No Water Changes!

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Bogart80

Premium Member
Hello,
I came here tonight to give an update to my 16g Nano reef. The tank has been going for about a year now and I have yet to do one water change!

I add about 1g of fresh water a week as a top off and other than that I sit back and enjoy.

I welcome any questions or comments.

@ 1 year

NANO.jpg


@ 2 months (frist corals added)
w2.jpg
 
wow, not bad looking for not doing a single water change.

Are you running a skimmer? are adding buffers or any chemicals? what are your parameters?
 
Some specs: I use a Marineland Emperor 280 Filter System or 280 gph flow rate or around 17 cycles and Hour, For my lighting I have 40 watt SmartPaq Daylight 10000K and Actinic 460nm together with (1) Lunar light. .35 amps. I only get about 2.5 watts per gallon, So i can only put low light corals in. I will upgrade soon, so I’m in the market. Sea Clone 100 Protein Skimmer along with B-Ionic Buffer (NO.1 AKALINTIY NO.2 CALCUM)


I used to test my water 3 times and week and do water changes etc etc. Then I came across a book that said once your tank is set up you basicly have a small eco system and that it sould take care of it self. Once I stoped messing with the eco system it starting taking care of itself.

Odd huh............... but hey its working.

Link to my start up thread for this tank:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1217126
 
Trust me everything I have read says to change your water, however I do not, and it has worked this long.

I will post some more pics as I add more coarls or when I upgrade the lighting.
 
It's not a big deal, I haven't changed my water for 5 months as well. But it's not something to brag about. My reef did not thrive when I didn't change water.
 
I dont change my water either. I have changed it once since I set it up. I have an an oversized skimmer and fuge set up. Water changes Im sure do help but I havent seen any ill affects since I entered this hobby 6 years ago.
 
You should be embarassed that youre not doing water changes, not proud, especially in a tank the size of yours where it's no trouble at all.
 
embarassed? eh, i wouldnt go that far.....you gotta remember, theres a lot of ways to do this hobby right....it does seem to br working for him....at least kinda...with the softies hes got, i dont see why it couldnt work...

i think if he did do changes, hed see more growth, maybe some coraline algae or whatever.
 
You're absolutely right, but in this hobby where so much is conjecture, it's necessary to weed out people who purport methods such as this, claiming they are a healthy way to maintain a reef tank. Rather than sit back and tolerate things like this, it should be pointed out that they are the WRONG way to do things, lest a wayward newbie come across it and think "well he doesn't do water changes and his tank looks okay! I won't do them either". Would you recommend that to anyone? Little does the newbie know that his tank has seen little growth in the last year, or that it's a crash just waiting to happen, or that concentrations of essential elements have sunk to unbelievable lows.
 
While I agree that WC are far too beneficial to Reef tanks, one can only support the method by doing it, while others may or may not learn from not doing them.

What hurts more is to see someone using a Seaclone! :p

So far so good hope it continues.
 
I agree with longchamp. The levels of elements that we don't test for are very low if not nonexistant by now. I don't even know if I believe his tank is ok, the pics aren't working and truthfully he could say the pics are that old when they're not, or that he's not doing water changes, whatever the case may be.

The danger is, like someone said, if a newbie sees it and thinks its ok, its a recipe for disaster in a nano though.
 
to each their own....I think everyone is taking this a little too seriously...If he wants more growth, he'll have to start doing water changes..If he likes his sustained tank, well carry on...I personally do water changes once a month on my 14 gallon cube and I have growth and coraline growth, but some will say thats not enough either...let him do what he feels work for him...This is only a hobby, correct?? Tank looks great, I would change out the sea clone though, they seem to work well for the first 6 months and thats it...Good luck
 
I would regularly let my planted aquarium go six to eight months without a water change, and just top up the evaporation. All the mineral and trace element needs of the plants were added via supplements though.

I've been sticking with 10% bi-weekly changes on my reef tank so far, but I am not at all opposed to the idea of experimenting with reducing that in the future when the tank is more established. I find it amusing when people on the planted tank forums were shocked and amazed by someone who had a beautiful tank without doing water changes.

As far as I can tell, the idea of doing religious weekly water changes is still fairly new, and just one of those things that gets passed off on forums as absolutely necessary.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12423957#post12423957 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Longchamp
You should be embarassed that youre not doing water changes, not proud, especially in a tank the size of yours where it's no trouble at all.
Click to expand...

You probably need to calm down with the attitude, he is simply showing what works for him. As many other people have already stated including myself water changes are beneficial but are not a must. This forum is about learning and sharing experiences not putting down others.
 
People do what they want to do, and this hobby is subjective enough for people to look for what they want and go with it. Noobs who don't want to do water changes will find this thread and go with it. Others will see the countless other threads and info regarding the benefits of water changes and go with that. We can say our peace and move on.

I do weekly changes and it works for me. Good luck.
 
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