Chemi-Pure = No water changes?

saltwater8

saltwater8

Member
Hey everyone,
I was just reading about Chemi-Pure, and their website says that with Chemi-Pure, there is no need for water changes?
 
phixer

phixer

Active Member
Nay I say and I like to eat hay,
but not today. Well what do you think? I mean do you believe the claim the this product can actually elimiate the need for water changes?
 
T

thomas712

Guest
LOL

Well it's not snake oil, IMO, IME it is a good product, not only high quality carbon but resins as well. I've used it many times. However, you the owner are responsible for having a way to remove DOC's and things like nitrate that build up in the aquarium.
Logically bad things will build up in the aquarium, also logically the good things like trace elements will get used up. Therefore you will still have to do water changes. That is my opinion anyway which makes sence to me.
Remember when protien skimmers were new and supposed to prevent you from having to do water changes too. :thinking:
It's just an advertising thing, don't get hooked on it. Thumbs up on the product though.
Thomas
 
phixer

phixer

Active Member
Tactfully phrased. Things come and go and the claim that Protein skimmers would replace water changes got challeged by the conscientious also. It's interesting how some of the claims made by advertisers go completely unchallenged though. Wish I had more time because I really enjoy doing research and learning more about our hobby. Call Mythbusters. :hilarious
 
wilsonreef

wilsonreef

Member
Like Thomas said Chemi-Pure is a bag of Charcoal with some other ingredients. Yes, you will still have to do water changes to replace trace elements etc. Chemi-Pure doesn't.
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Hmmm...... So provided a large enough bag of this stuff I could just filter my bath water through it and take a bath in the same water day after day. Should save me some money on the water bill, and I could afford to do more water changes on the tank.
 
tankslave

tankslave

Member
Murph if you could find a similiar method to clean sheets you could open a B & B and have a very profitable business.....well maybe not......you'd still have to feed the guest.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
I use this stuff because of all the great reviews I read but I do not go by their no water change claim. IMO it's a claim that shouldn't be made since someone may believe the hype and end up losing everything in their tank. I change my bags once a month and the stuff better be good since I have around 40 cans of this stuff. I buy it in bulk.
 
mystic7

mystic7

Member
I can't tell you how many times I've read posts saying "I have 10 fluval 400's rigged with Baldini overflows and Johnson rods, interconnected to my RO/DI unit with 4 industrial strength skimmers running through a 500 gallon refugium that recreates the Garden of Eden, that feeds my sump and goes through 6 ozone filters. I do 70% water changes every 6 hours, and I have 2 scooter blennies and a peppermint shrimp with one clown and a Yellow Tang in my 2 year old 300 gallon tank, and my water is cloudy and my Yellow tangs keep dying!"
I use Chemi-Pure, I DON'T do water changes, and my fish are fully colored, eat like pigs, and my water is crystal clear. I add 3 capful's of Kent's Trace Elements every 3 weeks.
Some people here are like computer geeks who hate Windows because it makes using a computer "too easy". Some people hate certain programming languages because they're "too easy". Likewise there are people here who believe keeping a saltwater tank should be difficult, end of story.
I had a 140 gallon tank 25 years ago, using 25 year old technology (no skimmer, UG filter, dolomite), overstocked to the point where nobody here believes the number and combination of fish that I had in that tank, and I had the same success using Chemi-Pure and no water changes, but I was convinced when I first came here that I was lucky. Well, I'm doing it again, with a 20 gallon sump and a Berlin Red Sea skimmer and 3 bags of Chemi-Pure (even though I should be using 6).
I don't recommend dropping them in and not doing water changes again. All I can say is that is the method I've always used and it's always worked for me. If you have a reef tank though, all bets are off. I have a FOWLR.
 
