Low nutrients - do i have to do waterchange?

[Nano_Man]

Dosing can replace what is lost. What about accumulating materials?

Dosing can replace what is lost. What about accumulating materials?

Could I say you’re topping off every other day is dilution in its self . Protein skimmers and roller matts if I was not doing water changes . I would be sending a sample away too tell me exactly what my water is doing. I water change my self but there.are a lot of reefers that don’t.
I use natural sea water and don’t test much apart from salinity . I think having too add additives too keep your water in check is an expensive way of doing it when I have seawater 5 minutes from my door for nothing

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I used to subscribe to this philosophy.

Sometimes, it can be weeks before poor parameters are reflected in the look of the tank.

If you act only things look un-"happy", it may be that you are well into the problem, and not just seeing the beginning if it.

I agree on this as well. At the same time this could always be the case that something is wrong. I do 100 percent water changes so everything gets reset and is a way for me to always be proactive. If I was just doing partial, I would need to test time to time to verify. And we can't test for everything so some things we only know of when it's to late. Even in my tank things can happen such as diseases I can't test for that water change won't fix.

Your point also brings up a knee jerk reactions where we over compensate.l or do things when it's just something simple.

In this case for his, everything is doing well and there is no concern at this point with his parameters or testing. Just general. But as you stated, definitely not for everybody and is situational and good you brought that up for others.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Could I say you’re topping off every other day is dilution in its self .

You can certainly say it, but it is not correct. Topping off with fresh water to replace evaporation does not change the water chemistry over time. pure water out, then pure water in.

 

[Pod_01]

Water changes serve two purposes:

1. The export of excess nutrient from the tank.

2. Replenish the elements consumed by the tank.

Faithful, weekly 20% water changes will help to keep all parameters at acceptable levels.

That is not quite correct,
for item 1, water change for example can export NO3 but will do nothing for PO4. Phosphates is bound to the rock and you would need to do multiple 100% water change to move the needle.
Item 2 is a number game, if tank consumes 50% of any element and I replenish 20% my new level will be at 70% (bit less). So depending on the consumption it can keep up or it can only partially replenish the element but over time you keep going down.

I do like water changes but those are not my drivers. Randy post 14 explains it well.

 

[Nano_Man]

You can certainly say it, but it is not correct. Topping off with fresh water to replace evaporation does not change the water chemistry over time. pure water out, then pure water in.

Yeah Randy I wouldn’t try and tell you anything you’re well above my level but it is good to have a debate over water change or not . Please educate me on how sea water doesn’t get a water change apart from run off from hillsides and streams also Rain obviously.That is only diluting the salt water or have I opened another can of worms. Randy I am interested in the subject

 

[Idech]

Replenishment of elements consumed by the tank.

I was hoping for a more detailed answer.

 

[klavmaister]

I would bypass that or not use it for few weeks to see if PO4 goes up.

I have same tank gen1, 7 fish and I feed them 4 times a day with pellets.
I just use skimmer and bit of GAC. No fuge, fleece roller , socks etc…

I do 10% water change every two to three weeks. Just to export accumulated unknown things not for nutrients nor for trace elements. Also the fresh mix will dilute the unknown or maybe it does nothing.

Nutrients:

Corals:

Yup I would do water change.

Good luck,

Perfect! Thank ypu so mutch

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yeah Randy I wouldn’t try and tell you anything you’re well above my level but it is good to have a debate over water change or not . Please educate me on how sea water doesn’t get a water change apart from run off from hillsides and streams also Rain obviously.That is only diluting the salt water or have I opened another can of worms. Randy I am interested in the subject

I don't understand the question.

In a reef tank where you replace evaporation, nothing changes except fresh water goes in and out.

Over 100 years, seawater in a container that you just replace evaporation will look identical to the water you started with.

Are you asking about water changes in the ocean? That is usually accomplished by water from off the reef (open ocean) flowing over the reef itself.

 

[Dom]

That is not quite correct,
for item 1, water change for example can export NO3 but will do nothing for PO4. Phosphates is bound to the rock and you would need to do multiple 100% water change to move the needle.
Item 2 is a number game, if tank consumes 50% of any element and I replenish 20% my new level will be at 70% (bit less). So depending on the consumption it can keep up or it can only partially replenish the element but over time you keep going down.

I do like water changes but those are not my drivers. Randy post 14 explains it well.

If consumption exceeds replenishment through water changes, then dosing is the next step.

 

[klavmaister]

If consumption exceeds replenishment through water changes, then dosing is the next step.

I dose everything minor, major and trace

 

[Dburr1014]

Over 100 years, seawater in a container that you just replace evaporation will look identical to the water you started with.

Minus, of coarse, what the coral/algae take up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Minus, of coarse, what the coral/algae take up.

By container, I meant not a reef tank.

 

[klavmaister]

Conclution - i did a 20% waterchange today. Going to do it every now and then, just in case ( plus changing carbon)

 

[Reef Puncher]

Do I need to change the water when the values seem ok? probably 6 weeks ago last time. stays pretty stable.

when to change water? Dont whant to crash the tank ,)

Nitrate 6.4ppm up 0.2 in 3 weeks
Phosphate 0.01ppm
salt 1,025
doses AFR 14ml per day/24 doses
Alk = 8.9

Uae refractometer and hanna checker

dont ya want more rocks than that? for room for more coral?

 

[Treefer32]

If you were forced to take a bath in a tub every day, using the same water, you might appreciate someone changing out at least 10% once a week. There are bad things we cannot measure that build up in a tank… removing at least a little of it weekly will keep the bad things from taking over, or slow their progress.

This argument is a bit out there. This assumes that nothing happens to the water that we're taking a bath in everyday, but for our aquariums the water and chemistry of the water is undergoing constant self cleaning through bacterial consumption of waste. There's a simple way to test this theory. Take a mesh bag, fill it with raw shrimp of any type. Place it in aquarium water anywhere in the display or sump where no fish or clean up crew can reach the bag. Leave it dangling, light or no light does not matter.

If your theory is true that water just gets dirtier and dirtier day to day. Then at the end of the week you should have the same amount of shrimp left that you started with. However, I guarantee if the aquarium is established that piece of raw shrimp will be gone from the bag as though a fish consumed the whole thing. But, inside the mesh bag no one could get to it. I've cycled many aquariums using this method and inside 1-2 weeks depending on the size of the shrimp and how sterile the new tank is, bacteria will have consumed the entire thing.

I Have massive fish that poop a LOT! However, my tank is dirtier yesterday than it is today because .... the nitrogen cycle = waste in, bacteria eats the wastes and releases the waste as nitrates.

That said, I've had nitrates build up over time to high as 65 ppm. Until I found bacteria that consume the end result - anerobic bacteria that consume nitrates. My nitrates went from 65 down to under 10 ppm, and remain stable between 10 and 15. I've not done any water change in close to a year. I've got a lot of filtration going on to remove waste whether it's post bacterial processing waste (matrix rock in a modified cannister filter and Algae turf scrubber) or pre bacteria processing (reef mat 1200, skimmer)

Bacteria is nature's Mr. Clean for our aquariums.