Are water changes needed??

[jason2459]

I personally do water changes for the things I don't know about. Certainly doesn't hurt the tank. Cheap insurance.

I do automatic water changes daily that comes up to about 30% monthly of my total water volume.

Anywhere from 0% to 100% monthly is reasonable.

 

[PeterEde]

At the end of the day it all comes down to how clean you can keep your water.

 

[Rubymoon286]

I'm team water changes personally. I've run systems both ways, and I have better success when I'm changing the water regularly. Now I hate doing the changes myself, so I bought an auto water change system, and have it programed to do daily water changes that add up to about 15% weekly. I don't have to dose nearly as much, I don't have to use gfo except when something goes haywire, and I can feed heavy without worrying too much about it.

 

[Koty]

No WC for 2 years now. I will elaborate on my dystem later

 

[seamonster]

Hellllooooo

I have been researching SW FOWLR tanks for a while in the hope of getting either the Fluval 53l or the Fluval 19l Spec V for Christmas.

I have been a fresh water girly for my whole life since I was 10 and have always thought that weekly water changes of 30 to 50 percent was what everyone did no matter if it was fresh or salt water to combat the waste produced by fish.

However now I am rather befuddled because many Pro Reefers seem to say that doing water changes is not needed. I get that the nitrogen cycle breaks down the waste but I thought that because there were still nitrates water changes were needed.

Does salt water magic away poop, does it disappear, it is eaten? I am confuddled. Help would be very appreciated please because the mystery of fish poop is baffling me lol

Thanks for reading the long crappy (pun intended) post

 

[seamonster]

Hellllooooo

I have been researching SW FOWLR tanks for a while in the hope of getting either the Fluval 53l or the Fluval 19l Spec V for Christmas.

I have been a fresh water girly for my whole life since I was 10 and have always thought that weekly water changes of 30 to 50 percent was what everyone did no matter if it was fresh or salt water to combat the waste produced by fish.

However now I am rather befuddled because many Pro Reefers seem to say that doing water changes is not needed. I get that the nitrogen cycle breaks down the waste but I thought that because there were still nitrates water changes were needed.

Does salt water magic away poop, does it disappear, it is eaten? I am confuddled. Help would be very appreciated please because the mystery of fish poop is baffling me lol

Thanks for reading the long crappy (pun intended) post )

Water changes are necessary…here..

 

[vetteguy53081]

I went many years with maybe 1-2 changes each year

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I'm team water changes personally. I've run systems both ways, and I have better success when I'm changing the water regularly. Now I hate doing the changes myself, so I bought an auto water change system, and have it programed to do daily water changes that add up to about 15% weekly. I don't have to dose nearly as much, I don't have to use gfo except when something goes haywire, and I can feed heavy without worrying too much about it.

I think this is the best way to look at water changes with what is available to hobyists now. I think even with ICP there is luck at play.

I certainly have to be running on luck not changing water, I have no way to check for everything

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Running an aquarium without a water change can be complicated. Doing water changes is not. I would suggest until you get a little more experience you stick with safe and easy. Since you are going to start with a FOWLR water changes should be enough. As you add corals, it won't. Unlike freshwater, water changes in a Marine tank is a additive and dilution process. Additive in the term of replacing the elements that you have used and dilution in the term of negating bad things that have built up. Unfortunately you can not do either 100% unless you do a 100% water change. That is where the mad scientists stuff comes in. This is where the different types of filtration (mechanical and biological) come into play. Also additives, such as trace elements.

 

[Koty]

I have a 100g tank with a chaeto refuge. I use every standart possible export method: extensive carbon dosing, powerfull skimmer, filter wool (changed every 2 weeks), activated carbon reactor, and until recently a GFO reactor. I dose TM 3 part fortified with their A & K elements. My Nitrate has recently went close to 0 and my phodphate is around 0.2 +/- 0.05. Many fish heavily fed, few softies, LPS and a few SPS. I test for Salinity, pH, Alk, NO3, PO4, Mg, Ca, and K. Do not belive in ICP

 

[peterhos]

I am serious that I can do a 50% dilution and it reads that high. It's been that way for a long time. It does make me skeptical because all of our fresh tanks run high and we haven't had a problem. We have noticed that our systems seem to require heavy airation, but that tank in particular has been that way since the 4th month it was up. There are guppies that reproduce in it and a few different species of snail. We also have small yellow shrimps that have reproduced in immeasurably high nitrates in a small 5 gallon tank. It is API, being used for our fresh, but the amount of feeding vs nutrient export it does add up.

