Thougts on not doing water changes?

Jep21

Jep21

Well-known member
So i was checking out the tank by Logan Kreitzer which is show cased on our homepage.. (congrats logan by the way).. I see that he does not do any water changes.. wanted to knw what everyone's thought is on that.. So you would just top off the tank with R/O water... Is this basically the all natural way of going bout it.... Let me knw your thoughts guys.. very curious about it and im very amazed as how logans tank is.. It frickin looks amazing..

thanks
jeff
 
What works for some may not work for others, but I am completely against the concept.

I heard David Saxby once say "In this hobby, we don't keep marine animals, we keep water". Which is true. This hobby is completely about taking care of water, and the animals that live in that water is the bi-product.

By conducting water changes, I feel that we cleanse the water of our intentional manipulation. That is, we remove macro and micro nutrients, contaminants, and minerals that we intentionally and unintentionally add to the water column which otherwise would not contain these items in those concentrations.

The salt that we buy and mix into our water changes has precise amounts of various minerals and nutrients which are calculated based on probable nutrient uptake and duration between changes and is specifically formulated to reproduce ideal conditions.

I feel strongly about the need for water changes, and feel that it is one of the most important regular maintenance that should be performed. Obviously, tanks and beautiful ones at that, can be maintained without water changes and with various dosing of necessary elements, I just find the proposition too risky.
 
I'm curious also.. Have seen amazing tanks with no water changes after a month or more. But never stoped me from doing mine :D Tagging along
 
In an effort not to get in an argument I'll leave it at this.

The key to a successful aquarium (freshwater, FOWLR, REEF, etc.) is NOT water changes. It IS nutrient export. There are many ways to achieve nutrient export such as oversized protein skimmers, Algae Scrubbers, Planted Refugiums, water changes etc. For some people who have issues keeping their tank parameters balanced in the first place it would almost be better to NOT do any water changes until you figure out the ecosystem you have created.
 
I don't do water changes at all. I do have to top off 5 gallons a day and i run a sump which is full of cheato that is full of critters that clean. I use a mrc external skimmer that is a giant and i run phosphate reactors/carbon reactors/calcium reactor and i think that all the water my tanks uses a day is considered by me as water turnover (change). I really am not saying all you that do water changes should ever follow someone like me or Logan so if you all do water changes i think you are smart and great at what you think is working for all that do. I test my water 3 times a week and use alot to re-nourish everything that makes my tanks and all that are in it grow and be happy. My new 180 gallon i plan on doing water changes for now because the scrub control i use on it isn't as big as on my 125.I don't like the problem with fish so i don't keep much in my reefs.My 125 has 5 clowns,a LARGE sailfin tang (which is the king of the tank) trust me he shows me every time i stick my hand in doing maintenance, We have fist fights lol and a mandarin and a fat scooter bleeny. My 180 has a 3/4 inch scooter blenny and a brown tang.
 
fastrc what do you think is better with or without sand or gravel on your tank ? Strong wave or less? how often do you feed the corals and fish? Thanks
 
All my tanks are sandbed, I use wavemakers on my reefkeeper (strong waves) I feed my coral & fish daily (flake food for fish in AM)but i hand feed anemones once a week.
marty said:
fastrc what do you think is better with or without sand or gravel on your tank ? Strong wave or less? how often do you feed the corals and fish? Thanks
Click to expand...
 
The only way I would consider not doing water changes is in a big tank, with a big fuge and an oversizedskimmer. And only after the tank has been established for years. Then the chemical part comes into play dozing calcium, magnesium, etc. To make up the nutrients that are in the salt when we change the water out.

I would rather do a water change, because you're not really saving time or money.
 
i would think a bigger tank barely needs them if not at all. and a smaller tank should at least a small amount a week like i do.
 
When I first got into this hobby, I did wc's every week (still do), my father and I would have debates about water changes...he said when he had his saltwater tank years ago, he never did a water change. He said if your tank was self sustaining, there was no need, because you was only messing with the stability of it. Of course he only had a fowlr tank, and it was only a 55 gal, and I remember him having the same fish for at least 10 years. So there's some truth to it. Every tank is different with different needs. There's a mod on my other forum who only does water changes on her 90 gal once every year, and she has tons of corals in there.
 
SkullV said:
It IS nutrient export.
Click to expand...

I think SkullV has pretty much nailed it. If you can maintain a system that cares for nutrient build up without WC...then you can skip them. I would think these are fairly rare and the owners are either really good or fairly lucky or both.

I would think there is another piece to this as well....and that is around what the inhabitants need. What elements that are depleted over time that you need to replace. Yes I know we can all dose... but I would imagine this messes with the stability of the tank.

What is interesting when I first started keeping SW in College 25 plus years ago, I had a couple of small tanks...where I very rarely did water changes. Of course it probably was more about saving for the next six pack....than anything else... What I had were a couple of small desktop tanks 2.5 and 5 gallons. I had a substrate, undergravel filter, some live rock...a clown and a nem... I had good outdoor sunlight that came in along with a fingle tube t-8 like fixture. The clown and the nem thrived and I had both for 3 years before I sold them to the LFS in town.

By all rights, those tanks should never have worked. I had dumb luck and the did. I almost never did a WC on the tanks. Hell...I even used tap to topoff. At the time...that was ok...I did use a declorinator... I never remember a hair algea problem...I did have a scrapper for the sides... I never remember any other issue that impacted the tanks... Of course...the six packs may have had a hand in that. :beer:

So my point is....yes... You can probably do it. There are pitfalls... and challenges. I think today's technology allows us to create some wonderful tanks and keep some amazing stuff. Going away from regular WC's can be done as long as you care for nutrient build up, elements in the water that are consumed... and that the creatures in the tank are healthy.

My two cents....
 
It just amazes me how ppl that dnt do water changes has awesome and stable tanks.. You probably have to do some chemical dosing and filtration.... For me.. I do water changes weekly.. Maybe if ur tank is runing for a couple of years and its self sustaining Itself then maybe just topping it off with water would be ok... But idk for sure.lol
 
I'll come clean, I do like one 10% water change every month or two when I get around to it. I empty out my skimmer cup every 2-3 weeks when it fills up, I run a dual reactor with 1/2 recommended gfo and a little more than recommended ROX 0.8 carbon. I dose c-balance 2-part daily with a DIY dosing setup run by my RKE, and DIY hourly top off from RKE to prevent any salinity swings. I test my water parameters every week or two as routine to be sure that my dosing doesn't need to be tweaked any from coral growth demands.

I also make a bad habit of taking the old water from my big tank and use that to do water changes on my two small tanks then throw that bad water out. I figure the cal, alk, mg, etc... are all normal in that water so might as well not waste it.
 
The prospect of not doing water changes frightens me! Haha.

We keep alot of live stock in relatively low amounts of water. Even our hugest tanks.

Looking at water as if it was air. In a building (since i am an architect) we could eliminate fresh air intake if we wanted. We have the equipment to maintain oxygen levels, we can scrub and filter the air, and overall make the same recycled air "clean" for our use. But would it really be ideal to live in a small apartment using the same stale but manipulated air over and over?

In my opinion no.
 
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