anyone doesn't do regular water changes?

[Nano]

on the subject of water changes, I have been scanning a few forums and see people telling others to do 100% WC in the even of emergencies? I think thats going to cause a cycle among other things wouldn't it?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Nano

on the subject of water changes, I have been scanning a few forums and see people telling others to do 100% WC in the even of emergencies? I think thats going to cause a cycle among other things wouldn't it?

It depends, if you can change 100% of your water without killing off things like sponges growing in your rocks then it won't cause any issues. The bacteria you use on your tank is mostly attached to surfaces, while the water does contain bacteria as well in comparison it's minuscule. Things like pH and temp obviously have to match to minimize effects on livestock but realistically it's a proven approach to treating certain containment.

That said 100% maybe fairly aggressive though, more commonly large water changes in the range of 50-80% are used as a more efficient way of dealing with such issues.

[tang daddy]

I don't do massive water changes, my tank has been running for 2 years. I run skimmer, bio pellet, and algae scrubber. Feed pellets daily, brine and mysis Which I don't prerinse.

I now do 2-5g a week for fun but sometimes not even a gal....I don't do waterchanges for trace, as I use IO salt and we all know IO is a basic salt that lacks a few things but it's consistent which is why I am a fan.

I use brightwells full line and dose spastically whenever couple drops here and there...

Calcium is dripped through a container with an irrigation line, and my ato has mg sulphate/ chloride and Kalk water.

Everything is growing and doing well I would say growth isn't as fast as I would like but I have to consistently prune to fit the 100ish peices of coral in a tiny 75g....

If you do dose trace do it in small amounts once a week however I wouldn't be too woried as long as the major 3 are taken care of.

Hope this helps!

[MarkoD]

dont ever admit on a forum that you dont do frequent waterchanges.

[NAS]

Just a foot note thought.

I have seen this alot before in the inudstry. There are may different tanks and builds out there. A very good portion of them are successful.

There is one really important point here. Consistency!. The critters in your tank aclimate to your pattern (for the most part, Losses are lost. . .). The real killer is when you change your pattern. With the only exception of not using tap water to top off your tank daily/weekly, cause that is a tank killer regardless of your source water.

Just be diligent, and if it's not broken don't fix it. The day you do break pattern a little too much... BAMO!

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by NAS

Just a foot note thought.

I have seen this alot before in the inudstry. There are may different tanks and builds out there. A very good portion of them are successful.

There is one really important point here. Consistency!. The critters in your tank aclimate to your pattern (for the most part, Losses are lost. . .). The real killer is when you change your pattern. With the only exception of not using tap water to top off your tank daily/weekly, cause that is a tank killer regardless of your source water.

Just be diligent, and if it's not broken don't fix it. The day you do break pattern a little too much... BAMO!

I think there is a lot of truth to this. A couple of years ago, my water changes suffered down to once every 2 months....but the tank looked great. Then I got focused on doing them again and I had a mini crash when I went to 10% per week...and my tank has never recovered since the mushrooms then took over.

[FishyFishy!]

Look at this tank of the month on Reef Keeping Magazine.... Says that they haven't done a water change in over 3 years! I could only imagine having such a beautiful system with no maintenance lol

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index....k-of-the-month

It's also using poor-boy equipment (minus the LED's) and the whole system is kind of a franken-system.... But man do they ever make it work wonders!