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

[Nigel35]

In reef tanks specifically, I have made some observations related water changes. Firstly, I would think that we can all agree that with proper parameter maintenance our tanks can thrive. Some of the ways people achieve this is by dosing, water changes, skimming, media reactors, UV lighting, etc.

Secondly whenever we come upon an issue almost 99% of the time has to do with parameters. While coral structure health can be easily solved by dosing, lighting, proper flow etc. Every niche issue generally goes back to nutrients, be it bubble, film, hair algae, cyano, diatoms and even dinos. They are tied into either a nitrate, phosphate or silicate problem. Its key to understand why those issues come about and how to solve them. Often I hear reefers throwing a water change at any problem they face, especially when it comes to nutrients. I have come to the conclusion that water changes can often (not always) create more of a problem than already exists. Say you have A diatom or Dino outbreak, performing water changes adds silicates to the water column and thereby promotes their growth. While water changes may be a "quick fix" to create a cleaner system I believe that they may cause more issues.

So we go to solutions. How can we solve issues like thes. My simple answer is once again tank chemistry. Lets say you have higher nitrates, skip the water change and dose iron. Iron has been proven to accelerate the growth of corals. What happens when corals are growing faster than normal? They consume more nutrients... Faster. So now your nitrate issue is out the door. Have phosphate issues? Dose carbon or other credible phosphate removers. Parameters in check, no water changes

While Bob from Montana might have a lot about reefing right, this method of parameter management has been incredibly effective. I don't recommend this way for everyone... its difficult but incredibly rewarding as life tends to teach us.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Nigel

 

[Doctorgori]

hey we can only hope…I believe in water changes but I hate em also
only thing that always bothered me is whatever is in indoor air is likewise in the water…prolly no escaping carbon at the least

 

[homer1475]

Que the no water change guys in 1...2...3...4....

 

[dvgyfresh]

Moonshiners method , no water changes. Ok I have done one 10g water change since April but that was because I dosed flucanazole lol

i don’t see the reason for a water change , I run chemi pure blue , refugium for nutrients (also tons of Xenia ) and dose trace elements

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

No water change methods certain can produce very nice tanks.

That doesn't mean those same tanks might not be better with some water changes, or might be cheaper or easier to maintain that way.

There's more to seawater chemistry than can be solved by ICP and dosing and nutrient control.

 

[Doctorgori]

Moonshiners method , no water changes. Ok I have done one 10g water change since April but that was because I dosed flucanazole lol

i don’t see the reason for a water change , I run chemi pure blue , refugium for nutrients (also tons of Xenia ) and dose trace elements

in support of the no water changes…..genuine curiosity…. how are you dosing you’re trace? I want to start, so no skepticism here….

 

[dvgyfresh]

in support of the no water changes…..genuine curiosity…. how are you dosing you’re trace? I want to start, so no skepticism here….

I use Kent marine essential elements for trace

 

[Nigel35]

No water change methods certain can produce very nice tanks.

That doesn't mean those same tanks might not be better with some water changes, or might be cheaper or easier to maintain that way.

There's more to seawater chemistry than can be solved by ICP and dosing and nutrient control.

And what would that be in particular?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And what would that be in particular?

Accumulating organics and inorganic ions.

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Conclusion
Water changes are a good way to help control certain processes that serve to drive reef aquarium water away from its starting purity. Some things build up in certain situations (organics, certain metals, sodium, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, etc.), and some things become depleted (calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, strontium, silica, etc.). Water changes can serve to help correct these imbalances, and in some cases may be the best way to deal with them. Water changes of 15-30% per month (whether carried out once a month, daily or continuously) have been shown in the graphs above to be useful in moderating the drift of these different seawater components from starting levels. For most reef aquaria, I recommend such changes as good aquarium husbandry. In general, the more the better, if carried out appropriately, and if the new salt water is of appropriate quality.

Calcium and alkalinity, being rapidly depleted in most reef aquaria, are not well controlled, or even significantly impacted by such small water changes. In order to maintain them with no other supplements, changes on the order of 30-50% PER DAY would be required. Nevertheless, that option may still be a good choice for very small aquaria, especially if the changes are slow and automatic.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Watched a live on Instagram tonight with arguing about this. I left a comment “where’s the chemist?”
It seems I found him.

 

[chaoticreefer]

No water changes in 5 months ever since I started the Reef Moonshiners method. The tank has never looked better and seems more healthy then ever.

 

[reefiniteasy]

No water changes in 5 months ever since I started the Reef Moonshiners method. The tank has never looked better and seems more healthy then ever.

How many gallons is the tank and what is the cost difference between the water changes you would be doing and the supplements you are using? Genuinely curious.

 

[Coralsdaily]

In reef tanks specifically, I have made some observations related water changes. Firstly, I would think that we can all agree that with proper parameter maintenance our tanks can thrive. Some of the ways people achieve this is by dosing, water changes, skimming, media reactors, UV lighting, etc.

