what effect no water changes

[bolton reefer 1]

you know i came on rc to get genuine answers to problems i come across thank you to people that gave ways of trying to re-use water/not waste water during a drought however anyone telling me you dont need water changes for as long as 12 month pull the other one there really is some rubbish talked on these forums ie remove all your biological filtration[yeh right] feed your fish fruit ,add vodka to remove nitrates,all these and more iv read on rc just gets in the way of people giving real help if i listened to harf the quacks advice all my stock would be dead already

[Holyreefer]

I'm glad your still new to RC but able to realize that this is a forum, and people are subject to their opinions... Just remember its your investment and listening to 1's words that worked for their tank may/ or not work for yours... Good luck with the water shortage

[mthedude]

You could always offset your water usage by not flushing the toilet (loo) like that government official suggested he's been doing for 2 years now. If it's yellow, let it mellow was his slogan if memory serves.

I like the idea of getting a dehumidifier and using that water (I wouldn't put that water in my tank but it would be fine for using in your washing machine, etc). Finding a use for your RO reject water would be good too.

[goreefer]

I understand your interpretation of many of the comments posted on the board. Like I always tell people, the web is great, but you always need to take what is said as only opinion, not fact.
I agree that consistency of your water conditions is one of the most important things with a successful reef tank.
The good responses that I read were to either buy water from the grocery store if they sell it in your area and to start saving up filtered water now for the shortage that you expect. Properly filtered water should have a fairly long shelf life if sealed in clean container. Look at all of the bottled water on the shelves and look at the ‘buy by’ dates. It lasts for years.
My recommendation to you is to start saving water now so you will have it when you need it. Just like when you started saving pounds when you wanted the nice reef tank that you now have!

[bolton reefer 1]

yep iv made inquires at lfs i can add another pod to my ro unit and use all the water including what was waste thanks mick

[bolton reefer 1]

i beleive ro water to be depleted of oxygen so to keep it any time it must be aireated or it goes bad i dont now

[archie1709]

I only change my water once every 6 - 8 weeks. But I do a 40% pwc. No choice. my rubbermaid bucket is 20G. My tank is 55G...but minus the volume taken up by rocks and sand, it's probably only 50G.

I do suppliment with (a) Purple Up, (b) Strontium/Molybdenum, (c) Kent Iodine, (d) and Seachem Calcium.

[bolton reefer 1]

looks great how many fish its people who claim rediculas routines like one water change every 12 month im haveing a go at if i had 1 fish or no fish maybe i could get by with no changes

[tibbs2]

If you dose supplements that should take care of those items that the salt mix provides. I don't do any dosing so I just do one or two water changes a month. I also have a mud refugium which also puts trace elements in the water.

[meschaefer]

I think that your nitrate problem is due to the trickle filter, they are known nitrate factories. I would very slowly take the trickle filter off line, by removing some of the bio-balls every week. The problem with them is that while they are very good at reducing nitrites, they do not have the anerobic areas needed to break nitrites into nitrates. Your live rock should be sufficitinet to take care of the nitrites and nitrates. Once your nitrates come down, you won't need to do as many water changes.

[bolton reefer 1]

dilution the only salution to polution or so iv found

[vette68]

I figured that reply would start a firestorm...

First of all, let me say that I am in no way trying to mislead anyone with the information I gave. I am merely stating my own experience and how it's worked fine for almost 10 years now. Just because someone does something that's against the accepted norm, does not make them a "quack" or any other way trying to disseminate false information. I do find it humorous that when I stated that there's no real reason to do water changes, unless you don't add magnesium, the only answer I could get was "incorrect". Well, that helps clear it up for everyone, doesn't it?

You are talking about a crisis situation where you may not have access to running water for a period of time, and I'll assume that period would be less than 12 months. If that is the case, I would argue that for the duration of the outage, just maintain healthy magnesium levels, and clean your skimmer often and you shouldn't have problems. There is nothing that is misinformation about that. I would say that you would be better off investing the money you would have spent on bottled water in purchasing additional live rock, which will benefit you in the long run.

Now as far as your assertion that I have only one fish, the fact is I have 10. I have a purple tang, powder blue tang, hippo tang, foxface, majestic angel, black cap basslet, lawnmower blenny, yellow coris wrasse, and 2 ocellaris clowns. So, bioload is just fine.


My contention is that with the proper external equipment, you can acheive the near zero water change tank. I run a calcium reactor, have a 48" venturi skimmer, and a 75 gallon refugium that contains about 100# of LR, 2 rock urchins, and about 30 pounds of bubble caulerpa, which contains about a million copepods, give or take 1 or 2. If you don't have the good skimmer, or a large algae scrubber (fuge), or enough live rock, I certainly wouldn't recommend doing no water changes. I have the fortune of having my 180 show tank in my living room while plumbing the return lines through my furnace cold air return into my basement, where the sump, skimmer and fuge reside. This gains me nothing except being able to keep large pieces of equipment out of view of my tank.


Now as far as coral growth, I think this picture speaks for itself. The orange capricornus started out 2 years ago as a frag the size of a nickel. Now it's huge. The hammer started out the size of a golf ball about 7 years ago. It has been split in half and the half I have left is the size of a basketball. The derasa started out with about a 3 inch shell. Now the shell is about 10 inches. And that's just the obviously visible stuff. Everything else is huge as well, so you can't really argue water quality with me.

