What was the longest you've gone without doing a water change?

pbnj

Member
I was watching the Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes a new car for a test drive and tries to see how far he can go after the gas gauge dropped to "E".
Just curious to know how long people here have gone without doing a water change and really pushed the issue.
 

culp

Active Member
3 weeks because i was broke and couldn't afford to pay for a thing of salt. in that time the PH dropped from 8.2 to 7.8, and Calcium dropped from 340 to 280. but as soon as i could afford salt i bought it and did 3 10 gallon water changes in 6 days on a 55 gallon tank.
 

jerryatrick

Active Member
Well there are people who either never do water changes or do them sparingly. These people dose to maintain their levels.
10 days is the longest I have went without one.
 
Okay nobody yell at me and ill be honest. lol MY first tank that i had for a year i NEVER did any. And never had any problems. I ran a wet/dry with a crap load of bio-balls. Never any problems. Now i do one every week. Also never added anything except distilled water and red sea salt
 

jerryatrick

Active Member
Originally Posted by Younngballa88
http:///forum/post/2982402
Okay nobody yell at me and ill be honest. lol MY first tank that i had for a year i NEVER did any. And never had any problems. I ran a wet/dry with a crap load of bio-balls. Never any problems. Now i do one every week. Also never added anything except distilled water and red sea salt
Can be done without major issues in a fish only and possibly a tank with softies. Did you have any hard corals? If you say yes then I will bow down.
 
Originally Posted by JerryAtrick
http:///forum/post/2982411
Can be done without major issues in a fish only and possibly a tank with softies. Did you have any hard corals? If you say yes then I will bow down.

Nope sorry lol. God i love your picture dude. lol
 

geoj

Active Member
Ok, I will play…
Three months in a 50gal mixed reef
About this time I like to siphon the shallow sand bed to help keep decomposition in check and the bed looking nice.
 

nminunni

Member
7 months, then lost my wrasse and 2 clowns. All inverts are still there though.
expensive way to learn I suppose
 
M

mr.reef

Guest
like he said dont yell i did not do one on my 90 but with with 125 i will to one that about 50% every 2 mouths and i have stuff that i but in there to keep it that long so...
 
I change 15 gallons a week in my 125. I went 2 weeks without a water change and I then did a 30 gallon water change. It would depend on the size and what you keep. Imagine a 90 gallon tank with only 2 or 3 small fish. I would say the need for a large % change would be less.
 

naclh2o nut

Member
That depends! There was a post not to long ago about how we could not do them. Others swear by them. I have heard all the numbers 5%,10%,15%, 20%,25%,-50% done weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, etc...
I think it depends on your numbers, tank livestock. If you have a tank set up with no amm., trites, phosp and trates are under 5, calcium at 400 ish, alk @ 12ish, etc... WHY MESS with it. I know this may kick off a rock throwing contest, but if you don't need it why do it?
Yes beginners(like me), overstocked, under maintained will need it
.
Read an article about the heavy metals that are in salt, These have no way out of our tanks once they are put in. So the more salt you add the more heavy metals in your part of the ocean.
My thoughts, I am going for a min. amount of water changes.
Help me.........
 

gmflex

New Member
what's a water change

I've had my tank for over 2years and olny add water because of the evaporation...
90 gallon reef tank....
i have a ecoqualizer to avoid water changes....
 

windlasher

Member
Originally Posted by gmflex
http:///forum/post/2986512
what's a water change

I've had my tank for over 2years and olny add water because of the evaporation...
90 gallon reef tank....
i have a ecoqualizer to avoid water changes....


we just had a big todo about those things... Hows that workin for ya?
 

wattsupdoc

Active Member
2 years on my 65, with what amounted to only small water changes What I mean was when adding fresh salt water to adjust the SG. WITH SPS's...and maybe a couple 5 galon changes here and there. Now I'm not recommending it though. This last year since I combined the two, I have done2 water changes and Im in the process of doing a third. June of last year I did a series, then in Dec. I did a series, now I'm doing another series. These have been series of 4-30 gallon changes on my 135. My plan has been to do daily water changes of about 1 gallon a day. I just haven't finished getting completely set up to do so. I recommend them highly as I do see a difference in my corals and fish when they are done.
Originally Posted by NaClH2O Nut
http:///forum/post/2986407
Read an article about the heavy metals that are in salt, These have no way out of our tanks once they are put in. So the more salt you add the more heavy metals in your part of the ocean.
My thoughts, I am going for a min. amount of water changes.
Help me.........

Carbon will remove the metals in the salt mixes.
Originally Posted by gmflex

http:///forum/post/2986512
what's a water change

I've had my tank for over 2years and olny add water because of the evaporation...
90 gallon reef tank....
i have a ecoqualizer to avoid water changes....

The aqualizer thinga magiggy is not helping you to not do water changes. In fact IMO it's not doing anything for your tank at all exept giving you a false sence of security.
OK, water changes are not one of those necessary
things. Well not any real routine anyways. However they are IMO very beneficial
. As someone who is the complete provider for those that are entirely dependant, we should strive to give the best conditions possible. Not just what we can get by on. Most of the time whenever we do anything routinely we are providing a better service. It is debated highly over how much a person should change how often. Randy Holmes Farley has a great article on the subject. The general rule of thumb is 25-30% a month. Now it doesn't really matter what frequency/quantity you do these in. Just doing them is best. In other words 1% a day would give you just about the same results as doing 30% a month. Quantity can vary. If you don't feel that the amount you currently doing is sufficient, do more...
 
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