bacteria in general are not in the water column---otherwise when you did a big water change you would be in trouble. Bacteria are in and on the reef rock and in and on the sand bed.
Exactimundo
I think if I snuck into PaulB's house in a Ninja costume and did a 70% waterchange his inhabitants would react poorly no matter how perfectly I tried to match water params. I would argue that bacteria (who can be selected quickly due to fast reproduction) would be especially adapted to either stability or routine change. That's my .02.... I gotta go get my Ninja costume and start driving east
My home is alarmed :lol:
We are getting off track here. I am not argueing that we should not change water and I never said water changing was bad.
I said, and if I could remember what I said, it was something like, fish don't look good in "all" new water. They just don't.
As a matter of fact, they look terrible. But smaller water changes are fine and in "most" but not all tanks, they need to be done.
There are all sorts of factors that are a benefit and detriment to a captive tank. Bacteria can be both. But after a few years in a tank, if we are lucky, the correct types of bacteria will predominate and we will not have nitrate problems. Algae is another double edged sword. Algae also imparts (you like that word Capn?) beneficial chemicals to the water. We usually think of algae as a detriment and I cringe when I read that someone sees a little algae and they go nuts. In older writings, we hear of the health benefits of the chemicals algae puts in the water. We can't measure this as a parameter, but a tank with algae, all else being equal, will be healthier.
The corals themselves, exude chemicals into the water to battle other corals or to get similar corals to move near by. We don't really know the effects of these chemicals or how much of them are removed by skimming or even if we would want to remove them. Then we have the multitudes of microscope animals which are pooping, peeing and spawning (thats disquesting). I once had 25 purple urching all spawn at once. All of that adds chemicals that we can not test for. A tank is not just calcium, phosphorous and nitrate. The sand, gravel and rocks constantly disolve adding not just calcium but everything else on the earth's crust. Food, forget food, there are too many chemicals to count not even counting any preservatives. Plastic, which we use for everything has plasticizers in it to keep it flexible. That stuff disolves out of the plastic which is why that airline tubing gets stiff and brittle after time. It is also why there are warning labels on drinking water bottlles about re using the bottles.
Not all of these things may be bad. I am sure all of them are not good so we change water.
But Whatever is in the water, the animals may become accustomed to them and actually may do better with them.
Like recreational drugs, some people do good with them, or at least they feel good with them but go through withdrawal when we remove them. OK bad example, but you get my drift.
So we all need to change water eventually.
I have been changing aprox 20g a week in my very small system (maybe 70g of water) every week for the entire time the tank has been set up , all my parameters have been stable and all my fish and LPS coral are doing great.
Kish, that is fine and we hear it all the time, but your tank is 5 months old. In 5 months I will change a little water maybe once.
Your tank is probably all ASW and all the trace elements are there in the correct quantity and there are not too many of the chemicals I mentioned. After a few years these things will build up either benefiting or hurting your set up. That is why some tanks look great and some are plagued with problems.
I guess what I am trying to say is that there is no way we can tell in an older tank exactly what is in the water. If someone posts that their fish are sick everyone asks what the parameters are. I don't really care about the parameters unless they are way out. That will not cause disease but in an older system the "general" health of the inhabitants could be affected adversely by whatever "is disolved or not disolved" in the system.
My water has been in the tank for 40 years. Could you imagine what is in there? Obviousely it is not all bad. I would imagine some of it is very good as my fish and crabs are spawning, I don't have to quarantine and they usually die of old age.
Have a great day and remember, this is a hobby, don't get a headache over it. I am a hobbiest like all of us and all of my ideas and theories could be a load of you know what
