Doing super frequent water changes.. what can go wrong?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Steve, I completely agree that "smaller, more often" produces a more stable system, and this is better; but doesn't a reactor or dosing routine offer higher control of the parameters? ... Hmmm, I guess if you're not as concerned with where they are, just that they are "good enough" then I guess it doesn't matter as much. The only thing is, you need to make sure your incoming water has good parameters and it's a rare salt that offers consistency in numbers year after year: you'll end up dosing into your makeup water anyhow, and at that point does it really matter if you dose your incoming water or your tank?

Just to be clear are you talking about levels of elements such as alk and Ca? And by reactor are talking about a Ca reactor as an example? My previous discussion was based on the assumption that these levels are out of the scope of this particular discussion as it seems to be more based on removing unwanted nutrients from the system, not replenishing elements. However I don't think the idea behind more frequent water changes is to eliminate the need for dosing or using such reactors, these may still be needed just as if only monthly water changes were preformed. If this were the case I would still assume more stable levels all around using the smaller more often approach, dosing or whatever would be easier to tune for consistent and smaller changes that occur more often than compared to a single larger change which occurred less often like a monthly basis. Inconsistent salt will effect both methods equally and therefore I don't think it's a variable of great concern in this discussion.

Dosing or other means of replenishing elements also may not be required if significant water is replaced often, however that will depend on many things.

[sphelps]

Another interesting theory to consider is: No matter how much water you change it's not enough to maintain ultra low nutrients. Something else, like a skimmer for example, is always needed.

Even if a tank starts at 0ppm nutrients, and only adds 0.5ppm a week and you change 25% of water weekly you'll still build up to a stable level of 2ppm. This may not seem like a lot but keep in mind it's just an example to show the theory. You will never maintain 0 nutrients with water changes alone.