Haven’t done a water change in one year

[Frizzy reefnewb]

Idk why picture is so crappy

 

[HB AL]

Legit insane what a tank

Thanks, I call it (yes I name my tank)
"CONTROLLED CHAOS"

 

[Lovefish77]

I know this is controversial, but the purpose of WC is not to reduce N and P really. It is just to help restart or clean the system like a pc
If you have ood nutrient export and lot of corals AND dont feed a lot it is easy to go 0/0.

 

[Frizzy reefnewb]

Great anserw but newb question what’s a ood?! Like a Apex machine perhaps ?

 

[Lovefish77]

Great anserw but newb question what’s a ood?! Like a Apex machine perhaps ?

Good lol

 

[Goaway]

I tried to explain to a few people, once a saltwater aquarium (reef) is mature. Maintenance demands go down. But dosing is in need for some sps - lps.

 

[G Santana]

Nearly 4 years without any regular WC

​

Additives after result from ICP tests

Sincerelyn Lasse

Ok spill the beans, what's your secret or are you friends with Neptune and aren't telling!!!
Are you running a calcium reactor or dosing?
What do you typically dose in general.

Stunning tank, I could bend your ears for hours... those clams oh my!!!

 

[Frizzy reefnewb]

Ok spill the beans, what's your secret or are you friends with Neptune and aren't telling!!!
Are you running a calcium reactor or dosing?
What do you typically dose in general.

Stunning tank, I could bend your ears for hours... those clams oh my!!!

Seriously his tank looks insane for 4 years without a water change ...maybe the size of the tank makes it easier??

 

[Frizzy reefnewb]

Ok spill the beans, what's your secret or are you friends with Neptune and aren't telling!!!
Are you running a calcium reactor or dosing?
What do you typically dose in general.

Stunning tank, I could bend your ears for hours... those clams oh

 

[Frizzy reefnewb]

Do you does with mag calcium etc ?!

 

[Ef4life]

Seriously his tank looks insane for 4 years without a water change ...maybe the size of the tank makes it easier??

the larger the size of the tank makes waterchanges less effective, and cost prohibitive.

Water in a reef tank doesn’t go bad, but it will need things added in as time goes on. Trace elements, alk, ca, mg etc all become depleted over time. The solution on a small tank say under 40g can be doing regular small waterchanges weekly to keep trace elements levels in check then you might only need to use a 2 part to buffer ca/alk.

large tanks a 20-30% waterchange is going to be 20+g, so at some point dosing trace elements and other stuff back to the water becomes cheaper than regularly pouring salt mix down the drain.

edit - but at some point in time imo, water will need to be changed out to some degree. Sand beds are literally a liter box that if never maintained can cause some serious issues long term. Sometimes high levels of nitrate are only going to get solved by doing a water change. Imo I think not doing water changes at least 1-2x a year is most likely setting yourself up for failure, that said just doing waterchanges because you think your supposed to is also not the only right answer, it’s in that grey area somewhere in between

 

[Lasse]

First - if I need - I´ll do a WC but i do everything for just not doing it. Because that some trace elements is in so low concentration (as they are in natural sea water) - water change is not an option - IMO. There is no chance that every batch of dry saltwater mix have exactly the amount that you need - regardless of brand and promised quality. To dose in a system like mine is necessary. If you not do regular ICP test (I do ICP tests 3 - 4 times a year with Triton ICP and for some parameters Oceamos test program)

IMO - WC is important if you dose something - like trace elements - and not doing regular ICP test in order not get to high levels of something.

Ok spill the beans, what's your secret or are you friends with Neptune and aren't telling!!!
Are you running a calcium reactor or dosing?
What do you typically dose in general.

Stunning tank, I could bend your ears for hours... those clams oh my!!!

Thank you. I publish the picture just to show that there is many ways to skin a cat.

I use Triton Core 7 program that relay on regular ICP tests.

One of the clams have move since the picture was taken. It come to me 4 years ago in the size of around 6-7 cm. It leave 28 cm long an 3.6 Kg in weight a month ago

Seriously his tank looks insane for 4 years without a water change ...maybe the size of the tank makes it easier??

