How do you avoid water changes?

[CJO]

How can any of you be so sure???? Who's to say what's really in this synthetic salt???? Is there a complete breakdown somewhere??? I would love to see it!!!!!

I know my buckets of Salinity have a certified breakdown of compounds by weight... 19 of them! I don't know of any other salt that does.

CJ

 

[Troylee]

That's the thing we will never know..... If we did we could make our own salt and buffer each compenet to fit our needs...;) with my witches brew I think I got it covered for the most part...1smile1

 

[kenjung]

Just like the previous poster, I am a big skim wet reefer thats how I do my water change. Its very simple and more efficient than typical siphonic water changes. I top off my tank at around 1.5 gallon everyday and skim out about that much for a 150 g tank. In two weeks 1.5 * 14 = 21 gallon continually being added to the tank.

 

[droblack]

I avoid water changes by just doing other stuff and telling myself, "ah, they'll be okay for another month or so."

 

[redtop03]

I was wondering his thoughts as well. I don't know anyone who has successfully kept a tank up for that long besides him.

CJ

Paul actually uses water from the ocean and replaces some of his water occasionally,he also uses sand and other things he collects while diving.....everybody tells me that isn't safe,you never know what kind of diseases are in there,big nono LOL but it's exactly what we're trying to replicate with man made salts.........if I lived close enough to the ocean,I would use as much natural sea water in my tank as I could...I would run it through carbon and some type of micron filtration to filter out sediment and stuff though

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

Not if your near my ocean, the water color ranges from green to brown in long island sound : )

 

[Billgax]

Paul actually uses water from the ocean and replaces some of his water occasionally,he also uses sand and other things he collects while diving.....everybody tells me that isn't safe,you never know what kind of diseases are in there,big nono LOL but it's exactly what we're trying to replicate with man made salts.........if I lived close enough to the ocean,I would use as much natural sea water in my tank as I could...I would run it through carbon and some type of micron filtration to filter out sediment and stuff though

I used seawater from Sequim Bay (in WA state) exclusively for a few years in my reef tank... can't beat it. Just keep it circulating prior to use to avoid plankton die-off.
Funny thing... what is considered polluted in ecological standards can't usually be detected by most hobbiests' test kits... so unless you're near a superfund site, natural seawater can't be beat! I count myself as lucky for having had that opportunity...

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

I avoid water changes by just doing other stuff and telling myself, "ah, they'll be okay for another month or so."

Thats how it works for me too sometimes lol



It seems like if you want to avoid water changes its best to wait until your reef is healthy enough to maintain its own ecosystem. Anyone setting up a reef and not doing any water changes from the beginning?

 

[patent]

I avoid them due to pure laziness and a bad memory. I wish I did them more often, but am usually too lazy. so I force myself to do them when I get something new ,and as others mentioned, skim a little wet.

 

[jannypan]

For cleaning my tank does it pretty much it's self being super high flow and a awesome skimmer!!!!


Edit: please no selling in non-sale forums

 

[redtop03]

That's the thing we will never know..... If we did we could make our own salt and buffer each compenet to fit our needs...;) with my witches brew I think I got it covered for the most part...1smile1

that's exactly what MattShack did,he made his own salt mix....1500g worth of salt mix was gonna cost him a small fortune LOL

here's his recipe from monster-reef.com if anyone is interested :D

This recipe is posted in other sections of this forum but I thought I would start a new thread for it since we have a DIY section now.

This is the recipe for the DIY salt mix I use in my aquarium. At the time of this post, I have had the DIY salt mix in the aquarium for about 6 weeks. The aquarium houses fish, snails, an abalone, sps corals (acros and montis), lps corals (acans and chalice), softies, and zoas.

I can't tell any difference in the livestock from the commercial salt mixes. I have noticed some growth on the acans, chalice and zoas. I haven't really noticed anything on the sps corals, but it's still early.

I have not lost any livestock as a result of this DIY salt.

