people who go with "almost" no Water Changes needed!
- Thread starter Enzel
- Start date
Nice tank, it is possible to keep the copperband in a ~200l (50g) tank if you can target feed them.
I kept mine for years together with seahorses and fed him live and deepfreeze mysis.
As long is he can get the food before/together with other inhabitants he wil be happy.
In a surrounding with very bossy fishes he will get intimidated and not get enough food so he will starve.
The reason he need a lage tank is to prevent him from starving, because he can pick on the LR. If you can subsitute this by target feeding multiple times a day it could be done.
Yours clearly is the boss, so he will stay happy.
I kept mine for years together with seahorses and fed him live and deepfreeze mysis.
As long is he can get the food before/together with other inhabitants he wil be happy.
In a surrounding with very bossy fishes he will get intimidated and not get enough food so he will starve.
The reason he need a lage tank is to prevent him from starving, because he can pick on the LR. If you can subsitute this by target feeding multiple times a day it could be done.
Yours clearly is the boss, so he will stay happy.
Paul B
Premium Member
Nice tank randy but it is cruel to keep fish without the proper filtration system and that tank looks low in magnesium. I keep my seahorse in my 1 oz nano/piko/mini tank but it uses vodka dosing, protein skimmer with ozone, lighted and heated refugium and good airation. For a clean up crew, there is one pod, but he is bowlegged and has a lisp. It now has a lettuce macro and green algae problem but I think I could alieviate that with a 20% water change weekly. Twice a day I turn over the seahorse so he doesn't get psorisis.
Mrs. Music
New member
:lol:
theblennyman
New member
I havent done a water change in over 12 months on my sps reef.
That is one awesome looking tank! after reading all this i gotta say, i noticed that the more i leave my tank alone for 3-4 weeks the better the growth. if i decide to do consistent water changes then it seem that the corals especially the sps are will start bleaching. i'm gonna try to minimize my water changes for stability.
mandarinfanatic
New member
Small regular waterchanges of water that is correct temp and salinity creates stability. No waterchanges create an inperceptable slow decline
That is pure anecdotal. You don't have any data to back that up.
We have had this discussion many times over, more so in the advanced sub forum. It creates no more of a slow decline than a bare bottom or deep sand bed or someone who changes water 24x7. Hit the Reef Discussion and you will read many a tank crash posts and they do water changes at many different rates.
Decadence
New member
My well established 90 gallon display is over-stocked to what most would consider an extreme level with fish. Despite the stocking conditions, there is very little aggression because I feed so heavily. My system also has an overstocked 12g Mr. Aqua bookshelf tank and a 40 gallon overstocked isolation area. A lot of waste enters my system. A lot of waste also comes out via skimming and running all of the tanks bare bottom. The main display have five vortechs in it, three of which are in the bottom 4" of the tank. Overflows feed the skimmer directly.
I use vinegar/vodka and chaeto to pull out inorganic nutrients from the water column. I had GFO as well but I found it to only make my SPS pale. Now I have lanthanum chloride for the occasional drip.
Maintenance:
My only weekly maintenance is filling RO jugs and pruning chaeto. I change roughly 20 gallons of water whenever I feel like it. this used to be two weeks.. then a month… now I go months on end. I syphon detritus whenever I see it accumulate… usually only once per month because of all of the flow. I pull roughly one gallon of awful black sludge skimmate per month. My skimmer has an auto neck cleaner and a waste container with auto shut off so it is emptied when it is full and the skimmer top is cleaned roughly every three months. As for dosing, I run a calcium reactor as the back-bone. I also drip kalk for 10 seconds every ten minutes from a Tom's aqualifter. I fine-tune calcium and alkalinity independently with bubble magus dosers. They also dose magnesium, potassium, iron, amino acids and vinegar/vodka. I have a separate bank of BRS dosersm, one is for lanthanum chloride and the other is unused.
Despite all of the stocking and the lack of regular, large water changes, my tank is growing SPS like weeds on LEDs:
I use vinegar/vodka and chaeto to pull out inorganic nutrients from the water column. I had GFO as well but I found it to only make my SPS pale. Now I have lanthanum chloride for the occasional drip.
