668 DAYS - NO WATER CHANGES ..and going strong !

[cheykaser]

When i started this hobby in 2014 (thanks to my hubby for getting us into the hobby) I was always preached to by LFS, water change water change water change...well thats not always the case...im going on nearly 2 years now with my Waterbox 155.5 Infinia frag with not a single water change !!! With the diligence of keeping parameters in check ... and in all honestly im reall not that strickt in myself....monthly (or every other month or so) ICP tests and the discipline i have found for myself in Reef Moonshiner's this has been an amazing journey....tank is thriving...I am keeping almost every type of coral...SPS...LPS...softies, gargonians....everything from leathers, acropora, zoas to gonis .
This tank is run on the basics of equipment... filter floss filtration ( pillow stuffing from Walmart) , cheato and miracle mud in the refugium, skimmer and uv , running at night.
Auto dosing calcium, alkalinity, iron and manganese.

 

[Lavey29]

I am thinking of upgrading to that exact tank and would run a similar sump set up. May i ask what lights you are using? Tank looks beautiful.

 

[cheykaser]

I am thinking of upgrading to that exact tank and would run a similar sump set up. May i ask what lights you are using? Tank looks beautiful.

I love this tank..you won't regret it!! .im running 3 radion G6pros ..I did put the high intensity lens kits on them too

 

[redacted_]

Congratulations! Thats one hell of an achievement, and your corals look great too.

Out of curiosity, what do you do if you ever find one of your traces above average? Surely thats happened at some point for you

 

[Izfisk]

Looks great!

 

[Evil1]

Good for you! I don’t do water changes either. The only time I do a water change is when my salinity is below my comfort zone due to cleaning my weekly skimmer cleaning and salt creep. This takes months but I’ll drain 5 gallons mix up some salt slightly higher than my current salinity and pump 5 gallons back in yo raid salinity. That’s it.

 

[bubbgee]

I am thinking of upgrading to that exact tank and would run a similar sump set up. May i ask what lights you are using? Tank looks beautiful.

I love this tank..you won't regret it!! .im running 3 radion G6pros ..I did put the high intensity lens kits on them too

You’re running the upgrade I dream of as well. You aren’t dosing anything else out of those four (alk, cal, iron and manganese)?

 

[cheykaser]

You’re running the upgrade I dream of as well. You aren’t dosing anything else out of those four (alk, cal, iron and manganese)?

I dose daily several trace elements on the Moonshiners method ..and after each ICP test correct other take elements as needed .those four are just my main ones I have set up on auto dosing

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There’s no doubt one can have a very nice tank without water changes.

Without trying a water change, the question always remains whether one might perceive a benefit if one is done.

 

[cheykaser]

There’s no doubt one can have a very nice tank without water changes.

Without trying a water change, the question always remains whether one might perceive a benefit if one is done.

I think the choice to do a water change will have little impact on the tank to be honest, unless something has happened then a larger wc needed to be done then maybe..

 

[smitten with ocean life]

wow. i would love to have a tank look like that and have no water changes! salt is a rip off!

 

[Lavey29]

I love this tank..you won't regret it!! .im running 3 radion G6pros ..I did put the high intensity lens kits on them too

15 or 30s?

 

[BonnieB]

When i started this hobby in 2014 (thanks to my hubby for getting us into the hobby) I was always preached to by LFS, water change water change water change...well thats not always the case...im going on nearly 2 years now with my Waterbox 155.5 Infinia frag with not a single water change !!! With the diligence of keeping parameters in check ... and in all honestly im reall not that strickt in myself....monthly (or every other month or so) ICP tests and the discipline i have found for myself in Reef Moonshiner's this has been an amazing journey....tank is thriving...I am keeping almost every type of coral...SPS...LPS...softies, gargonians....everything from leathers, acropora, zoas to gonis .
This tank is run on the basics of equipment... filter floss filtration ( pillow stuffing from Walmart) , cheato and miracle mud in the refugium, skimmer and uv , running at night.
Auto dosing calcium, alkalinity, iron and manganese.

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think the choice to do a water change will have little impact on the tank to be honest, unless something has happened then a larger wc needed to be done then maybe..

Maybe. But without doing one, all anyone can do is speculate.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

i think this would classify as if it aint broke, dont fix it! ;)

 

[bubbgee]

I love this tank..you won't regret it!! .im running 3 radion G6pros ..I did put the high intensity lens kits on them too

15 or 30s?

By the size of it on the pic they look like Xr30s.

 

[Lavey29]

By the size of it on the pic they look like Xr30s.

I agree but those focus covers made it difficult to tell and I was thinking 30s might be to much for a 16 inch deep shallow mixed reef.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Well that is a wonderful thing. Good for you that your closed system is free of toxin buildup, pollutants and PFAS (forever chemicals).
But sarcasm aside, your post is a double edge sword for reefers. On one hand, while not sustainable, a no water change tank is possible if you are adept at keeping a reef tank. You are exchanging the effort/cost of doing water changes with the effort/cost of closely monitoring the water chemistry of your tank and making the necessary adjustments.
But in honesty, corals are going to die because a new reefer only read " two years and no water changes"
and that's what they will do... Then I will have to read and maybe respond to a post of " All my corals die.. why?"
A better title might have been, "Almost two years without a water change and this is how I did it".
Just Sayin...

 

[bubbgee]

I agree but those focus covers made it difficult to tell and I was thinking 30s might be to much for a 16 inch deep shallow mixed reef.

I run xr30s at 40-50% on my shallow mixed reef. I don't see any issues with that.

 

[twentyleagues]

Its a great looking tank and nice pics too!
I was always a water change person on my last reef system years ago. I do them very rarely now that I have been back in the hobby for a few years and my parameters are pretty good with mostly success, corals and fish are happy. I also think I am more seasoned now and dont do the stupid things I did as a new reefer years ago. I still do think they can help with the things that can not be tested for at the hobby level or if you dont want to go to the extent of getting icps and dosing every trace under the sun. It's nice to see what could happen if you have a good setup and stuff falls inline.