I don't do water changes

Also since you don't own fish you may not know that for some fish, constantly running carbon is not good for some fish and can cause HLLE. If you ask me it is way easier to make a batch of water and change 10% once a week or more biweekly than constantly monitor the salinity and amount of saltwater I needed on hand. You would need several holding vessels bc you couldn't mix saltwater in the same container you are flowing from bc it needs to mix and have the salinity pinpointed before it could make it into your system.

Also if you think needing a weekly water change somehow indicates your tank is I trouble then I would think needing what amounts to a constant water change would indicate a bigger issue.

Another issue to think about is the more pumps you have, the more places you have to fail. In fresh water that wouldn't be as big of a worry, but in saltwater you would need to ensure your water level would drop low enough to trigger your ato etc. Managing salinity could become a real nightmare.

It is very easy to come into this hobby and think you are going to have the epiphany that will somehow make it easier. "Everyone" does it this way bc it works, if there were short cuts that worked long term that would just be how it was done. In my experience saltwater concepts seem to be easier for people who didnt do freshwater first.

Glad you are thinking about how to make improvements though. I guess that is how we make advances.
 
One of the things I always tell my people is that you don't innovatte by doing things just like everybody else dkes them. Thanks for the tip on carbon and HLLE. My main thought at the moment is shallow grass beds above the level of the tank water to provide both bioremediation and food.
 
houstonhobby said:
Hope everybody who wasn't aware took the time to read the link that Allmost supplied. In my case, it's gonna be dual dosing pumps, probably the Reef Filler 2000-2 from Champion Lighting (something funny about the name and the product list with this company, but a site that is really worth looking at). $350 for the pump but it gets good reviews on the reef forums and has the power that I need. And I'll dose calcium and magnesium, plus vitamins, via the top-off water.
Click to expand...


You might also look at SpectraPure and GenisysReefSystems they both have continuous water change systems. If your going to be using a controller you can come up with a DIY with Apex and I'm pretty sure Profilux has a feature for doing continuous water changes.
 
Can a link be posted regarding running carbon and problems, I run carbon 24/7, changed out every two weeks... From what I read, other than the absorption of some trace elements, carbon is good for our systems.
 
It's also about what type of carbon you run. The cheap dusty lignite carbon is more of a chance to cause HLLE from the study that was ran. I'll try to link it if I can find it.

I think it's a good thing to do a continuous water change but it's not for every tank space wise. If you have the space do it. The genesis system seems to be a great option along with the spectrapure one.

IMO you should be very methodical and confident in your diy ability if you plan to go that route. A failure can cause some serious damage to your livestock and even your house.. Building failsafe into the system is a must. I think a cheaper and close to bullet proof method is the large medical peristaltic pumps. One shaft spinning both pumps.
 
houstonhobby said:
One of the things I always tell my people is that you don't innovatte by doing things just like everybody else dkes them.
Click to expand...

Considering that people have been trying to get away with the no water change idea like your talking about for decades, pretty hard to consider the idea innovative ;)

IMO the no water change idea is an innovation akin to to trying to improve on the wheel...by making it square.
 
I've heard people claim to not having done a water change in over a year, but they dose... So I guess that's the difference.
 
I do water changes every two weeks. Once a week is too often and more than two weeks is not enough. But every tank is different.
 
Well houston if you just need to sustain aiptasia sure you don't need to change water or really even keep the rocks with aiptasia on them in water all the time you could probably set them outside for a couple hours a day throw them back in your innovative tank....I am being sarcastic obviously but seriously this is not an innovative idea to not do water changes and I think you are in for an expensive lesson if and when you add difficult to keep livestock
 
I don't do water changes. I feed heavily for 16 fish in a 90 gallon tank and have SPS colonies out the wazoo. The "trick" is pretty simple: don't let detritus accumulate. Get it out before it can become a problem. As for dosing, I run all of my ATO through a kalk stirrer and still have to run a calcium reactor. Magnesium is tested once a month and adjusted by hand.
 
Everyone,

I think this thread has been very successful, for my purposes. I got a lot of responses, most of them on target and thoughtful, I learned something from some of them, got some good links to various things I didn't have before . . . and now I do water changes.

In fact, I changed one third of the water in my freshwater 210 this weekend because the sulfur denitrator has been having trouble this week (those things are a breeze when they are young but get cantankerous as they get older . . . and more effective) and I changed 11 liters in my 90 gallon. And like any newbie, bought three clown fish as my first fauna (nitrates still above zero so I have to stay with fish).

I have started a thread over in the newbie section about my water change experience. I'd be glad to hear from everyone on it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21796823#post21796823

Hope the link works. I'm not sure how to do this particular piece of wizardry. I expected that the link would show some kind of perma-link for me to copy/paste.

Thanks,
Rod
 
FYI with a tank that has gone so long with no water changes (your FW), it's best to start on those water changes with small frequent ones. Things that you can't even measure can be far enough out of whack that large water changes can indeed be stressful to the fish that have acclimated (but typically not thriving) to the out of whack water chemistry. Typically once you've done enough water changes to straighten out water chemistry it is common for people to notice improved coloration and behavior in their fish ;)
 
Not to brag but my chocolates have three hundred babies every 3 to 4 weeks. I think they are doing okay.

Anybody want some? I use them as live food. I love chocolates. They are mu favorite fish. But enough is enough
 
There are some very successful heavily stocked tanks on this forum that don't do water changes. They do use some algae export models.

The trace elements argument never really seemed very good to me. Exactly which trace elements are people claiming get depleted besides the commonly available ones?

The amount of trace elements is also not going to be replenished much in a demanding system with a small water change. If it did, I wouldn't need to dose calcium and alkalinity and mg. I can just rely on water changes... yet we all know that doesn't work unless you're doing huge water changes.

A lot of times, I think we do water changes to make ourselves feel better, it's cathartic.
 
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