Maintenance:
My only weekly maintenance is filling RO jugs and pruning chaeto. I change roughly 20 gallons of water whenever I feel like it. this used to be two weeks.. then a month… now I go months on end. I syphon detritus whenever I see it accumulate… usually only once per month because of all of the flow. I pull roughly one gallon of awful black sludge skimmate per month. My skimmer has an auto neck cleaner and a waste container with auto shut off so it is emptied when it is full and the skimmer top is cleaned roughly every three months. As for dosing, I run a calcium reactor as the back-bone. I also drip kalk for 10 seconds every ten minutes from a Tom's aqualifter. I fine-tune calcium and alkalinity independently with bubble magus dosers. They also dose magnesium, potassium, iron, amino acids and vinegar/vodka. I have a separate bank of BRS dosersm, one is for lanthanum chloride and the other is unused.
Despite all of the stocking and the lack of regular, large water changes, my tank is growing SPS like weeds on LEDs:
Nice tank randy but it is cruel to keep fish without the proper filtration system and that tank looks low in magnesium. I keep my seahorse in my 1 oz nano/piko/mini tank but it uses vodka dosing, protein skimmer with ozone, lighted and heated refugium and good airation. For a clean up crew, there is one pod, but he is bowlegged and has a lisp. It now has a lettuce macro and green algae problem but I think I could alieviate that with a 20% water change weekly. Twice a day I turn over the seahorse so he doesn't get psorisis.
:lolspin: :beer:
This was posting #106
Date 29/12/2013
Date 29/12/2013
no water change in 8 years, stocked with 180 species of corals
Last edited:
This picture was taken just now with mij mobile phone..
Still NO waterchange done.
The only thing that was removed were some frags and about 60 liter of water to transport the frags. About 1 liter a week was removed because of skimming.
So if you want to classify that as a water change on a 1700 liter system in 8 months time , be my guest.
Still NO waterchange done.
The only thing that was removed were some frags and about 60 liter of water to transport the frags. About 1 liter a week was removed because of skimming.
So if you want to classify that as a water change on a 1700 liter system in 8 months time , be my guest.
mandarinfanatic
New member
i suppose if you want average colouring on your sps coupled with lots of growth no waterchanges are fine.This picture was taken just now with mij mobile phone..
Still NO waterchange done.
The only thing that was removed were some frags and about 60 liter of water to transport the frags. About 1 liter a week was removed because of skimming.
So if you want to classify that as a water change on a 1700 liter system in 8 months time , be my guest.
mandarinfanatic
New member
Like your anecdotal statements that no waterchanges are ok. Look at all the top sps tanks in the world with good colouration and you will see common denominator is waterchanges
Circular argument and I'm sure we won't agree. I'll just say that this thread is just one source of people who keep water changes to a minimum. No more than the SPS threads which successful tanks that run water changes more regularly. My point is that in both cases of weekly vs. further apart water changes does not mean the tank will fail. That is why I'm saying you have no factual data to support your claim.
This is a rather large hobby with no standard setup that translates to a successful reef tank (outside a requirement of having saltwater (which people keep at all different levels of salinity by the way)). Just because people do something different or outside the box doesn't mean their tank will fail or is in the state of a decline. That is just flat out incorrect.
mandarinfanatic
New member
You are quite correct there is no garuntee of success or failure either way
Decadence
New member
Most all tanks will get water changes, even if they are small simply from losing water while maintaining equipment. I think that the "norm" of 20% weekly is grossly over-stated and has come from a history of people not having enough of a filtration system to keep up with the demands of their tanks.
The "slow decline" is likely a factor of bound nutrients having no place to go, unbalanced ions from dosing and household contaminants building. All of these can have solutions which do not involve frequent water changes.
The "slow decline" is likely a factor of bound nutrients having no place to go, unbalanced ions from dosing and household contaminants building. All of these can have solutions which do not involve frequent water changes.
Define average coloring and what's wrong with growth.
So you are saying, the pictures you see are average?
Decadence
New member
Agreed, I definitely don't find the cookie-cutter water change club and my color and growth are excellent, even for LED.