The below recipe is for 1000 gallons of water. You would need to multiply or divided it for smaller or larger quantities.

95,920 grams - Sodium Chloride (Morton's High Purity Swimming Pool Salt - Could also use Water Softener Salt).

20,116 grams - Magnesium Chloride (Ice Melter)

15,668 grams - Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)

4,560 grams - Calcium Chloride (Ice Melter, There are other sources)

2,796 grams - Potassium Chloride (Water Softener available at HD)

668 grams - Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)

57.2 grams - Strontium (Kent Marine, etc.)

Kent Marine Essential Elements - As directed on bottle for your volume of water.

 

[stedfast82]

I have a 110gallon mixed reef and do water changes. 30 gallons a week with rock displacement. And a 40 gallon sump I think that's about 50% that's alot I had stopped. For 2 months. To see what would happen my sunset montie. Browned and some of my sps didn't look as nice so I went back to weekly. W/C everybodys tank is different and water quality is as well. I'm. A freak about my reefing carbon and gfo changes test logs and so on.

 

[Troylee]

bad reefing ideas....... a little quote from Scott Fellman.....
“Wet Skimming”- I LOVED this one! Basically, you took your highly efficient and expensive protein skimmer and “tuned” it so that all it did was remove some yellowish water from the system. This “technique” was though to help assist in nutrient export by creating continuous “water changing”. Really? I always laughed at this, because if you ask me, it would have been a lot easier to just pick up a siphon hose and remove a few gallons of water regularly the way hobbyists did it for decades. It’s amazing what some people will do in the laziness to avoid water changes! This one ties in nicely with the paranoid hyper-husbandry of our next great trend from the past:

 

[Troylee]

that's exactly what MattShack did,he made his own salt mix....1500g worth of salt mix was gonna cost him a small fortune LOL

here's his recipe from monster-reef.com if anyone is interested :D

cool deal willie i don't know how i missed that in matts thread..... im dosing everything in that list for the most part besides the salt lol..... im gonna stick to my ways till i have a nuclear melt down then i might go back to changing water......

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Personally i like water changes and the way my tank looks after. Coral seem happier and my tank is much clearer. My skimmer also does a pretty good job and i always have my hands in the tank cleaning something or trimming something back. Between my carbon, skimmer, and once a month water changes, they all help keep my tank looking pristine.

 

[redtop03]

cool deal willie i don't know how i missed that in matts thread..... im dosing everything in that list for the most part besides the salt lol..... im gonna stick to my ways till i have a nuclear melt down then i might go back to changing water......

I don't think he posted that any where but monster-reef.com....maybe why you hadn't seen it :wink:

if my brown slimy snot like stuff don't clear up soon,I'm gonna do a water change...maybe back to freshwater :tongue: not

 

[Stussyredhat]

Personally I think it is something that only you can decide I know people that do both methods and they both work. Every tank is different RO water quality, bio load, air quality, filter method, and equipment used. I think to many people jump on a bandwagon without researching all the facts. I personally do a water change once every 3 to 4 months with no issues I also take tank parameters 2 to 3 times a week and dose accordingly.

 

[boehm742]

How can any of you be so sure???? Who's to say what's really in this synthetic salt???? Is there a complete breakdown somewhere??? I would love to see it!!!!!

In no way am i saying this is a complete breakdown of salts but it does provide some great information. If youve already seen it then great, if not then enjoy the read.
http://aquariumwatertesting.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

 

[Troylee]

Kind of outdated but awesome read for sure!!!! Man I'll make sure to stick with coralife like I always did... I only grabbed io since they were out... Wow some of that is amazing like the copper and po4 findings... Tropic Marin got hit hard also!!!! Wow... Thanks for sharing....

 

[Pike614]

I have about 800g TWV, change out 60g every other week....I do keep a ton of SPS though, so they seem to prefer the replenishment of minerals..my brother keeps a 75g with chalices and LPS...almost never dones a water change and his tank is just fine....who knows!?