regular water changes thing of the past?? who doesnt do them who does????

reefwars · #1 07-17-2011, 01:08 PM

would seem some of the nicest tanks out there dont even bother with regular water changes only if need be or in emergency cases and im thinking im joining the bandwagon im gonna mix up some in case i need it for emergency but im cutting it out of my regular routine, call me crazy call me dumb but im given er a shot

who here doesnt bother with them and who here swears they need to be done??

wish me luck!!!

***** for those who do water changes whats the longest youve went with out and what difference good or bad have you noticed??*****

Money pit · #2 07-17-2011, 01:26 PM

I took my skimmer offline a couple months ago, so for me water changes are a must.I change about 3 gal/day on a system thats about 55 gal. I find the small daily w/c easier than the larger weekly ones.
I think most who are skipping w/c are using one of the low nutrient systems. like Zeo or bio pellets. So they don't have the nutrient load a tank without this would have.

daniella3d · #3 07-17-2011, 01:30 PM

I do 20% of my 70 gallons once a month. My zoanthids are a good indication when it is needed...they shrivel and if I don't do the water change they melt away.

Even if we dose for this and that, there are trace elements that can only be replinished by water change.

Once a month is not too bad though, as I used to do 30% each day for my discus or my nitrates would be off the chart. It's less costly for freshwater of couse as I only needed RO water and that's it, but it was a pain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefwars

would seem some of the nicest tanks out there dont even bother with regular water changes only if need be or in emergency cases and im thinking im joining the bandwagon im gonna mix up some in case i need it for emergency but im cutting it out of my regular routine, call me crazy call me dumb but im given er a shot

who here doesnt bother with them and who here swears they need to be done??

wish me luck!!!

Aquattro · #4 07-17-2011, 01:55 PM

50g change in a 180g every other week. I would do more if I had a bigger mixing barrel.

reefwars · #5 07-17-2011, 01:55 PM

was at a friends house yesterday and he has a 60g full blown reef mostly sps, no skimmer no zeo nothing fancy as its not available here uses tap water and not a water change in over a year,everything in his tank is about to grow out the top,not many fish though....im baffled really as ive always been 10% weekly faithfully....some people have all the luck i tell ya lol i also know someone else here who has a 300g runs a skimmer and doses but no water changes since set up....got me thinking for sure

reefwars · #6 07-17-2011, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

I do 20% of my 70 gallons once a month. My zoanthids are a good indication when it is needed...they shrivel and if I don't do the water change they melt away.

Even if we dose for this and that, there are trace elements that can only be replinished by water change.

Once a month is not too bad though, as I used to do 30% each day for my discus or my nitrates would be off the chart. It's less costly for freshwater of couse as I only needed RO water and that's it, but it was a pain.

wow 30% every day even if it is ro only its def got to be a pain lol

Aquattro · #7 07-17-2011, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefwars

wow 30% every day even if it is ro only its def got to be a pain lol

When I had Discus I changed 90% everyday in 3 tanks. "Pain" doesn't quite describe it -lol

Compared to that, my schedule now is nothing!

I do water changes to freshen everything up. I imagine the fish living in the tank is comparable to when I go play squash. I get to the court, and 2 sweaty people leave, and in I go. And hold my breath because it's disgusting. I have to ask the club to turn on the AC each time, and once they do, it's, well, a breath of fresh air. I think this is good for the fish in a closed system, it's gives them a break from swimming around in fish urine....not to mention replacing lost elements.
Really, I've never looked at a tank and thought "gee, your tank looks like crap, you should stop doing water changes"
Not doing them, IMO, is being lazy and/or cheap. Reef keeping isn't a hobby for lazy/cheap people

As a note, I've been doing this 10 years now, and I have better results now, doing larger changes, than I've ever had. I'm actually considering do more frequent changes now...

doch · #8 07-17-2011, 04:17 PM

Knowing that I was going to be moving soon, and then once I moved, knowing that the upgrade was enroute, I stopped doing water changes. The results are really weird. Some of my corals turned way brighter. Some of them turned way more dull. The biggest things that I noticed were a significant increase in the algae growing on the side of the glass, and the skimmer was definetly pulling out more crud. I think that once all is said and done, I'll be doing less frequent water changes on the upgrade. I'm thinking about 10% every other week. I'll also be running full zeo on this tank. Oh, and I switched to RO this time around.

