New Experiment - No Water Change Tank

[Letterkenny]

While my current tank is at the upper edge of being a nano (JBJ 45), I am replacing this tank with a new Waterbox 130 in my living room. I’ve been trying to think what I should do with my current 45 I have that’s less than a year old. Currently, I am leaning towards moving it upstairs to my office. Given the second floor, I really want to avoid lugging water up there (and don’t want to plumb AWC through the house) other than RODI for the ATO. 
 

With that said, I’m likely going to kick off an experiment to see if this tank can be a ULM no water change tank. I plan on keeping just nems and a pair of clowns (and maybe some zoas that aren’t demanding on the nutrients) and either forgo dosing or set up a dosing pump with all for reef but the livestock shouldn’t be element demanding. This leaves me with which nitrate export I should use. I am running a Tunze 9004DC and am debating either a) converting two of the back chambers into a refugium Or b) run biopellets in one of my reactors. 
 

Tl/dr Tell me your experience going ULM/no WC.

[Tamberav]

Would probably want to still maintain normal parameters and coralline and such will still use it up. 

 

Macro/fuge will have a high demand for some elements like iron and such...can't remember at 5am. 

 

They make cheatogro which may cover it. Zoas probably like some iodine.

 

I am not sure no water changes and ULM are the same thing...just different type of maintenance. Although it sounds like this may be more FOWLR and nems.

[seabass]

If you are simply concerned about nitrate, a remote deep sand bed (in a 5 gallon bucket) is another potential alternative.  However, a RDSB wouldn't control phosphate (except for what initially binds to the aragonite sand).

[jservedio]

29 minutes ago, seabass said:

If you are simply concerned about nitrate, a remote deep sand bed (in a 5 gallon bucket) is another potential alternative.  However, a RDSB wouldn't control phosphate (except for what initially binds to the aragonite sand).

Replace the sand with some really nice LR covered in sponges and the like and maybe a little LR rubble and keep it in the dark as a cryptic zone and that'd deal with both the nitrates and phosphates. That's essentially what my empty sump is now and while I still change the water once a month or so, the thousands of sponges, micro dusters, and vermetids in the sump plus the billions of bacteria living on the 1/8" deep layer of detritus down there soak up far more than I could ever hope to export through water changes with how much I feed.
 

Plus, with a tank full of big RBTAs, they'll soak up plenty as well.

 

Edit: Like this - this is all the crap that soaks up my nutrients. No, that's not sand in the sump, that's piles of detritus and the thousands of white dots obscuring the photos are all micro feather dusters:

[Letterkenny]

Thanks guys. Now that my big tank is essentially up and running, I will get started on this project once my first round of QT is done as this is in the spot where I’d like to put it. 

[TerraIncognita]

On 7/17/2020 at 12:32 PM, Letterkenny said:

Thanks guys. Now that my big tank is essentially up and running, I will get started on this project once my first round of QT is done as this is in the spot where I’d like to put it. 

How’s it going?

[Tired]

It's an interesting experiment, but all animals use up nutrients. I would worry that you're eventually going to run out of some trace element that isn't normally dosed, because it's used in such small amounts. I don't know what trace elements fish use, because most of the research into weird things like chromium is done in humans, but I'd bet there are a bunch. Like zinc. Do fish need zinc? I don't know. Humans sure do. 

[ChrisP]

Would you keep a lid on it to minimize top-offs?

 

[mcarroll]

On 6/27/2020 at 8:35 PM, Letterkenny said:

While my current tank is at the upper edge of being a nano (JBJ 45), I am replacing this tank with a new Waterbox 130 in my living room. I’ve been trying to think what I should do with my current 45 I have that’s less than a year old. Currently, I am leaning towards moving it upstairs to my office. Given the second floor, I really want to avoid lugging water up there (and don’t want to plumb AWC through the house) other than RODI for the ATO. 
 

With that said, I’m likely going to kick off an experiment to see if this tank can be a ULM no water change tank. I plan on keeping just nems and a pair of clowns (and maybe some zoas that aren’t demanding on the nutrients) and either forgo dosing or set up a dosing pump with all for reef but the livestock shouldn’t be element demanding. This leaves me with which nitrate export I should use. I am running a Tunze 9004DC and am debating either a) converting two of the back chambers into a refugium Or b) run biopellets in one of my reactors. 
 

Tl/dr Tell me your experience going ULM/no WC.

ULM is all I've ever done.  My system has had long periods of neglect (years) with more or less no problems. 

 

You want no fish if you want close to zero maintenance. The more fish, the more unrealistic the plan is.  

 

You already have two full size fish in the plan, as well as other large critters.  So that's a regular reef tank in my book.

 

Eliminate the clowns and anemone so you have better options if you MUST have fish.  

 

Something small like Branacle Blennies...you can have multiples of something like that.

 

If you need to add more interest, go for a fleet of Sexy Shrimp.

 

You may as well have stony corals if you like them since running a doser is even easier than feeding your fish...unless you haven't gotten the hang of dialing it in...then go with whatever your comfort level dictates.