Could water changes become a thing of the past? i.e. tank chemistry

Scorpius

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People not wanting to do water changes are the same group of people with bonsai who refuse to use proper sifted to size substrate and then wonder why their trees suffer long term.
 

HomebroodExotics

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People not wanting to do water changes are the same group of people with bonsai who refuse to use proper sifted to size substrate and then wonder why their trees suffer long term.
That seems nothing alike honestly. Do you change out your properly sifted to size substrate by 30% a week?
 

Koigula

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Even the best salt manufacturer has a bad day.
Sadly true. Maybe better with ICP testing now or in the future. You can mitigate by prechecking alkalinity and magnesium of each batch and limiting water changes to 10% each time.

Much like buying cars, you likely should stay away from small volume specialty manufacturers. The recipe it not rocket science in the end. Mixing evenly is difficult.
 

GARRIGA

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In past I have found green rocks to be a sign of low calcium as a tank matures. Here is my old tank with Ushio 10ks and aged reef saver rock. It stayed a bit green and then purple after I rescaped and took out all the encrusted rocks.

T5s and kalk and auto top off, and I listened to Bob Stark. Only added things that calcifying organism take out and maybe ESV transitional elements. Very basic. More stuff and equipment means more failures.

More modern tank is going back to this that just worked! I do water changes with a danner mag 18 tied into the house drain in basement so takes 10 minutes.

rescaped.jpg
My calcium over 500. Alkalinity 11 DKH. No clue on mag. Nothing in the tank to consume these elements other than a few snails.

Green algae because I used a Kessil 160 Tuna Sun on full integrity for almost 12 hrs daily. It’s an experiment tank and this failed. Thinking was this light closer to full spectrum and by raising the intensity then I’d still get required PAR yet brighter display. Light being updated soon. Current dimmed to lowest and 8 per day.
 

Koigula

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Are you planning on stocking more? Looks like a softies tank?

My tank is finally taking off. Despite all banter and perhaps bragging, it took 2 full years to start clicking. I am in good company as Sajay Joshi made the same comments about dead rock. It takes a long time.
 

Koigula

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Not sure I see value in no water changes.

Youtube had a clip of ACI aquaculture receiving a tank full of nice zoanthids with no water changes for years.

All polyps melted on transfer.
 
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Dburr1014

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Take a wild reef..... let's say in the Great Barrier Reef

Let's build huge concrete Jetties where no fresh SW can come and go with the tide.


Plz report back how the wild reef is doing in the same water conditions in the coming months....

Interested Ooo GIF by reactionseditor


.
Not a great analogy. To do this, you would still have to add massive flow (as in powerheads) and dose cal, alk, mag, vita, and elements(as they get depleted in a water box) . Not even touching on gac.
 

chaostactics

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Not sure I see value in no water changes.

Youtube had a clip of ACI aquaculture receiving a tank full of nice zoanthids with no water changes for years.

All polyps melted on transfer.

Less large hardware to buy/store, less mess, not hauling boxes of salt/having to store them.

Sounds like they acclimated wrong.
 
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131696

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If you have LPS tank you don't have to do water change they take up the nutrients, just keep water clean with carbon and water top off and your done after about 1 year of having the tank.Sanjay had a tank no water changes no protein skimmer it's on YouTube or was it mike
 

Muffin87

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There's more to seawater chemistry than can be solved by ICP and dosing and nutrient control.
Considering how little is known about organics in seawater, I've always wondered if current methods of nutrient reduction (aside from water change) can really remove all kinds of organics, including the ones that may be dangerous if left to accumulate over the years.
 

chaostactics

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i don't see how that's possible since you can't remove 100% of anything with a water change.

I was changing filter socks every other day, running a skimmer, didn't feed food in excess (i.e. food rarely reached the sand bed), and was running a fuge.

Nitrates went to unmeasurable/zero confirmed by nyos test kit and ultra low range Hanna, Phos when to less than 0.025 confirmed by NYOS, LR Hanna, and ICP testing.

Stopped doing water changes and changing filter socks 2 x a week. Difference was night and day.
 

reefer0708

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I hate WC. But I've never skipped a 10% weekly WC for years. I did have a softies only tank without any WC for a few years and everything thrived. My current DT and FT contain about 90% acros..
Are there any stick-heads out there that don't do WC? What's your secret? I'm too scared to even try..lol

20211211_203120.jpg 20211211_203322.jpg
 

Reefer_punk

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I hate WC. But I've never skipped a 10% weekly WC for years. I did have a softies only tank without any WC for a few years and everything thrived. My current DT and FT contain about 90% acros..
Are there any stick heads out there that don't do WC? What's your secret? :)

20211211_203120.jpg 20211211_203322.jpg
IMG-20210828-WA0023-01.jpeg

Stability is the key, especially alk and salinity. No other secrets...
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Considering how little is known about organics in seawater, I've always wondered if current methods of nutrient reduction (aside from water change) can really remove all kinds of organics, including the ones that may be dangerous if left to accumulate over the years.

Organic export methods certainly cannot remove all types of organics.

Do they remove all that are any sort of problem in a reef tank? (e.g., a cyanobacterial toxin) That's unknown to me.
 

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