No water changes

[lonewonderer]

Hello everyone. I need some expert opinion. I have seen yoshi's video and he has not made a water change for more than 5 years if im correct. My question is, if my softie tank has literally very low nutrients is water changes nessesary? What if i dose suppliments instead doing water changes will this be ok? I have the following setup

 

feeding 1 cube mysis per day

40 gallon reef tank

aquaclear 110 for mech filtration

15 gallon refugium sump with softball size chaeto with purigen, chemi pure blue, AC

8x6" algae scrubber that produces algae per week

cpr protein skimmer and an additional small PS

kessil lights

wave makers

 

Ph 80

nitrates 20

phos 1

ammonia and nitrites 0

cal 400

alk 10

[seabass]

Your tank's nutrients are high, not low.  Phosphate is about 33 times higher than I'd recommend, and nitrate is about twice as high as it probably should be.  And with all that algae utilizing the available nutrients, I'd say you have a nutrient problem.

 

The simplest solution would be water changes.  Water changes do more than just export nutrients, they also replenish consumed elements and export wastes.  A 40 gallon tank is still a manageable size for water changes.  Just fill and replace one 5 gallon bucket of water each week.

 

Phosphate can be managed with chemical media like Phosguard.  And nitrate could be reduced with a RDSB.  I haven't seen Yoshi's video, so I'm not sure what makes that particular setup work.  I imagine there are nutrient export mechanisms keeping nutrient levels in check.

[lkoechle]

The only way I was able to do 0 water changes was skimming heavy and adding trace elements.  and like seabass said, your stuff is considered too high.

You can also cut back food.  I dont feed a whole cube between my four tanks.  I probably go through a cube every 3 or 4 days.  So more target feeding might be helpful instead of broadcast.

[Tamberav]

Aim for NItrate 2-5ish

Phosphate 0.02-ish

 

[lonewonderer]

Gotcha, I was just thinking how yoshi did it. 

 

[Tamberav]

Oh was thinking of a different tank. I don't know... I guess his rock is 23 years old which is very mature, the stock doesn't look 23 years old though. If his claims are true... his tank is not your tank... each tank is different and needs different maintenance routines. I would not advise anyone to stop doing water changes just because he doesn't.

 

[seabass]

Oh Sanjay Joshi.  Like Tamberav, I thought you meant one of our members.

 

This is a very mature tank.  It didn't start without doing water changes.  Many of the soft corals are actually utilizing the nutrients.

 

That said, I would be interested to see what the phosphate and nitrate readings are.  You'll find many examples of successful mature reef tanks with high nutrient levels.  The key being mature and biodiverse.  And by mature, I don't mean 6 months, like many consider mature.

[Lugmos12]

what are the green and brown corals on the right?

[seabass]

There's a large gorgonian on the right.