Edit: might be worth mentioning our tap has very high carbante hardness, and early on we would use a lot of PH down to no affect. There are certain plants we can't keep due to this and most of our shrimps do not reproduce in those conditions. We have another tank for those that are very low bioload and do get regular changes and CO2

Could I just muddy the waters here? When I lost a skimmer a few years back and balked at the ridiculous prices for a few pieces of plastic and a pump, I decided to use our tap water for water changes. The result was, massive growth of the softies in the tank. Maybe it depends on the quality of municipal tap water. Ours is fine but very hard.

 

[MnFish1]

Hellllooooo

I have been researching SW FOWLR tanks for a while in the hope of getting either the Fluval 53l or the Fluval 19l Spec V for Christmas.

I have been a fresh water girly for my whole life since I was 10 and have always thought that weekly water changes of 30 to 50 percent was what everyone did no matter if it was fresh or salt water to combat the waste produced by fish.

However now I am rather befuddled because many Pro Reefers seem to say that doing water changes is not needed. I get that the nitrogen cycle breaks down the waste but I thought that because there were still nitrates water changes were needed.

Does salt water magic away poop, does it disappear, it is eaten? I am confuddled. Help would be very appreciated please because the mystery of fish poop is baffling me lol

Thanks for reading the long crappy (pun intended) post )

There are many pro-reefers that also believe in water changes. I don't know of anyone that recommends 30-50%/week.

People that do not do water changes may succeed for many reasons - the organisms in their tank take up some of the 'toxins', the bio load is lower than average, plus there are elaborate filtration systems that can be used. Seemingly, many people end up doing occasional water changes though not as regimented as what was formerly used.

 

[MnFish1]

Few things, 1 there are benefits to water changes, not much benefit to not doing them aside from stability if you have everything dosing right where you want it. But there are things you may not be able to remove from the water column that dilution via water change will. What those things are we don't know, toxins, contaminants, disolved organics.

But I don't change my water.

However I also rarely change our fw, only when I see the airation creating bibbles that don't pop. Which is absurd how far you can go.

We have a 55G goldfish tank with 9 very large fancies, I have gone months without changing it, the nitrates accorsing to api via dilution is somewhere in the 130 range, but everything is going fine. Is there a benefit to this? No, we need to supliment calcium because its not bring introduced by water changes, well, aside from less work... My wife feeds them super heavily, and some of them are 9 inches long mouth to tip of tail (big tails though) we have a 5 inch substrate on it to allow extra denitrification, and lots and lots of plants for nutruent export.

There are ways to go without water changes, there are situations where its beneficial to stop then for a time. My reef is doing astoundingly well, and I have to add nutrients because my nutrient export outcompetes my heavy feeding. But I imagine, it could look just as good if instead of playing mad scientist and locking in a bunch of dosing pumps to make up for it, it could look just as good replacing the effort of extra testing doing math and keeping schedules, for the effort of moving 40 gallons of water every week or 2.

On the otherhand, the traces and carbon are all cheaper than salt for me.

Are you suggesting that the nitrate in the goldfish tank is 130? or your saltwater tank? Goldfish can tolerate poor water quality - but though they are surviving, I would wonder if they are thriving. There are people on this site who have also said that their tanks are doing well with nitrates of 100, but many organisms will not tolerate this well.

 

[MnFish1]

Could I just muddy the waters here? When I lost a skimmer a few years back and balked at the ridiculous prices for a few pieces of plastic and a pump, I decided to use our tap water for water changes. The result was, massive growth of the softies in the tank. Maybe it depends on the quality of municipal tap water. Ours is fine but very hard.

There are at least a few threads about using tap water (dechlorinated) for water changes. Part of the ability to be successful with this is the composition of the water itself in a given location. I would not use tap water for topping off evaporation.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - to the OP - there is an ongoing thread - you can read the debate (17 pages since October 8) https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/why-are-some-people-anti-waterchanges.1012066/

 

[schooncw]

No you don't have to do water changes. You need not do oil changes on your vehicle either. Personally, I view both actions as the least expensive, easiest and most effective maintenance I can do.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

what does the anti water Change crowd do to offset for skimmate?
they can’t all be skimmerless

 

[jason2459]

what does the anti water Change crowd do to offset for skimmate?
they can’t all be skimmerless

It's also pretty amazing how much water some algaes hold if they are skimmerless and exporting algae in some way like an ATS. At some level there is a water change over time happening.

 

[CBonito]

I change water as needed, not on a schedule.

 

[Raul-7]

Is flushing your toilet necessary?


Then imagine your fish which live in a glorified toilet [they live and breath in that water]. Why wouldn't you change their water?