As has been stated here before, there is a lot of mis-information out there on the "internet". Take everything you read with a grain of salt. I am merely offering my experience as a possible solution to your problem. Whether or not you follow my instructions is entirely up to you. Just don't also believe the majority when they say that you HAVE to do substantial frequent water changes to have a successful tank. I am living proof to the contrary.

[goreefer]

Don't you just love the controversity of this hobby!
And archie1709 and Vette68, you guys have some of the worst looking tanks that I have ever seen! LOL!!!!!
Please take that as a complement! Your tanks are something that most want. I would call both of you very sucessful reef keepers.
After over forty years in this hobby I have learned that about any way works! Just as long as you are consistant.

[wrassie86]

Originally posted by bolton reefer 1
you know i came on rc to get genuine answers to problems i come across thank you to people that gave ways of trying to re-use water/not waste water during a drought however anyone telling me you dont need water changes for as long as 12 month pull the other one there really is some rubbish talked on these forums ie remove all your biological filtration[yeh right] feed your fish fruit ,add vodka to remove nitrates,all these and more iv read on rc just gets in the way of people giving real help if i listened to harf the quacks advice all my stock would be dead already

What a way to blow off some good info and suggestions.Trickle filters are known nitrate factorys,Nothing wrong with feeding your fish fresh fruits and veggies(if they will eat it).my tang digs greens.O and vodka really does work and very nicely i might add.
So i guesse that makes me a "Quack"Since i do all the abouve.But a quack with 0 phos and nitrate,heck i have to feed heavly just to keep my sps from lightning up and loosing color from no nutrients/food.
But i will leave the 12 mos water change thing alone, since i do small weeklys and think they are best.

[archie1709]

Originally posted by goreefer
And archie1709 and Vette68, you guys have some of the worst looking tanks that I have ever seen! LOL!!!!!
Please take that as a complement! Your tanks are something that most want. I would call both of you very sucessful reef keepers.
After over forty years in this hobby I have learned that about any way works! Just as long as you are consistant.

Thanks. I will take that as a compliment. For me, really, I just want to keep it simple because I'd like to share a setup to beginneres (like me) that it's totally possible to setup a reef tank with minimal "stuff".

I have a cheap Prizm skimmer, two Topfin 60 HOB powerfilters, and three powerheads. That's it.

I have zero nitrates, 400+ ppm calcium, 220 ppms Carbonate Hardness, and 8.1 pH.

I am not successful. I just want to keep it simple and hopefully invite more folks like me to start off with a tank like this and be more aware of the environment.

Plus, making friends in this forum rules!!

[goreefer]

I am not successful. I just want to keep it simple and hopefully invite more folks like me to start off with a tank like this and be more aware of the environment.

Plus, making friends in this forum rules!! [/B][/QUOTE]

I beg to differ with you. When someone looks at your tank that is Success!

I am also one to keep things simple. I use a HOB skimmer and live rock for my filtration system. I also use an ATO that I made using float switches to keep the water level constant. I add supplements when and only when they are indicated by tests.
The KISS method works!
My biggest problem is keeping the corals 'pruned' back so they do not over grow the tank.

[HowardW]

<<< Just don't also believe the majority when they say that you HAVE to do substantial frequent water changes to have a successful tank. I am living proof to the contrary >>>



Reminds me of the 95 yr. old guy who's smoked 3 packs a day for the past 60 yrs. and contends that smoking is not unhealthy for you, and he is living proof.

[Anemonebuff]

I do water changes every 2-4 months. 18 gallons on a 125. Plus, I have to empty my skimmer cup everyother day and that makes me need to add some salt twice a week. So I guess they add up to some mini water changes. Does anybody know the fluid capacity of an ASM G3's collection cup? My guess is that I change another 3-4 gallons a month because of this, however, it's just a guess.

[vette68]

Reminds me of the 95 yr. old guy who's smoked 3 packs a day for the past 60 yrs. and contends that smoking is not unhealthy for you, and he is living proof. [/B]

Ahhh... It's great to see that good old fashioned ignorance hasn't gone out of style. I was beginning to worry that it had.

I get the impression that you are one of those posters who has absolutely nothing useful to add to any conversation, you just like to bump up your post count. Why not try stating some facts or some reasons why you disagree? I think I've made a well thought out argument for reducing the number of water changes that need to be done. The right equipment along with magnesium dosing pretty much negates the need for large frequent water changes. And I have 10 years of evidence to back it up. Can you tell us why you think to the contrary? Not that I actually care what you have to say, I'd just like to see if you have any intelligence whatsoever.

I understand that everyone does things differently. I am in no way bashing people that do frequent water changes. To each their own. I just found a way to enjoy my tank and not have to spend hour after hour each week maintaining it. The tank maintains itself. Ultimately, isn't that what we're all after?

So, you can live your life "by the book" and pretend that nobody will ever come up with a different idea than what you've read. And you have fun under that rock...

[Amphiprion]

I am by no means diligent when it comes to water changes. I may change the water every 2-4 months. However, when I do, I change nearly 1/3 or slightly more. Once again, just another nuance of the many ways of keeping reef tanks. I don't believe it is really replenishing anything that is an absolute necessity--it is actually the opposite. I believe it removes things that should not be there. As far as I am concerned, beyond what is produced by teh tank itself, the only things proven to be of any benefit when added are Calcium, carbonate, and magnesium. In past years, I have gone a bit longer before water changes and have had no issues (only adding calcium, alkalinity, etc). But in such a controversial issue, I pose one fact--the longer the water remains in our aquaria, the less like seawater it actually becomes. It is up to each aquarist to interpret this as a bad thing or not.