Tell me what you think!! No water changes!!

[subvillian]

For one year now i have moved my tank to 2 diffent locations. I have not done a single water change in one year. I transfered all the water in my tank to the new locations. In this time i have only done top off RO water and added the product Purplue Up once a week. My Corlline algea is going crazy, soft coral has gone from 3 sprouts to 8, mushroom coral covering rocks as well as zoos and Anenome has split into 3 and looks to do a 4th.
My set up consists of refugium with an out of control plant. My protein skimmer hardly works cuse once a month i check it and it aint working. i never have to use my uv sterilizer. And i guess thats about it.
So my question is whats wrong with this.... Am i doomed? Or just lucky. I did however do a 5gl change today for the first time cuse i want to stockmore.
i also have a cleaner shrimp, clown fish and hermits and snails.
tell me what you think...

 

[acrylic51]

Lucky IMO, but another question is any fish?

 

[dperna]

how big is your tank? and for this whole year that you havn't done any waterchanges have you had any spikes witht he levels?

 

[subvillian]

only the clown fish and shrimp. lvls are always great no spikes. And the size is 40 gallons. I did alot of changes early in cycle and post cycle but around april last year i just stopped changing an checking with the test kits. I test just about everything too and every now and then my calcium is slightly low but thats as much trouble i have. Now i can eye ball the calcium lvl by the about of coralline agea growth on the front of my tank glass.

 

[subvillian]

Also my clown and shrip seem so happy they eat there food sitting in the palm of my hand together. Its like a perfect little happy tank.

 

[azfishgal]

In reading this thread the commercial from Walgreens came to mind about the "perfect world."

I guess you live in it.

 

[subvillian]

never seen that one.

 

[catawaba]

I would think the corals will eventually suffer from lack of replacement minerals.....
Best wishes though!

 

[watson3]

Sub..What part of La are you in..

 

[ruaround]

seems as though your tank has achieved equalibrium... as long as youre doing some husbandry and using suppliments to replace some trace elements...

 

[subvillian]

Baton Rouge watson3

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by SubVillian
.........
tell me what you think...
Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not posting to try to make you feel bad.
I think this is a bad practice though. If anything died in the last year due to pollutants, lack of trace elements, ect. it would be solely your fault.
There are a lot of things we can't control in this hobby. Providing good quality water changes, however, are our responsibility.
There is really no reason not to do a water change that I can think of other than expense and time. Neither are good excuses.
Hope that comes across the right way Sub.

 

[ruaround]

what if a yearly water change is all his/her tank needs??? if its not broke dont fix it??? the only problem i see is exporting "bad things" that are introduced via top off with poor water quality and not adding trace elements...

 

[subvillian]

No that come across fine. I do need to make requent water changes and i did yesterday 5gl to 40gl tank. But nothing has died and everything is multipling like crazy right now. When i did the change i had my new mix next to the tank water. And the bucket with the old water was pretty gross looking compared to the fresh.
my last year was just crazy and i am ready to add new stuff so i was just looking to see what people were thinking about my situation before i blow $200.
gonna check the levels tonight and head to the my LFS tomorrow if all is well.
And i think i am gonna do a 5gl every other week now.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by ruaround
...the only problem i see is exporting "bad things" that are introduced via top off with poor water quality and not adding trace elements...
Those, imho, are two very big issues.
I understand the "if it's not broke don't fix it" attitude, but I think it's not relevant in maintenance situations. For instance, we change the tires on our cars. Why? To prevent issues. If we looked at maintenance issues from the "if it's not broke" attitude we'd have a lot more casualties on the highways.
The same goes for your tank. Clearly his tank hasn't needed a water change so far, but what will be the indicator that it suddenly needs one?
I'm open for suggestions as to why to avoid water changes.

If the risk outweighs the reward I'm all for not doing them in this case.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by SubVillian
No that come across fine. I do need to make requent water changes and i did yesterday 5gl to 40gl tank. But nothing has died and everything is multipling like crazy right now. When i did the change i had my new mix next to the tank water. And the bucket with the old water was pretty gross looking compared to the fresh.
my last year was just crazy and i am ready to add new stuff so i was just looking to see what people were thinking about my situation before i blow $200.
gonna check the levels tonight and head to the my LFS tomorrow if all is well.
And i think i am gonna do a 5gl every other week now.
sounds good to me. Also, since you are adding Purple Up, be sure to buy test kits and check for the ingredients in it. you don't want to over dose the tank. Be sure to post pics when you get the new stuff!

 

[scsinet]

I'm curious as to what the levels are. While an perfect "circle of life" system is achievable on a large enough scale (say... the size of a planet), IMO it would be next to impossible to achieve in a scale of 40 gallons.
Somewhere, something has to be happening to the waste products that are going to inevitably be generated.... they can't just disappear.
But to suppose that they could just disappear, you have other things you need to consider, such as dust from your air getting into the water and building up over time.
While I suppose it's technically possible to achieve a system that does not require water changes, it would be highly irresponsible to suggest even for a moment that this should be anyone's goal (not saying that's what's happening here). A happy situation if it should be stumbled upon? Perhaps, but you gotta admit that 9 times out of 10, the result will be failed systems, dead livestock, etc.
Where I must interject with some critical observation though is that you are, so far, measuring your success by saying "nothing has died." Such a conclusion is akin to saying that if you have a bunch of people working in a building that's filled with asbestos and nobody has died, the building is safe. It sounds as though you are doing water tests, I'd love to see them. Again, not saying you are wrong, but I'd enjoy the opportunity to see somewhat more scientific results.

 

[1journeyman]

He states that he has "out of control" plant in his refugium. I'm guessing that is where much of the pollutant is going. That, and a very light bio load.

 

[ruaround]

i am not advocating NEVER doing a water change... i am saying that it needs to be observed on a tank to tank basis... when a water change is done are you ONLY removing the "bad things"???

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by ruaround
what if a yearly water change is all his/her tank needs??? if its not broke dont fix it??? the only problem i see is exporting "bad things" that are introduced via top off with poor water quality and not adding trace elements...
"DOUBT IT, VERY UNLIKELY".........The trace elements that are in the water are constantly being consumed, so realistically tell me how they are being replaced????? They don't just magically reappear :thinking: And again your point with adding trace elements......If your not testing for all these major and minor trace elements your haphazardly running your tank.......So honestly if we could list and does all the minor and major trace elements that we could get in a bottle we wouldn't do water changes.....