Zero water changes?

[cjilge]

Good thread! I've been running my 65 for almost 2.5 years on a jeaubert in the sump. Basically it is a 65g DT w 30gl sump the sump has a jeaubert and w/ aprox 5" of sand about 25 lbs LR and there is also a seperate chamber that is about 9"x14" that has 13" dsb planted with several mangroves, sump has a huge ball of cheato that is halved about every 6-8 weeks. running an ASM mini-G skimmer. I do do water changes, aprox 15-20gls every 2-3 weeks. I dose alk evry day, calcium once a week and mag aprox once a month. The only other things I dose are phyto twice a week and seachem reef plus twice a week with the food. also run Carbon 24/7 and GFO for a month at a time every 3 months or so. I've got good growth and color. I'm not suer I see the benefits of the jeaubert system. Nitrates have always been 0, phos I have to watch closely, and alk tends to be low so I dose accordingly. I'm in the middle of a 150gl upgrade w/ 55gl sump. that will have almost half of the sump as a refuge. I don't plan on putting the jeaubert back in nor the mangroves, so we will see in the coming years the difference between the two. I do plan on doing the same wc schedule 15-20gls every 2-3 weeks so I will be decreasing the percentage of water changed. I will be running a Aqua C ev180 skimmer on this tank so we will see. I'll be following this thread to see how I compare to others with out changes.

 

[lisafoster]

I have not done a water change on my 125 in 5 months I also have not had to dose calcium since then. I have mostly lps and a few clams I have a feeling if I tried to do this with sps there may be problems. I have spoken with other people who keep lps who have not done water changes in a year.

 

[biecacka]

i think there are a few vairables involved with this theory.
1. size of tank, i would believe its easier to get away with if you have a larger tank?
2. types of corals kept, we all can agree it would be easier to keep softy, lps w this method as opposed to a strict sps tank. not saying it cant be done.

i myself have a 220 softy lps tank that i perform water changes on although a lot less often than most should!!


corey

 

[noobtothereef]

I have not done a water change on my 125 in 5 months I also have not had to dose calcium since then. I have mostly lps and a few clams I have a feeling if I tried to do this with sps there may be problems. I have spoken with other people who keep lps who have not done water changes in a year.

if your calcium and alk numbers were good 5 months ago, then now they are terribly low, those clams will suck the calcium out of the water faster than you can blink your eye.......im sure the growth in your tank is terrible

 

[cjilge]

if your calcium and alk numbers were good 5 months ago, then now they are terribly low, those clams will suck the calcium out of the water faster than you can blink your eye.......im sure the growth in your tank is terrible

I agree, i really would like to add a clam to my new 150, but i would rather keep my sps happy an calcium steady. i've seen a few really nice tanks with sps and clams and they usually have huge calc reactors and or dose to.

 

[Newreeflady]

I kept 2 croceas in a tank with twv about 45g with just dosing b-ionic, no calc reactor. Ca/alk were stable with b-ionic.

-A

 

[bioload]

Who here has a system that can go long periods of time without a waterchange and what type of filtration do you use?

I've had a 65gal FOWLR that went 2+ years without a water change or filtration. However, it was basically and ATS by the end....my tang was well fed.

 

[outy]

I just did 4 years without a water change, I should have started doing them at 3 years.

tank is 100g DT DSB with 50g sump BB

I over skim, run chaeto which grew slow with a weak light i used, and run GFO that im lazy about changing.

at 3 years tank was fine and the last year I did get a little HA about a %5 infestation lol Growth was off the hook and I have to sell frags or get another larger tank.

I use 2 part for ca and alk, my ato uses calk when I use it.

The BB fuge/sump helped in ease of exporting nutrients, I was a very lazy hobbiest and I did almost no maintanence. [new baby and then divorce last year]

My lack of maintanence led to some bad conditions, after a day or two of maintanence and 30G weekely water changes for a month and a new 150w chaeto light the tank is in perfect condition again with hair and bubble algea going away.

 

[DSwiss]

With a light fish load, and regular replenishing of elements and minerals via, freshwater top-off and buffers, rigorous water movement, I have seen it done. I would stay away from SPS coral, but polyps, some LPS might actually thrive in such a system.

 

[jumpingintosalt]

Do you have a link for a design on the plenum? Is this diff from garfs reef one?

 

[jumpingintosalt]

Doesn't the additives do more to add things back in than the salt more specific to your tank needs softies vs hard corals etc

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

i have a 46g mixed reef, seldom skimmed with a couple fish i dont feed that is going on 6.5 years no water change. Though to be fair, im lazy with top offs so sometimes i flood my tank to 1.016 or something and then add in some really salty water to get it back to NSW levels. Any coral I put in there does great. I DO have a bit of nusience algae but thats to be expected since there isnt much of a CuC.
I just started a 55g DT with sump and fuge. I put in BRS reactors, decent lighting, and threw in a bunch of finicky corals. I've had 2 fish die and my LPS frags wither until I dropped them into the 46. Now they look amazing. I never test the 46, or at least not since early 2004, and have kinda begun a not so thourogh upkeep of the SPS heavy tank. My growth isnt phenominal for the few acro frags i have, but im dosing alk calc and MG at random. Every so often I drain the sump and refil with a few gallons of saltwater so that might be considered a water change lol.
Anyway, in this hobby I've found I'm either lucky or an idiot savant, but my experience the less i do 'by the books' the better the system looks.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

Btw im getting great growth out of the monti's in the 55 gallon. All my frags are 2-3 months in the system and all my montis have almost doubled in size except my digitata.

 

[living_waters]

I have decided to try this on my new 75g see how it goes how long would you guys recommend I go before I stop doing water changes say 2/3 months after tank is setup?

 

[tcdog4]

I have not changed water in over 24 months. You can see my tank in my profile, it has just about everything it... I have a sump, skimmer and a CO2 calcium reactor with media in it, I manually put in Iodine once a week. I don't begrudge anyone doing water changes, but the cost for me was just to much, I found a reactor on craigslist for about 1/3 the cost of new and never looked back. The system requires a DSB, mine is 5-6 inches and I add to it every 18 months to keep it up. When I build my 240 I will be putting in PVC stands to place the live rock on to allow for water movement under it instead of sitting on the sand making that part of the bed non functioning. There have been discussions on DSB and the Jobart (sp) method and conclusions are it is a toss up. I have the DSB in the main tank and the Jobart in my sump, no difference in them from what I can tell.

You also need to make sure you have some critter sand stirrers, starfish, snails, etc... DO NOT stir the sand like some people do on the internet with a stick or similar item... you WILL crash your tank.

Some people might need to vodka dose to keep the no3 in check until the DSB can get up to speed if you are moving to a DSB. Don't forget the most importatant part is a great skimmer. Or change water.

I also have an automatic topoff set up.

My tank as been up for over 10 years, I have to remove coral on a 12 month schedule or all I will have is coral...

 

[tcdog4]

I have decided to try this on my new 75g see how it goes how long would you guys recommend I go before I stop doing water changes say 2/3 months after tank is setup?

I would give it 2 months, but really watch the no3... that will let you know if the DSB is working or not. Those instastart bacteria work pretty good