No water change in 6 months

[jack the reefer]

Everything is growing well, mushroom is splitting like crazy, hard corals in one month sticks to the rock (fragged), turbo and cerith(spelling) snails are reproducing in thousands..all I do is just add a gallon water everyday(that's how much evaporation I get), have to throw xenia and flush it in toilet coz its like weed! even as little as grain of rice is still grows!..80 lbs LR, 46G Bow Tank, RENA filter w/ just carbon, 2 175W MH, 2 96W PC hood raised 15 inches from tank, 2 powerheads w/wavemaster, prizm skimmer, 3" LS, Nitrate, nitrite are 0. I went on vacation for 3 wks its like a jungle when I came back had to clean the glass and scrape some coraline, water stays crystal clear, my mom feed a frozen cube thing once a day, I modified the skimmer so waste drips to an empty gallon of milk so I dont empty it quite often. Please explain why water quality stays..LFS says change 20% water every 3wks or so..yellow polyps starts w/ 20 pcs and now hundreds in just 2mths, 1 clam opened wide..one minor thing is that I have to remove valonia every now and then...as big as grapes..water temp 80-82F day and 78F night..

 

[michaeltx]

most people live by water changes to keep things in check I myself have took a hands free approach to my tank other than water changes and occasional algae scrape I do nothing but at the same time I do keep SW made up so if the numbers get out of wack I can do a water change. if you have corals the water changes add elements that can be used up in the tank and to keep nitrates( I think cant keep the 2 seperated) in check. but as you say everything is growing good and heathly why bother it. keep an eye on your stock they will telly ou when something is wrong and do water tests to make sure your water stays in good shape.
this is my veiw towards it but others have different veiws take what you learn and what you know and develope your own way who knows yours might be the NEW way of doing things.
either way good luck.
Michael

 

[tellico tornado]

I know what you mean. I have had my tank for going on two months now, never did a water change and only added maybe 3 gallons of fresh water a week. I dont have a RO unit or i dont even use RO water. Just plain old tap water. I use a plenum system with a 4" DLSB on top with about 70 lbs of LR for my filter. I also use a protein skimmer. Thats it. My water quality is perfect. Ammonia, Trites, and Trates all at 0. Everything is absolutely perfect. My shrooms are doing great and frogspawn is getting bigger by the day. Only lights i use are two VHO bulbs (1 bule 1 white) and then two HO lights. I have 4watts per gallon in my tank, and everything is wonderful. I think the LFS says to do a 20% water change so they get more money.

 

[luke]

jack the reefer - sounds great. But as MichaelAR said you have to add elements (which you are probably doing ). Especially iodine for the xenia and CA for everything. Properly set up tanks don't need water changes all that often. But when your elements dry up, the tank can crash in a matter of days. Just keep an eye on it.
Luke

 

[jack the reefer]

thanks for the comments my fellow reefers, I use to add nutrients such as iodine etc but I stop about 2 months ago and xenia is still growing like weed, my tank is possessed! hell I just discovered something is growing on the rock with tentacles now it splits into two bulbs..tentacles is clear but it grabs a brine shrimp once in a while..no nutrients in 2 months still corals looked happy and thriving well, green and brown polyps is spreading like weed too..one pink hard corals (i dont know the name) was almost dead and now its polyps is spreading and the color become more pink, brain wasnt doing good but not because of water quality but because of too much light and this guy is on the top so I cover the glass on hood with black electrical tape to give it a shade and after 1 month big he became fat and color is more darker...

 

[sinner's girl]

"I think the LFS says to do a 20% water change so they get more money" How would the lfs make money off of you doing water changes?

 

[lordofthereef]

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<img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />

 

[marek]

yep, I agree with jack. sw tanks are very easy to care for IMO. I think it is only the paranoid reefers or those who just don't have much clue that actually perform weekly water changes. I have 3 tanks and one 35 gal mini reef didn't get a sw change in over one year now, and isn't going to get one since everything is looking awesome. on that system I do have to add about half-gallon water daily due to evaporation, add some bottled mineral/vitamin supplements every now and then, add calcium and buffers when necessary. system has good skimmer on all the time, good filtration etc... easy approach. I could make a long list of what corals or livestock that system has, but why bother, everything is doing/growing simply awesome.
take care.

 

[josh]

Hi, nice post.
I too do seldom water changes, maybe once every two months or so. I think the key is to have an established system. I however, do add supplements by seachem.. calcium, buffer and reef complete every week. I just keep a close eye and the inverts and corals. Did anyone happen to read the post a while back about the reefer who dosen't do anything, not even feed the fish? Now that was interesting!!
-Josh-

 

[kris walker]

I think it comes down to the word "balance". IMO, protien skimmers do a great job of achieving a balance for many different consistently input elements (e.g. iodine) or nutrients (e.g. protein). The source of the trace elements and other stuff does not have to be added by supplements, it can be added by what foods you use. So if you use enough of the right foods (or even too much), with a protien skimmer, you should have a nice balance (as long as you have something to remove excess nitrates/posphates with).
sam
sam

 

[ebeckels]

I also just top off the tank with iodine and calcium supplements...everything in their is great...
FYI: Don't throw away ur xenia...Sell it on ----...u can at least make few bucks out of it! Get some money back from this hobby!