The tank is 310 L (80 G)

edit - but at some point in time imo, water will need to be changed out to some degree. Sand beds are literally a liter box that if never maintained can cause some serious issues long term. Sometimes high levels of nitrate are only going to get solved by doing a water change. Imo I think not doing water changes at least 1-2x a year is most likely setting yourself up for failure, that said just doing waterchanges because you think your supposed to is also not the only right answer, it’s in that grey area somewhere in between

I do not agree with you. I run a reversed remote DSB and have sand in my aquarium. In 5 years (yes it is 5 years old but for the first year - I did regular WC once a month before I decide to go the not regular WC path) Sand and DSB - not stirred and not cleaned during this time (DSB:n is redone once - after 7 months because I use Siporax in it and it leak high levels of silicate (had more than 20 ppm (wanted 0.1-0.15 ppm). I removed it and did a 80 % WC.

See more about the aquarium in my build thread

Sincerely Lasse

 

[NashobaTek]

Technically, when you top off you're adding fresh water, just not salt.
If you are dosing for depleted chemicals that are needed, why change water your heavily filtering anyway.
I haven't changed water since the first month of my tank being up. My parameters are stable, with the exception of phosphate which is being lowered now. But I also don't have a lot of corals.
All this new fangled equipment and you have to do this or that just makes it harder.

Remember the saying...KISS!!

 

[NashobaTek]

Technically, when you top off you're adding fresh water, just not salt.
If you are dosing for depleted chemicals that are needed, why change water your heavily filtering anyway.
I haven't changed water since the first month of my tank being up. My parameters are stable, with the exception of phosphate which is being lowered now. But I also don't have a lot of corals.
All this new fangled equipment and you have to do this or that just makes it harder.

Remember the saying...KISS!!

 

[Lasse]

Technically, when you top off you're adding fresh water, just not salt.

Yes that´s right and if you look it at that way - I do a 1-2 L WC every day. All add in methods will rise the salinity and I have to take out 1-2 L a day in order to compensate for the rise of salinity.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Frizzy reefnewb]

the larger the size of the tank makes waterchanges less effective, and cost prohibitive.

Water in a reef tank doesn’t go bad, but it will need things added in as time goes on. Trace elements, alk, ca, mg etc all become depleted over time. The solution on a small tank say under 40g can be doing regular small waterchanges weekly to keep trace elements levels in check then you might only need to use a 2 part to buffer ca/alk.

large tanks a 20-30% waterchange is going to be 20+g, so at some point dosing trace elements and other stuff back to the water becomes cheaper than regularly pouring salt mix down the drain.

edit - but at some point in time imo, water will need to be changed out to some degree. Sand beds are literally a liter box that if never maintained can cause some serious issues long term. Sometimes high levels of nitrate are only going to get solved by doing a water change. Imo I think not doing water changes at least 1-2x a year is most likely setting yourself up for failure, that said just doing waterchanges because you think your supposed to is also not the only right answer, it’s in that grey area somewhere in between

I have the sand shifting goby if that helps with the sandbar but idk if he gets deep enough ...

 

[Ef4life]

I have the sand shifting goby if that helps with the sandbar but idk if he gets deep enough ...

imo it’s more about being proactive vs reactive. Actively taking care of things before they can become an issue.

Not doing a waterchange for 4 years or longer can be done, and done successfully, but a newbie reading about that might get the wrong idea about the actual requirement of maintenance to keep a reef.

Little things done regularly lead to less issues in the long run. taking a stick and stirring up a small section of sandbed once a week/ month etc, deep cleaning pumps and skimmers etc every 2-3 months. Vacuum sump detritus every few weeks. Change filter socks every 3 days if you have high nutrient issues, go longer or no socks if your low on nutrients.

There are very few absolute rules in keeping aquariums, it’s mostly general guidelines on how to do it. The farther you stray from the general accepted methods, the more likely you will fail.

 

[James_O]

As others have said, I would just keep doing what you’re doing.

Those parameters are frikin amazing.

 

[Lasse]

Little things done regularly lead to less issues in the long run. taking a stick and stirring up a small section of sandbed once a week/ month etc, deep cleaning pumps and skimmers etc every 2-3 months. Vacuum sump detritus every few weeks. Change filter socks every 3 days if you have high nutrient issues, go longer or no socks if your low on nutrients.

I do nothing of these - have not done and will not do that - still "Eppur si muove"

Sincerely Lasse

 

[ying yang]

Thats nice looking tank/ aquascape.
Dont be so hard on yourself by saying it's not as good.i like it.yes you can add more corals to get more colour but it looks just fine buddy ^_^