Secondly whenever we come upon an issue almost 99% of the time has to do with parameters. While coral structure health can be easily solved by dosing, lighting, proper flow etc. Every niche issue generally goes back to nutrients, be it bubble, film, hair algae, cyano, diatoms and even dinos. They are tied into either a nitrate, phosphate or silicate problem. Its key to understand why those issues come about and how to solve them. Often I hear reefers throwing a water change at any problem they face, especially when it comes to nutrients. I have come to the conclusion that water changes can often (not always) create more of a problem than already exists. Say you have A diatom or Dino outbreak, performing water changes adds silicates to the water column and thereby promotes their growth. While water changes may be a "quick fix" to create a cleaner system I believe that they may cause more issues.

So we go to solutions. How can we solve issues like thes. My simple answer is once again tank chemistry. Lets say you have higher nitrates, skip the water change and dose iron. Iron has been proven to accelerate the growth of corals. What happens when corals are growing faster than normal? They consume more nutrients... Faster. So now your nitrate issue is out the door. Have phosphate issues? Dose carbon or other credible phosphate removers. Parameters in check, no water changes

While Bob from Montana might have a lot about reefing right, this method of parameter management has been incredibly effective. I don't recommend this way for everyone... its difficult but incredibly rewarding as life tends to teach us.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Nigel

what are some of the negatives, if any, of doing this?

 

[ZoWhat]

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....

.

 

[UK softy bloke]

In reef tanks specifically, I have made some observations related water changes. Firstly, I would think that we can all agree that with proper parameter maintenance our tanks can thrive. Some of the ways people achieve this is by dosing, water changes, skimming, media reactors, UV lighting, etc.

Secondly whenever we come upon an issue almost 99% of the time has to do with parameters. While coral structure health can be easily solved by dosing, lighting, proper flow etc. Every niche issue generally goes back to nutrients, be it bubble, film, hair algae, cyano, diatoms and even dinos. They are tied into either a nitrate, phosphate or silicate problem. Its key to understand why those issues come about and how to solve them. Often I hear reefers throwing a water change at any problem they face, especially when it comes to nutrients. I have come to the conclusion that water changes can often (not always) create more of a problem than already exists. Say you have A diatom or Dino outbreak, performing water changes adds silicates to the water column and thereby promotes their growth. While water changes may be a "quick fix" to create a cleaner system I believe that they may cause more issues.

So we go to solutions. How can we solve issues like thes. My simple answer is once again tank chemistry. Lets say you have higher nitrates, skip the water change and dose iron. Iron has been proven to accelerate the growth of corals. What happens when corals are growing faster than normal? They consume more nutrients... Faster. So now your nitrate issue is out the door. Have phosphate issues? Dose carbon or other credible phosphate removers. Parameters in check, no water changes

While Bob from Montana might have a lot about reefing right, this method of parameter management has been incredibly effective. I don't recommend this way for everyone... its difficult but incredibly rewarding as life tends to teach us.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Nigel

I don't dose so a small weekly water change helps replenish anything that's being depleted. The tanks been very stable for over 17 years on this regime.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Yes I think so.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

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....

.

Dose it…

 

[chaoticreefer]

How many gallons is the tank and what is the cost difference between the water changes you would be doing and the supplements you are using? Genuinely curious.

75g

My initial start up cost was expensive....$400, others have started off probably around $250. But...luckily, most elemental bottles will last almost forever, since you get 500mL bottles and you do daily dosing in drops. The monthly corrections dosing is where you use larger amounts, in which you use both RM's and BW's products. Out of the monthly RM's products the faster elements that get used up are Fluorine (if you have a sand bed), Boron, and Bromine. But...it just depends on the size of your system on how fast you burn through the bottles. Another expense is having have to do ICP testing (ATI preferred, since they test Fluoride where others (like Trition) may not or some of the other companies have a bad track record on calibrating their machines ) monthly until you start feeling a pattern and you can start lagging on the monthly test to maybe every 2-3 months. The one thing that you can never get from WCs, but you can with RM method is Rubidium. It is an expensive element so most companies do not put it in any of their products (including salt). Rubidium is great with softies, especially with mushrooms (this should excite people with Bounce mushrooms). Another way to look at it is WCs doesn't address shortage of a certain element, it just adds elements blindly and hoping for the best. Elements get used up at different rates at different times, so a WC will replace some of what was lost, but at the end of the day, an element will still be low or even be considered as a depleted amount and only way to address the problem is deal with that element directly. Would I say I am saving money by not doing WCs, with respect to cost of salt? No...I will not say that. But...I will say that I have never had these colors when I was doing WCs and my growth rate jumped 3x (yes, 3x) within 5 months by judging my ALk and Ca intake (dosing amount) and the demand is still rising. In fact, my Alk and Ca are a constant battle to keep them up. Also another plus is no more expensive frags dying (saving me even more money).

 

[Stackrat]

I just want to know who Bob from Montana is?

 

[chaoticreefer]

I just want to know who Bob from Montana is?

He's the guy that wears a pet goldfish around his neck in a little jar.