Hi All! Just wondering if anyone has every created a minimal water change system? And if so how often you do water changes? I have a 28 gal biocube with the sump off the back. I've considered adding a 5 gal refugium with cheato, pods, sand, rumble rock. How much more time will I have between water changes if I do this (on average). Currently I change out my water (5 gallons) every week and everything has been well. The tank has been up a year and fully cycled. I have a mandarin, 2 pipe fish, 2 clown and a diamond watchman in the tank. It also has a with few sponges growing I didn't add (they just started growing off live rock), I've added many mushrooms, duncan, leathers, candycane and trumpet corals. Thanks for your advise! I know no one can "tell" me exactly when I would need to cycle it as every tank is different but curious what others have observed?
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Tuffyyyyy
2500 Club Member
This is currently the hot topic. Nobody likes doing water changes, so it's been a race lately to see what methods work best. Refugiums are the main one that people are using these days to keep nitrate & phosphate down, and then you test your water and dose the other elements.
saintsreturn
Well-Known Member
HAHA yeah @Waters he sure does.
@Lynnds6 How far down are you willing to take it? I ran tests daily for a month or so to see what my tank was doing, then ran them weekly... I went from weekly to biweekly to monthly... to.... yeah i dont do it unless 1) giving away water for friends start ups, 2) i see something i dont like, 3) i get bored.
Watch your corals. Feed with a white cup. When you use a white cup you see how dirty your water is. I backed off greatly and saw a reduction in issues with my tank while no longer fighting the problems i did have. I dont dose but i also dont overstock. I am increasing my sump export options soon, but have only been running a skimmer for export so far. Your tank will tell you whats going on through test and visual indications if you watch it. I stopped changing water when i gave up on an algae issue in my other tank. It amazed me to watch the algae die off on its own after i stopped fighting it and i even took an algae covered rock and put it in my new tank to allow the tangs to work at it. Unfortunately, all that algae died.
Just dont make major changes quickly. Add your setup, watch the system and test to see if you are seeing testable items changing to justify the WC
@Lynnds6 How far down are you willing to take it? I ran tests daily for a month or so to see what my tank was doing, then ran them weekly... I went from weekly to biweekly to monthly... to.... yeah i dont do it unless 1) giving away water for friends start ups, 2) i see something i dont like, 3) i get bored.
Watch your corals. Feed with a white cup. When you use a white cup you see how dirty your water is. I backed off greatly and saw a reduction in issues with my tank while no longer fighting the problems i did have. I dont dose but i also dont overstock. I am increasing my sump export options soon, but have only been running a skimmer for export so far. Your tank will tell you whats going on through test and visual indications if you watch it. I stopped changing water when i gave up on an algae issue in my other tank. It amazed me to watch the algae die off on its own after i stopped fighting it and i even took an algae covered rock and put it in my new tank to allow the tangs to work at it. Unfortunately, all that algae died.
Just dont make major changes quickly. Add your setup, watch the system and test to see if you are seeing testable items changing to justify the WC
I would do whatever I need to to cut back. I think the first thing I need is to set up a refugium! I have a sump on the back of my 28 gal biocube. I know they weren't made to house refugiums. Any suggestions on the type of plumbing you'd recommend to pump water from the sump back up to the sump again? Thank you!
Havent done a water change in my tank since i added the water back in june. Corals are all growing, fish are healthy and growing fat and long. i use triton method. I have a large fuge with about 4 different macroalgae, a skimmer and return pump. I run carbon rarely. Then again im also strict in what goes in the tank and whos allowed to put their hands in there.
Types of Algae:
Caluerpa
Dragons Breathe
Chaeto
Monkey finger Ogo
Lights:
Chinese Black Boxes (thinking about switching to radions, but these chinese black boxes have done me so well i may not.)
Size of tank:
4ft Tank.
Combined total of water: 110g
Triton method is a way of setting up the tank where Macroalgae is the first part and main part of the your sump. The macroalgae is what pretty much absorbs all the nutriets. The second part is the skimmer, the skimmers part is to pick up whatever the macroalgae couldnt.
Triton method dosing is very specific to makig sure you can keep stability. However, although triton is known for no water changes, even the company themselves after their icp test tell you do several water changed prior beginning triton method.
Only thing i dont like about triton is that the recommended Alk is 7 dkh
Scrubber_steve
2500 Club Member
The Triton method is a no water change method & works well for many people
glennf has his own no water change method called Dutch Synthetic Reefing (DSR). Marvelous systems.
Here's his threads
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-dsr-method-dutch-synthetic-reefing.162872/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/glennfs-300-gallon-dsr-reef.138700/
Here's a great Triton method thread by gpwdr
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/triton-progress-pictures.184342/
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