Do I need water changes?

[ZachariahBeanzz]

Hey! Funnily enough, after buying a 50lb bucket of salt, I’m seeing that I may not need any water changes. However, I would like some input by more experience people for this. I have a 20g AIO with two clowns and only a couple of LPS and soft coral, but I am starting to see some bryopsis (this is important for my nutrient levels). Here’s what my levels have been over the past month:

2/16 (prior to water change)
NitrATE: ~15
Salinity: 34.6
Calcium: ~400
Alkalinity: 10.2

2/22 (before water change)
Alkalinity: ~9.6
Calcium: ~425
NitrATE: ~7
Salinity: 32.6

3/1 (before water change)
Calcium: ~425
Alkalinity: 9.3
NitrATE: ~5
Salinity: 33.1

3/8 (NO WATER CHANGE THIS WEEK)
Alkalinity: ~9.6
Calcium: ~440
Nitrate: 2-5
Salinity: 33.5

3/15 (before water change)
Calcium: ~425
Alkalinity: 9.9
Nitrate: 2
Salinity: 33.2

As said before, I’m starting to see some bryopsis pop up, and I don’t think it’s my nutrients, so I’m probably going to start manually removing it, along with chemicals. Should I continue do water changes weekly-biweekly? Thanks!

 

[rayadog]

If you treat with chemicals, I would wrap that up with a water change; and maybe carbon. Also you’ll need to either dose or do water changes in the future when your LPS take up more elements. I think with small tanks, it’s just simpler to do a water change versus dose. But dosing, even strictly manually is not that hard with small tanks.

So yea you probably don’t need water changes if you test and keep things accordingly. When I ran a 20, I didn’t test and just did a water change 1x a month.

What do you keep your salinity at?

 

[MikeReefs]

What’s your phosphate at. Yes I would start manually removing it. Get yourself a 1m micron sock and siphon it through the sock into your sump. If no sump do it into a bucket and pour the water back into the tank. No waterchanges needed

 

[rtparty]

Water changes are the easiest and cheapest insurance we have especially on smaller tanks. A 2g weekly water change takes 30 minutes at most and will do wonders for your tank.

It’s not about nutrient levels alone. It’s about the entire approach and water changes just fix so many things that can potentially go wrong

 

[CHSUB]

No chemicals please only manual removal and yes continue WC; which is imo the best option for a healthy closed system. Hobby testing is only to confirm what you are seeing, for example if everything looks good and nitrates test at 2 ppm you now know that this level is fine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Expanding on what others have said, I do water changes to help fix problems we cannot readily see, not primarily those that are readily monitored and fixed, such as accumulating organic and inorganic toxins.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I still maintain regular water changes on all my mature nano tanks. To me, its not about the 4 or 5 parameters that we can test for, its about the many parameters that we can't test for.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

Hey! Funnily enough, after buying a 50lb bucket of salt, I’m seeing that I may not need any water changes. However, I would like some input by more experience people for this. I have a 20g AIO with two clowns and only a couple of LPS and soft coral, but I am starting to see some bryopsis (this is important for my nutrient levels). Here’s what my levels have been over the past month:

2/16 (prior to water change)
NitrATE: ~15
Salinity: 34.6
Calcium: ~400
Alkalinity: 10.2

2/22 (before water change)
Alkalinity: ~9.6
Calcium: ~425
NitrATE: ~7
Salinity: 32.6

3/1 (before water change)
Calcium: ~425
Alkalinity: 9.3
NitrATE: ~5
Salinity: 33.1

3/8 (NO WATER CHANGE THIS WEEK)
Alkalinity: ~9.6
Calcium: ~440
Nitrate: 2-5
Salinity: 33.5

3/15 (before water change)
Calcium: ~425
Alkalinity: 9.9
Nitrate: 2
Salinity: 33.2

As said before, I’m starting to see some bryopsis pop up, and I don’t think it’s my nutrients, so I’m probably going to start manually removing it, along with chemicals. Should I continue do water changes weekly-biweekly? Thanks!

Should test for PO4 and Magnesium too. Its all relevant. That said, water changes also dilute pharamones, waste and toxins we dont test or screen for that build up in closed systems full of animals capable of chemical warfare. Fish are sensitive to build up of pharamones in the water as well. Imo keeping a reef with no water changes is just starting the timer for a crash. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but it makes it more likely to eventually occur for numerous reasons.

 

[Uncle99]

Why does salinity change?
Should it not remain at 35ppt?
Variance in salinity results in variance in other elements.
Do you use an ATO?

 

[MasterClassReefs]

Personally I still maintain regular water changes on all my mature nano tanks. To me, its not about the 4 or 5 parameters that we can test for, its about the many parameters that we can't test for.

Exactly. The solution to pollution is dilution.

 

[ZachariahBeanzz]

Why does salinity change?
Should it not remain at 35ppt?
Variance in salinity results in variance in other elements.
Do you use an ATO?

I just set up an ATO this week, so it should stay the same.

 

[ZachariahBeanzz]

Thanks all for the replies! I will definitely continue water changes, but how often and much should I do them? If I do one a week it seems like my nitrate will bottom out. I’ll start testing for phosphate, I just never got around for buying the test kit.

 

[ZachariahBeanzz]

No chemicals please only manual removal and yes continue WC; which is imo the best option for a healthy closed system. Hobby testing is only to confirm what you are seeing, for example if everything looks good and nitrates test at 2 ppm you now know that this level is fine.

Why shouldn’t I do chemical? I’m definitely going to manually remove the bryopsis, but chemicals seem like they would make it make easier to manage.

 

[CHSUB]

Why shouldn’t I do chemical? I’m definitely going to manually remove the bryopsis, but chemicals seem like they would make it make easier to manage.

Imo, chemicals for killing goes against my natural reefing philosophy. Specifically in closed systems, to many unintended consequences. Everything I put in my reef is to make something grow. Healthy corals, for example, can outcompete nuisance algae if maintained in the optimal environment.

 

[Uncle99]

I just set up an ATO this week, so it should stay the same.

Perfect.
A stable salinity is an absolute.
I find instability favours pest type algae’s and bacteria’s.
Based on your parameters, a 5-10% water change weekly will never hurt and may replenish those elements we can’t measure.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@VintageReefer

 

[Ryan15236]

I looked into this for awhile. I feel like most of the reefers who attempted this posted something along the lines of “no water change for “x” years and then crash”. Most of the post I read they made it to around 2 year mark. I decided against it and decided to continue 5-10 gallon water changes weekly on my 180G

I think it’s a good idea to do them to some degree even if it’s not very often