Water Changes

[dkim128]

This may seem like a dumb question to many, but after reading about water changes I feel like they don't serve a purpose. Since if the water added was ro/di and salt. There basically should be very little to no minerals in the water. And if you have a skimmer that is well over the bioload with a large sump, the sump should be able to hold the ammonia spike. And if you siphon out the waste and remains daily, all you really need to do is add water to top it off.

And when you do a water change which won't be very frequent. This would provide enough water to start new phyto cultures.
Making this very cost effective.


Or am I missing something very important?

 

[Cuervo]

Most people do water to changes either to replace trace elements, or to dilute the bad stuff in the tank.

In this particular forum, replacing trace elements is not a big issue. It seems like most of the ones people do in here are to dilute bad stuff.

The bad stuff most in this forum are diluting are Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia. In a cycled and running tank, Ammonia and Nitrites are not really an issue, because the biological filter that's in the Liverock or Bioballs takes care of that. The Skimmer helps to export mostly dissolved organics that lead to algae, and it can help a little bit with phosphates and nitrates, but mostly it's to remove the dissolved organics.

In this forum, that's great for the tanks that hold the broodstock, and the fish that are in the growout stages.

For the larvae and really young fish though, most of the breeders in here appear to be attempting to keep their environment as sterile as possible, because the at those very early stages, the fish are very susceptible to infections. In this case, you can't really use an established Biofilter, because it may have some bacteria that is harmful to the larvae in it.

Same thing with the phyto cultures. They have to be kept as close to sterile as possible, that's why you see the discussions about sterilizing the water before it goes in.

From what I gather, most of the breeders do water changes to keep the bad stuff from building up.

Sorry if I was a little long winded.

 

[David M]

The proponents of regular water changes can point to a dozen "measurable" reasons to do it. There are people who cliam they never change water and they have great success. I am in the middle, I use water from the systems and relace it but don't generally do major "water changes". I recently did a 30% wc on my broodstock system, the percs that have been gravid ( female obviously) every 12-14 days for months finally laid their first nest. I can't help but think that the water change had an impact.

 

[ediaz]

Not to mention the quaility of the development of the eggs wich helps them go full term , most of them.

Ed

 

[FishGuttz]

In a perfect world your right. But many aquarists don't maintain the steps necessary to keep the tanks perfect, hence, the need for water changes. Plus things die in your tank, temps fluctuate, creatures are added and taken away. You need a back up in case your maintenance isn't perfect.