How many of you don’t do water changes?

[rlman41299]

No water change for more than 6 months. Only skimmer and miracle mud. No carbon dosing, no gfo. Dosing minor and major elements

 

[SamAPFish]

I don't believe in water changes either!

Dude it’s beautiful! I can really see the variance of colors and the mild haze before seeing the non existent corals

 

[atp0726]

I just stopped doing water changes while monitoring/dosing trace elements about a month and a half ago. I have a SPS mainly acro reef and was noticing how my parameters were getting thrown off after my weekly water changes. My nitrate, magnesium, po4, calcium to name a few that i test for frequently are much more stable. I always used salt that matched my alk levels but who knows what was happening on a chemical level after the water change. To limit the yellowing of the water and removal of other pollutants I have also started running a high quality activated carbon.

I am also enjoying getting an hour or more back on the weekends for other tank related activities that i find more enjoyable.

I am looking at this as a bit of a experiment but I am seeing promising results so far. Since dosing trace elements i have noticed a big increase in growth especially from frags that had based out but had almost gone dormant as far as growth.

 

[Webslinger]

Dude it’s beautiful! I can really see the variance of colors and the mild haze before seeing the non existent corals

theres gotta be a coral in there somewhere

 

[Vakko]

I am setting up my first reef tank (170 gallons) in the next few months after 10 years of freshwater tanks. I have decided to use the Triton method, however I live only 500 yards from a wonderful NSW source, so I can see myself stopping on the way home from work every evening and collecting a gallon of water to supplement the tank.(obviously removing the same volume first to keep salinity steady)

The one thing I learnt from freshwater tanks is that big changes can cause problems. Lots of small changes and keeping the parameters as steady as possible is the way to go in my opinion.

While that really sounds like a great strategy, do you really see yourself scooping a bucket every day for next 3 to 5 to 10 years?
While scientific data has shown that RAW seawater is beneficial to acro growth, I, personally, wouldn't center your tank parameters around the necessity to haul "fresh" seawater by hand daily.

 

[Fastpitch]

I never do water changes. Ever. I think if I felt like I had to do regular water changes I would leave the hobby. I run biopellets, phosguard and carbon. Sometimes run poly to remove any metals. My parameters are all great. Only algae I have is red. (not cyano).

My approach is not for everyone. And I dont do corals which is a huge caveat. My guess is those who do have corals run a much tighter margin for error.

 

[Spieg]

This topic has been discussed to death.

 

[X-37B]

Yep, is

This topic has been discussed to death.

Yep and so much fun lol.

 

[rusgum]

Water changes make it easier for me to care for the reef. It's like opening a window in a smoky room. And I see after the change that the acrapores like

 

[Fish E]

Fuges are amazing! Here is my Xenia fuge I've been using for almost 20 years. Super simple.

Have you ever had any of that Xenia escape the display?

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

Haven’t done one in a month, dang dinos came back :mad:

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

I don't believe in water changes either!

What an absolute unit of algae!

 

[Troy V]

Have you ever had any of that Xenia escape the display?

I didn't have an issue in the system that video was from. However my new system I did have a single head find its way to the DT. I reduced the flow through the fuge and it seems to have fixed the problem for now.