people who go with "almost" no Water Changes needed!

[Enzel]

I've been reading about people who with with a minimal water changes or "none". If you do let's say, one water change a month, what else do you do? What equipment do you have? How many gallons to you change?

My current tank is a 150g total and I do a 20g water change every week and I run a alpha cone 200 skimmer with a medium bio-load at the moment and will be heading to a 250g total in a month and was wondering if I would "have" to keep with maybe 40g water change per week? I already dose 2 part from BRS so Ca, Mg and Alk will be supplemented via dosing. I'm also going to set up bio-pellets with the new set-up

It will be awesome if I can stay with a 40 per month instead.

To people who do minimal/no water changes, what else do you dose? And how does your tank look? Any pics?

 

[Dr. Reef]

my tank been setup for over 5 yrs now. recently i moved houses been going through some cycling and moving issues but before the move, i did water change maybe once every 6 weeks or so. i have a 125 gal tank. its reef setup. few tangs and multiple corals of various kinds. all my parameters always been on the dot. i have a reefkeeper elite that updates me with all the info i need. equimpent i have is listed in my signature.
i think i got away with less wather changes because of korillia sulphur denitrator. i used to fight all kinds of nitrates in the beginning till i got the denitrator. i am also convinced and i have read online at different denitrator manufacturers websites that having denitrator is equalent of having 10-25% water change weekly. i still did water change whenever i got a chance in about month to 2 months time just to keep elements up to the levels. i never lost a fish nor coral.

 

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

You definitely don't need to do weekly changes. At most every 2 weeks, typically people do 1x month... and a small group of people go 2-3 months. I go 6-8 weeks...sometimes a little longer. Like a fuge... a denitrator might be helpful... but not necessary. The 2 keys are an established tank/rocks and a good skimmer. I'm not sure about your skimmer. Alpha Cone? Each setup is diff. and you can get away with diff things. For years I got away with canister filters, and then Bio-Balls... eons ago. Depends on a lot.

But you can definitely go longer on WC's. 1x month is fine... and do 20%. Or 10% every 2 weeks. Only bad thing I ever heard about not doing them more often is maybe over years and years you can get a dead tank syndrome. A build-up I guess. You can run your own experiments and see if algae gets out of control... or corals start looking bad.. and then find out what "YOUR" setup will tolerate... within those guidelines. Don't try to go over 2 months. Lets not be really lazy. I've done it a few times out of laziness over 10 years. Just spend 3-6 months doing 4 weeks. Then try 6 weeks 6-9 months. Then try 8 weeks for a year. Just watch and see what your setup will tolerate.

 

[RenoR1]

I have successfully been averaging 4 weeks a change of about 12-15% since I set up the tank. And everything is very happy and content...Tank specs in my sig

 

[Paul B]

I change 20% of my water 5 or 6 times a year. I really should change a little more but once a week is just rediculous.

 

[billdogg]

I've been on the ~ 6 -8 week schedule myself for quite some time. If I start to notice a problem, I may do an extra one, or an extra large one.

 

[pmvalenti]

i tried doing a similar post along time ago and people cut me up left and right lol. years later im still doing the same thing. i have a 175 bowfront with a 55 gallon fuge, 400lbs of live rock, mag 18 and a mag 950 return, 2 koralia 4's, marineland 300 skimmer and thats it. in the five years this tank has been running ive done 1 water change (my error that caused that). i add brightwell's reef biofuel and a mixture of there liqiud foods ie. phytoplankton, zooplankton, chromaplex

heres a few pics
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/db5ce185.jpg
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/c7dd41d6.jpg
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/61e96914.jpg
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/8fca1afb.jpg
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/a37b7c97.jpg
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j471/pmvalenti1/890a56fa.jpg

 

[reefer1979]

I change water as little as possible as long as i dont begin to see any problems with my tank (slowed growth). I recommend water changes but i prefer to leave things be for my own tank, especially now that I no longer have access to natural seawater. In general Id say I do a w/c twice a year and use some additives to keep the important trace elements up in the systems I run. My systems generally have undetectable nitrate and phosphate so really i don't see the need.

I run a small amount of carbon and ferric oxide, and for trace elements i use some combisan from two little fishies and some lugols sparingly in addition to my kalkwasser and two part to catch up to the pace my sps set for me.

 

[Enzel]

I have been thinking that weekly water changes might be a little bit too much. With the new 250g tank that I will be upgrading to, I'm thinking of doing a 40g water change every 4 weeks or maybe even 20g every 4 weeks.