mystic7

mystic7

Member
Originally Posted by mrdc
I use this stuff because of all the great reviews I read but I do not go by their no water change claim. IMO it's a claim that shouldn't be made since someone may believe the hype and end up losing everything in their tank. I change my bags once a month and the stuff better be good since I have around 40 cans of this stuff. I buy it in bulk.
Where do you buy it, MRDC, and what do you pay for bulk? I've found a website that charges $5.46 for 4 or more, but I don't trust websites that charge that much less than everybody else.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
I use Chemi-Pure, I DON'T do water changes, and my fish are fully colored, eat like pigs, and my water is crystal clear
you know when I first got into the hobby (and even after when I wasn't that enthusiastic, just wanted decent looking fish display) I didn't use ANY additives, had an underground filter, who knew what a skimmer was and didn't do water changes AT ALL. I had NO PROBLEM keeping fish alive. I kept fish from the time I set the tank up til I moved without water changes. All I had to do to get crystal clear water was clean the algae off the glass and turn over the crush coral. Tank looked great. fish looked great. People would come over and say wow your water is so clear. Matter of fact I've done just about everything wrong at one point or another (not acclimate, rapid temp changes during water changes, 100% water changes, no water changes ect) and have never had livestock drop dead.
Point being just because a tank doesn't get water changes and the livestock is seemingly healthy I wouldn't be so quick to give credit and praise to any one product because you are able to do so. There are plenty of tanks that have nitrate and phospates near zero without the aid of water changes. So if your adding trace elements I would look at chemi pure as just a peace of mind, the same way people who have zero nitrates/phospates and dose their tanks still do water changes even though there is no indication its needed, not a neccessity (unless you stop using it and your tank immediately goes to hell).
 
mystic7

mystic7

Member
Did I mention that I replace my Chemi-Pure once every 6-8 months? ;)
Yeah, I agree with you, Stanalee, and basically you agree with me. It doesn't take a NASA laboratory to keep saltwater fish once your tank is cycled. And to add to one of the things you said, just last week I bought a Naso Tang that was too big for a plastic bag so they gave it to me in a salt bucket. I couldn't bother to acclimate him so I just threw him in, drastic temp and salinity change and all, and he immediately started calmly swimming around picking at the live rock.
One more thing. My fish NEVER, EVER scratch themselves against the rock, not even the occasional itchy nose.
 
moby

moby

Member
The following is just my opinion. (disclaimer!)

I think that for those of us that have been doing this along time have to keep in mind we should be careful what we advocate in a forum for new hobbiest.
Some of us no doubt have a salty thumb and probably can do things that are not normally accepted, but that is the sort of thing that comes with years of experience.
New fishkeepers are easliy influenced by the things we post on this forum, they simply don't have the experience to know what is common practice and what are the exceptions.
Do I think water changes are necessary? Yes. Why? Because it is not harmful to do them. I have never seen anything in my 15+ years that has convinced me that water changes are not neccessary. There is no product on the market for the hobbiest that makes changing water an obsolete practice. If you keep marine fish you should do water changes. We all know the hundreds of reasons why. I can't think of one reason to not do them.
Do I side with caution? Damn right!! These fish are expensive/remarkable and I owe them a healthy, normal lifespan while providing me with years of enjoyment.
I am not proud to say I have killed my share of fish from doing lazy/foolish things to save time, effort and money. And I always come back to the saying,"anything worth doing is worth doing right".
Moby
 
mystic7

mystic7

Member
Which is why I stated that I don't recommend sticking Chemi-Pure in your filter and not doing water changes. We went through this in another thread and I got ripped a new one, plus the thread was locked because of me, even though I stated explicitly that I don't endorse nor recommend the no water change method, neither do I consider people who DO water changes to be suckers.
Just so's ya know
 
moby

moby

Member
My soapbox speech really wasn't aimed at anyone in particular.
I just want to make sure none of the new folks get the wrong impression that because other experienced guys have done something they should too. We often get away with doing or not doing things because of our experience.
Some of the new hobbiest take our advice as gospel, that buts the burden on us to not give vague or possibly confusing/contradictory advice to generally accepted practices like water changes (for example).
Moby
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Originally Posted by mystic7
Where do you buy it, MRDC, and what do you pay for bulk? I've found a website that charges $5.46 for 4 or more, but I don't trust websites that charge that much less than everybody else.

I get it for $4.99 when on sale at one place and $5.30 (every day price) on another reputable site.
 
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