An idea to help save some precious water.

[fish_collector]

I live in the desert southwest and o e of the things we should be thinking about is better water conservation.

With that said, I have 2 systems, one with SPS and another that’s a FOWLR. The FOWLR runs nutrients higher than a Hanna will measure while the SPS runs much lower, it runs high according to accepted values but that’s another discussion altogether.

I was thinking about trying something out, I want to use the old water from water changes on my SPS tank, and use that to do water changes in the FOWLR. That way I could perform much larger water changes on the SPS tank and at the same time help lower the nutrients in the FOWLR.

I’m not concerned with moving pathogens back and forth, I’ve moved fish, rock and water back and forth many times.

Are there trace elements that fish absolutely need? This seems like a good way save some water in the big picture.

What are the groups thoughts on this?

 

[fish_collector]

Can a moderator move this to the chemistry thread? I think it may be more suited there.

Thx

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not think fish get trace elements from the water in most cases, but could be wrong. I expect the foods are their source.

Coralline and other organisms in the rock will, however, if that is important.

In any case,,it seems like a fine thing to try. :)

 

[sgdnycct]

Sounds like a great idea. You can always add back some trace elements if your really worried about it.