My equipment is:

Vertex Alpha Cone 200
55g sump with a fuge
2 mp40 vortechs
200lbs of LR
200lbs of sand

When I upgrade, I will be adding:

1 bio-pellets reactor
1 carbon reactor
and maybe 1 gfo reactor


Hopefully all this will keep my tank in good health doing a 20g water change every 2 weeks on a 250g tank

 

[Mad_Reefer]

About 100 gallons total. No skimmer. Big fuge. Light bio load. I'll do water changes every 3-6 months.
I add BRS alk, cal, and mag.
My Dad went longer than I ever do. 20g DT, 10g fuge. Small skimmer. SPS didn't grow well, but some lived. This might be because he's not consistent about adding alk, cal, and mag. Xenia and kenya tree grew so fast we tossed tons out. Zoas grow super well.

 

[Enzel]

Do you guys have mostly softies, sps or mix? I'm mostly all SPS and a couple of softies/lps, but it will be a sps dominant tank so I'm not sure if my sps will suffer if I cut I cut down on my water changes

 

[KDS 71]

Do you guys have mostly softies, sps or mix? I'm mostly all SPS and a couple of softies/lps, but it will be a sps dominant tank so I'm not sure if my sps will suffer if I cut I cut down on my water changes

softies will tollerate it better than SPS...JMO...way i look at it is you flush the toilet when your done right ? even if you do one decent one once a month at least it will get rid of your detrious build up, major plus... good luck whatever you decide...

 

[d0ughb0y]

Thinking about going once a month as well. If the purpose of water change is nutrient export and replenish trace elements, I am thinking if you have a good skimmer and bacteria based nitrate and phosphate control and dose trace elements plus alk, ca and mag, then in theory you can go for a long time without water change right? There will still be weekly or biweekly maintenance like removing detritus, etc., just less water change.

 

[Enzel]

Thinking about going once a month as well. If the purpose of water change is nutrient export and replenish trace elements, I am thinking if you have a good skimmer and bacteria based nitrate and phosphate control and dose trace elements plus alk, ca and mag, then in theory you can go for a long time without water change right? There will still be weekly or biweekly maintenance like removing detritus, etc., just less water change.

Exactly what I was thinking. If i do a monthly water change, I would blow the top of the live rocks to remove any accumulated detritus and sort of siphon the top of the sand bed a bit just to remove any big stuff in the sand.

 

[Paul B]

Do you guys have mostly softies, sps or mix?

My reef is mixed but it is mostly LPS

 

[Wrench]

My last system before I moved looked it's best when I quit doing water changes. I went a year between the last water change and the time I moved. Maybe there was something bad in my makeup water. I dunno but I think it all boils down to stability. I also had an oversized skimmer and ran ozone.

On my new system I've done two water changes in 8 months. Mostly because of it being a new system and it hasn't stabilized yet. Corals are growing like weeds and the fish are doing okay.

I don't dose a lot of crap to the tank. I use a Ca reactor with ARM large media and I believe that replaces most, if not all of the trace and minor elements that the corals will consume. To me, this negates the need for frequent water changes provided your system has sufficient nutrient export- skimming, ozone, etc.

 

[reefer1979]

Do you guys have mostly softies, sps or mix? I'm mostly all SPS and a couple of softies/lps, but it will be a sps dominant tank so I'm not sure if my sps will suffer if I cut I cut down on my water changes

My systems are almost always sps dominant or sps exclusive with healthy amounts of fish. I use large skimmers and with vortechs nowadays detritus accumulation isnt an issue. I also do not employ refugiums anymore although i do really love them both for the ability to "cover all the bases" in nutrient removal and for the extra thing to play with/ enjoy about the tank. I have never once in any tank ive run in the last ten years felt the need to vacuum my sandbed, that seems more disruptive to the ecosystem and micro fauna found there.

from time to time i do like to get rid of the detritus in the sump though, maybe every 6 months or so.

 

[atreis]

My old tank went for two years without a water change with no noticeable ill effects. I did have to dose trace elements periodically and used a calcium reactor. I also didn't run a skimmer on this tank. The tank was maintained by a relatively large refugium filled with caulerpa (never had it go sexual either) and a 10" deep sand bed. The DT was 100g, the fuge was 75g, and the sump was 40g. Worked pretty well - kept SPS, an anemone, and a handful of small fish.

For my current tank, I have to do water changes. The DT is 100g, but the fuge is in the sump and is very small. I also run a small skimmer on this tank. It gets a 10% water change every other week, and that keeps it happy. I suspect I could go longer, but don't really want to experiment to find out just how long.

 

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

In that one guys pics you'll notice he does have a lot of softies, some LPS, no SPS other than a monti. So again... another variable... it depends on your setup in terms of livestock too. Those things can tolerate it more. But to mess with SPS you need to do water changes 4-8 weeks at least. You won't get away with once a year on that. I'm surprised that one guy "pmvalenti" doesn't have more algae or something. He must clean it up himself, or a good cleanup crew, etc. Otherwise... once a year WC would make for a messy tank.

 

[JimL77]

WCs

WCs

I do a a wc about every 2-3 months. Mixed reef 125. Use kalk for ato and feed once a day. Fuge and skimmer. My system is so automated it is easy to forget about it until something does not look right.