Are water changes a must?

Discussion in 'Water Chemistry' started by Inf3cted, May 21, 2009.

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  1. cdeboard

    cdeboard Montipora Digitata

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    I love this thread and those who are doing their own experiments with it.
    I myself did water changes when I first started, but have not done a water change in probably 3 months. Other than a couple algae issues (I was overfeeding), seems my tank/corals/fish are doing better. I have added corals in this time as well.
    I think I need to start dosing due to the additions. (side note: do they make like a dosing kit for minerals? specifically calc? where?)
     
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  3. Peredhil

    Peredhil Giant Squid

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    This is what I use

    Bulk Reef Supply - Bulk Reef Supply

    Test before you dose and use the calculators on the left here at 3reef to figure out how much you need to dose and how fast.
     
  4. m_hsiao

    m_hsiao Purple Spiny Lobster

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    i to some degree had some respect to your advice/opinions you use to give, but after this thread, it seems to me that you are not very open minded and very much by the books..

    let me tell you all the "rules" i've broken in my saltwater keeping time, although, it's only been a year, but my tank is thriving more than ever..

    40G that was eventually coverted to a 75G
    1) added fish to help cycle 2nd day of mixing salt and adding sand..
    2) i had my pair of clownfish that are still thriving one week into having the tank..
    3) i added fish, about 5 or 6 of them into the tank before i even had a clean up crew..
    4) i had a frogspawn and a torch coral (still thriving and getting bigger by the day) 2 weeks into the cycle..
    guess what? the way i set up my lighting schedule and the amount of live rock and live sand allowed me to do all this without getting a algae outbreak.. i had this tank for 6 months with NO algae problems but eventually i wanted to covert it into a bigger tank..
    not to mention, i never used RO/DI water

    only problem i had ever encountered was a small case of red slime on my sandbed which i used red slime remover to clean out and capped it with one water change..

    however i do a water change whenever it seems to me that something is wrong with my tank (ie, cloudy water, fish getting ich outbreak) and that doesn't happen very often at all, i do a water cahnge maybe 10% once every 3 months.. i've done maybe a total of 4-5 water changes for the past year..

    i just think that people should be entitled to what works for them and shouldn't be criticized for it.. do what works for you
     
  5. sostoudt

    sostoudt Giant Squid

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    the rules dont have to be followed to have a successful tank, they are simply advice more expierenced members give out to help prevent lose of livestock.
    every tanks is different so some people may need to do something one way and some people can skip that entirely. but trust some one will be pretty pissed off if they set up there tank like yours and then lose every thing. so just keep that in mind.


    i also want to remind people corals have adapted to seawater to live, and we dont understand there needs very well. the only way to know your corals are getting optimum elements from the water for growth is to keep the water as close to seawater as possible. just because something doesnt die doesnt mean its healthy in my opinion. human sailors used to go out and eat a incomplete diet, they would get scurvy
    Scurvy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    they can fix this by adding absorbic acid(vitamin c) to there diet. now with this there diet wont be so bad that they die from lack of vitamins, but does this mean they are healthy? no they still could be lacking other vitamins or minerals that cause problems like weak bones, pellegra, ricketts to name a few.
    to me its hypocritical if you skip atleast a monthily water change and dont dose everything in seawater, if you take multivitamins or any supplements, purposely try to eat a varied diet for health, dose your fishes(or any pets) food with fats or vitamins.
    so remember corals take in most of the vitamin and mineral needs from the water, really that all i have to say .
     
  6. sid101

    sid101 Astrea Snail

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    This thread just started to get messy and it's all because people think there should be "rules" or "absolute truths" in aquaria but there arent. Some people can have tanks without waterchanges and some can, just as some people can have UGF in their systems with great results and some people flee from them.

    Relax people. Noone owns the truth.

    Specially since we all want the same thing, keeping a healthy and thriving ecosystem, if someone is having succes his way why would you advice against it?
     
  7. BuckAye

    BuckAye Astrea Snail

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    Well, I have to say it's pretty funny that people are thinking this thread has gotten tense. I just read the whole thread (because I am relatively new to the hobby and like to see people's varying opinions) and I thought that everyone was pretty mellow and generally well spoken. If you think this is bad you should go to a sports forum! LOL

    My neighbor and I both have SW tanks and the one thing I can tell you for sure is that even if I did exactly what he did to his tank I am sure it would be different for mine. The truth is, we have already noticed that in certain circumstances. Anyway, thanks for the great discussion... I have certainly gained a lot of perspective here!
     
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  9. sid101

    sid101 Astrea Snail

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    I dont like sports forums, i used to play paintball and it ussualy got messy on and off the field (had to stop due to back injury), yes the thread hasnt got that messy but i saw a couple of posts tat were pointing that way and some subjects in aquaria (like this one) tend to get pretty messy pretty fast once they go that way, only take like 2 or 3 posts to send a great thread all the way to hell.
     
  10. Optimist

    Optimist Peppermint Shrimp

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    There was actually a thread on here that was REALLY bad and people were calling each other names and Matt had to shut down that thread for getting out of control.
    This thread was good on informing people from both aspects to let you know "there are no rules".
    Very good thread...
     
  11. sid101

    sid101 Astrea Snail

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    It's an amazing thread and i have enjoyed it a lot, learned a lot too.
     
  12. gfunk823

    gfunk823 Coral Banded Shrimp

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    they arent a must but think of it as if you were going to shower, the more often you do it the cleaner and healthier you are : )