Are water changes a must?

Yes, today I drank a glass of water that a dinosaur drank!! hehehe

 

I do water changes based on the needs of my tank. I was doing very frequently when I ahd dino outbreak. Once that was under control I did not do another one for a while. I did do a rather large one this weekend because I stirred up the sand bed trying to capture the fish.

When I first started this hobby (mind you I am only 2 years into it) I did things by the book...10-20% every week. As I learned more, AND STARTED DOSING, I dramatically reduced the frequency and amount of water changes.

I do frequently test my water....not necessarily my ammonia, nitrates etc....but I do test my pH, kH and calcium at least a couple times a week. I base my dosing off of these results and am trying to keep my pH at least 8.2 to 8.4

I dose with 2 part daily (depending) and as needed due supersaturation of kalk.

I will test my tank more frequently if something looks odd in my tank. I am starting to be able to pick up by looking at my fish, corals and inverts.

Now again, I believe that it will vary on
1. the size of your tank (larger tanks are more forgiving then 6g nano)
2. the amount and type of fish you have
3. filtration
4. natural filters such as rocks, sand, refuge

I do more frequent water changes on my nano tank because I dont have many rocks in there. I also have a scorpion fish in there that is a very messy eater and poos very large

Now my FOWLR tank I also do frequent changes. I have a fairly large golden puffer who is a VERY MESSY eater. Plus I dont have a clean up crew due to the nature of the animal.

So I dont think there is any right or wrong answer to this. Beginners should do more frequent water changes as we tend to overfeed, overstock etc. But to say that everyone should do weekly waterchanges or that everyone should not do a waterchange is wrong. It will depend on the person, the tank and the fish/corals kept

 

And to think all the money I've spend on water changes over the years, I could have saved all that $$ and bought a larger tank...

Normally I do about a 10gal change every 2 wks or so.

Do I really have to change my oil every 3000 miles too or is that just a Gimmick made up by the Oil Change Companies of the world to make Money..

Guess I'll have to look more into this for the future.

Maybe if your tank is well balanced the less you fiddle with it the better.

Great Thread..

 

Amazing...

How do people get so uptight about "IMO"s....Everybody has their own way of doing things...and the only thing that matters is what works FOR YOU!

P.S. It is better to be open-minded about POSSIBILITIES...so when people offer their "IMO", don't close yourself off to the possibility that you MAY BE WRONG...

We are here to help each other and share our stories....so everyone should CONSIDER what works for others as proof that one way is not better than another...in this case especially...lol

 

Did I miss something? I think that was what was happening on this thread. Everyone just expressing their opinions and what works for them.

Is there any one right way to do a tank....NO, so it is always good to get others input! Especially those that have been successful in the hobby for 10 years or so

 

This is similar to the "should I use a Protein Skimmer or not since it takes out too many good things with the bad" (Or should I have brought that up?)

I am new to this (about one year) and do water changes about twice a month but have been wondering lately how important it really is to do them that often.

I can somehow see the replenishing of depleted minerals if you do not use an RO/DI system or if they come in the salt mix. I understand how WC can help lower toxic minerals.

I can understand how a well balanced system could support itself to a degree but if you have to replenish Calcium it seems logical to think there are a lot of other minerals, etc that would also get depleted over time and need replenished also.

An aquarium is a small confined space compared to the entire earth and I dont see how we can duplicate everything required to mimic how the worlds eco system cleans and replenishes the earths water of all the vital nutrients our livestock need.

I am not doubting people on here, it is just hard for me to grasp no WC's at all.

 

I just read this on Inland Aquatics webpage and thought it was very interesting:

"In addition to nutrients from curing rock, the systems absorb large nutrient input daily. All the fish are heavily fed four or more times daily. It is my opinion, that improper nutrition is the primary factor in 75% or more of the fish problems reported by aquarists. Our broodstock is fed a minimum of one feeding daily of each; enriched brine, tuna roe, earthworms, HUFA enriched formulated food, and flake food, and encouraged to eat their fill. IME, nutrition is THE limiting factor for breeding.


We also feed many of our corals and anemones both live and formulated foods regularly. Despite the notable nutrient loads produced by these practices, we have never employed protein skimming, regular water changes or GAC on these systems. I should point out that the systems benefit from non-traumatic water movement, as provided by Archimedes Screw Pumps (see Observation Hallway photo) or Water Blowers, Refugia, and 4-10" beds of oolitic sand."

 

if you dont skim, your gonna need a kick ass denitrator(probably multiple) or huge ass fuge, or a huge deep sand bed.

of the people above that responded on the water change question i think every one uses a skimmer(probably very good ones at that), not sure about infamous or optimist tho.


my answer is yes it is a critical component in a saltwater system thats not easily replaced unless you have alot of expierence and extra space

 

its good that you realize that, we use alot of technology to short cut parts of the ecosystems.

most people that do go on to try a all natural system usually fail in most scenarios, not saying its impossible to do tho. but a good thing to think about that i heard hear if you were to put a coral or small fish in olympic sized swiming pool of saltwater its probably already over stocked compared to the ocean. i not sure if its true or not but its does make the point that in nature theres a lot less bioload on the ecosystem then in our tanks

 

:

How do you know this for sure?
Have you been watching the earth for 4.6 billion years?
Icy Asteroids anyone?

You cant compare the earth's complex ecosystem that we are still trying to understand with a fish tank. If you can find a fish store that doesn't do water changes then i will believe this theory of no water changes. Other than that, its complete nonsense.