Water Changes

[MitchM]

Yeah, that's what the majority of people believe. That they are necessary. I'm trying to figure out why.

We spend many agonizing weeks waiting for our newly set-up tanks to "cycle", allowing the bacterial populations to build up and equalize, then we drain it out and replace it with sterile water, which throws the bacteria balance out of whack again, and if the water changes are too large or too frequent, the tank could possibly mini-cycle, causing an ammonia spike.

When you think about all the biological processes going on in our tanks....feeding, excretion, all the messy business involved with reproduction.... ......even I feel better giving my tank some new clean water. But I don't think that I would call it necessary. There's bacteria and different critters to look after all that stuff. I would think that it's more important to obtain a balanced system that pretty much looks after itself.

I'm playing devils' advocate here because I don't like carte blanche statements like "water changes are necessary". If they're necessary, then why, specifically, are they necessary?...and what possible imbalances in our systems could we be covering up?

Mitch