BTW, Most of my corals are SPS. ALL of the corals that I noticed a change in are SPS. LPS and Zoas did not seem to change at all.

reefwars · #9 07-17-2011, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

When I had Discus I changed 90% everyday in 3 tanks. "Pain" doesn't quite describe it -lol

Compared to that, my schedule now is nothing!

I do water changes to freshen everything up. I imagine the fish living in the tank is comparable to when I go play squash. I get to the court, and 2 sweaty people leave, and in I go. And hold my breath because it's disgusting. I have to ask the club to turn on the AC each time, and once they do, it's, well, a breath of fresh air. I think this is good for the fish in a closed system, it's gives them a break from swimming around in fish urine....not to mention replacing lost elements.
Really, I've never looked at a tank and thought "gee, your tank looks like crap, you should stop doing water changes"
Not doing them, IMO, is being lazy and/or cheap. Reef keeping isn't a hobby for lazy/cheap people

As a note, I've been doing this 10 years now, and I have better results now, doing larger changes, than I've ever had. I'm actually considering do more frequent changes now...

hummm good way to look at it brad, ive always said water changes is what makes a reeftank stable if you do regular changes your sure to see basic success.ive run many tanks with or without skimmers ive dosed and not dosed buty ive always done water changes sometimes twice a week but as of lately ive been seeing and hearing alot of people who dont do them have great success.ive been doing this for 10 yrs as well ,in my first years with folwlr i never ran skimmers or carbon sure i barely had rock half the time lol but water changes is what kept it all alive in my opinion.the times i didnt do water changes or neglected the tank i payed for it but with time comes knowlege and im thinking that it is possible to get away without as long as your not neglecting the tank.

im def not lazy or cheap i mean it takes about 3 mins to do a water change on my little 20g and a bucket of salt will do me a year+ but i got to thinking with all the knowlege weve learned over the years is it possible for the right person to have success or even astonishing growth by just practising good husbandry and keeping a low bio load.

theres prob other factors like source water,established lr,the corals we keep and the fish we have that play a role in whether or not to do water changes and i def wouldnt recommend it to any new people to the hobby, as a person who trys to help new people i actually push water changes on every one of them as well as carbon and skimmers.

the beauty of this hobby is that if you want to see successs then no two tanks will see it the same way i mean what works for one may not work for another and what one person does to achieve this success may not be what another would do.........i guess im more curios as a project more so than trying to save a buck if i had a 180 full on sps dominated reef i prob wouldnt even switch what i was doing in fear the result would be to dramatic but i have a 20g mixed reef with hardy lps and zoas and a very low bio load so im gonna try it as a little project ill still have saltwater on stand by in case something doesnt look right or goes wrong

Aquattro · #10 07-17-2011, 05:29 PM

I guess when I speak it's from a SPS point of view. With a LPS tank, or soft corals, I might be less inclined to change as much for corals, although the fish would still have to be considered. I guess my philosophy is to keep it as close to natural as I can, given the small space. I just know that when I'm swimming down in the tropics, I don't mind getting a mouthful of water, but I sure wouldn't want tank water touching my lips

I've pulled fish out of the ocean for my selfish enjoyment, I feel the least I can do is keep the water as clean as possible.

Now sure, it can be done. Steve will pop in here shortly and tell us how he ran his tank for over a year without changing water, and his corals had some color. But....is this optimal for all the creatures in the water? Or is it sufficient to meet our particular requirements (color, growth, whatever it is we each want from the tank). I would guess the later. A tank can and often will be successful, within the measurements of our individual requirements for success, without water changes. Will it get worse by changing water? I don't think it would. Would the fish be healthier/happier with water changes? I suspect so..