause rediculous am mounts of water changes. Eventually it starts evening off and you increase your bioload or feed enough to maintain the self revolving cycle. Corals like it dirty but clean. Balance is when you can feed as much as you want and no matter what your system will never spike. It takes time. But something I strived for because 50 in salt every month was ridiculous

 

+1 and once u get to that point, you can really start to appreciate your reef cuz it's all in perfect balance. Plus once you really get a hang of water changes, on a nano, it really doesn't take all that long at all.

[Dciaccia]

Thanks for all the interesting replies everyone. I would love to be able to try that someday but I'm way too new to try it now lol. I've planned on just doing water changes from the start but just wanted to see if that method works and if people have had success which it looks like they definitely have. Really cool to see some of the methods used on these forms.

[Mstefa1]

I think water changes are important because we don't believe in balance. How many times do we feed a little more for extra growth? Feed that fish because he is begging for food? Drop a pellet in the tank just to watch all of the nassarious snails pop up?

 

Additionally, water changes remove waste and replenish what is lost. I don't dose things that I don't test. I am relying on water changes with a quality salt to replenish those that are consumed. Dosing something that you don't test for - especially when you don't perform water changes is a bad idea in my opinion. If you put too much of something in your system and have no way of exporting it... Especially when you have no way of quantifying it because you don't test... It's like putting a bunch of calcium into your tank because you know corals consume calcium however you have no clue how much is actually in there.

 

I can see less water changes in a larger aquarium making sense. In a nano, it's a no brainer for me.

 

I don't understand how your spening $50 in salt every month on a 37 gallon tank. You would have to have water changes of 31.25 gallons / week in order to spend that much on Red Sea Coral Pro salt mix.

[Deckoz2302]

Yea when I transferred into this tank I was doing 5 gallons daily to keep everything in check as the system established

[jedimasterben]

Yea when I transferred into this tank I was doing 5 gallons daily to keep everything in check as the system established

dayummm.

[markalot]

Very useful discussion, thanks to all involved.