Water Changes

[quote author=Nautilus link=board=General;num=1071412160;start=15#19 date=12/25/03 at 07:18:49]...As for marine I stay away from SeaChem products.[/quote]

hmmm... any product recomendations for iodide, calcium & other food type products? also, any opinions on what exactly should i be adding to my water to care my softies & LR? i also have a few fish in the mix as well.

thanks,

Mojo

 

[quote author=Mojo link=board=General;num=1071412160;start=15#20 date=12/25/03 at 14:18:01]
hmmm...  any product recomendations for iodide, calcium & other food type products?  also, any opinions on what exactly should i be adding to my water to care my softies & LR?  i also have a few fish in the mix as well.thanks,Mojo[/quote]

For Iodine I use Lugol's Plus Iodine Solution by Warner Marine. I don't use iodide but if I did I would get it from WM Warner Marine.

As far as Seachem products people here think the world of them so I don't want to start up that valcano.

I Use Calxmax 2 part calcium and alk supplaments by Warner Marine. And the days the tank needs a boost I use Kent turbo calcium powder. every now and then balls pickle lime and ebry now and then strontium powder by Kent.
As far as food I use O.N. flakes and frozen food mix. Craig makes his own and I think Matt does also.

 

[quote author=Nautilus link=board=General;num=1071412160;start=15#17 date=12/25/03 at 05:49:24]
I am trying to understand why some do not do water changes and it really baffles me why!
Why!  I am interested in everything behind this method of reef keeping.[/quote]

Nautilus,

The "theory" behind no water changes is simplicity itself.
Why change?
There is no proven benefit in changing the water in a healthy, properly stocked and fed tank, none at all.

I'll put it this way, in the form of a question.

If your tank parameters were stable and perfect, nil ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, etc and all the animals appeared perfectly healthy, would you do a water change? If your answer is "yes", then I would be interested in knowing the reason.

John

 

JohnO,
I could almost see not changing on a big tank like 220 up but our smaller tanks to me and maybe others just don't have enough room to brake down the bio load as fast so in this aspect you need to remove the fish or add so much live rock they have no room to swim.
I was wondering how many fish you have in your tank?
Somethings are just not tested in the aquarium and we also know that salt makers add extra amounts of elements that don't equal to sea water.
I am not awake yet but this still intrigues me so.
Why do City aquariums change water out?
I don't think that a persons aquarium can ever be perfectly balanced all the time, we can come close but I just don't see it.

 

OK we had 2 votes for never doing a water change.
Who is the other person here? Maybe this person has an opinion on this also.
Please let us know the answer.

 

Did we ever find the other person that never changes water? JohnO take a month and a year to reply and was wondering if they run a closed loop?

 

Nautilus wrote
I could almost see not changing on a big tank like 220 up but our smaller tanks to me and maybe others just don't have enough room to brake down the bio load as fast so in this aspect you need to remove the fish or add so much live rock they have no room to swim.
I was wondering how many fish you have in your tank?
Somethings are just not tested in the aquarium and we also know that salt makers add extra amounts of elements that don't equal to sea water.
I am not awake yet but this still intrigues me so.
Why do City aquariums change water out?
I don't think that a persons aquarium can ever be perfectly balanced all the time, we can come close but I just don't see it.

Did we ever find the other person that never changes water? JohnO take a month and a year to reply and was wondering if they run a closed loop?

Sorry Nautilus,

It's Summer here and I went away with someone for a few days of golf, fishing and (the) rest. [smiley=smile.gif]

I certainly do agree with you that overall water volume makes a big difference. I also think that overstocking is the major problem in smaller systems as fish are obviously the major polluters in tanks.

As far as my tank is concerned I have 7 fish

Foxface rabbitfish
Picasso trigger
Clown fish
Orange shoulder tang
Yellow tailed blue damsel
Assessor
Lemonpeel Angel

plus 2 CB Shrimps

As I wrote before there are a lot of elements in sea water that are in trace amounts, in fact I think one of the links I posted used the word "soup" to describe sea water. However, just because these elements exist doesn't mean they are at all necessary for the fish. Fish eat food, they do not drink the water! They get no nutrition from the water at all as far as I know so the trace elements seem to be superfluous to their actual needs to exist. I am not sure where the ambition came from for everyone to try to emulate sea water, but it is just not necessary in my opinion.

I believe the reasons for for city aquariums to replace water regularly is one of economics and of over stocking ( BTW I am assuming you are referring to display aquariums and not LFS )

Total balance in an aquarium is impossible, I agree with you. I do think however that sometimes we all over react to small changes by trying to fix something that isn't broken ( eg water changes ) If you are getting a constant rise in Phosphates for example that should cause you to find the root of the problem, not negate the changes by replacing water.

 

John,
Tell me more about your tank.
Do you have a DSB?
Bare bottom tank?
How much LR do you us?
Sump?
Refugium?
everything.

 

[quote author=Nautilus link=board=General;num=1071412160;start=15#27 date=01/07/04 at 16:09:48]John,
Tell me more about your tank.
Do you have a DSB?
Bare bottom tank?
How much LR do you us?
Sump?
Refugium?
everything.[/quote]

Everything? Hmmmm, not sure I want to tell you everything ;-)

My tank is 36" x 30" x 30" complete with a 100 litre sump. The tank has a corner weir which contains a durso style pipe which drains directly into the sump.

DSB? ( you really don't know me do you ) I wouldn't have another DSB if you paid me! Only have about 1" of crushed coral sand.

I'm not sure how much rock I have, probably not as much as most people, but at a guess it would be about 20kgs ( 10lbs ). This was the original rock I had and was put in dead ( baked in the sun for a week and scrubbed )

No refugium as yet but am planning to include one soon ( loved the drawing you did on another thread BTW ) once I get the time and emergy.

Also use 400w MH lighting, a cannister filter in my sump, two powerheads in the tank and not much else

John

 

Great information guys!  Thanks!

This was moved to the Water Chemistry forum due to the great technical information and discussion about the subject .