Water changes, a thing of the past or necessity of the present?

[jeremy.gosnell]

jeremy.gosnell submitted a new Article:

Water changes, a thing of the past or necessity of the present?

Water changes are one of the best maintenance practices that can be performed on any marine aquarium. They remove nutrient laden water and replace it with fresh, nutrient free water. When RODI purified water is employed, a good salt mix is able to strike a perfect balance of elements, simply by adjusting the mix’s specific gravity to normal reef levels. After a water change; calcium, magnesium and carbonate is...

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[revhtree]

Great article @jeremy.gosnell!

 

[najer]

Interesting.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Very good read! I might be reading this to my YouTube subscribers in an upcoming if that is ok? I'm sure they would enjoy the article!

 

[jeremy.gosnell]

Mike. Feel free to read and discuss the article on your You Tube channel.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Mike. Feel free to read and discuss the article on your You Tube channel.

Thanks Jeremy!

 

[Jenz]

Am quite relieved to have read this article for the simple fact I live rural and rely predominantly on rain as well as bottled water, and was worrying about the availability of sufficient water to maintain weekly, and monthly water changes.
Targeting the ignorant ie me, what equipment would I definitely require to maintain water quality and hopefully reduce volume required for water changes. I am not looking to reduce maintenance requirements as assume to some extent it'll increase ie filter socks, skimmer cleaning.
Any advise welcome

 

[stevieduk]

jeremy.gosnell submitted a new Article:

Water changes, a thing of the past or necessity of the present?



Read more about this article here...

How about processing used salt water. by putting it in a tank with good filtration and living rock and Calerpa after 2 weeks just get the S.G. right with R/O water and its good to go again.
Saves a fortune in salt

 

[Rob Lion]

very interesting read!

I would add just one thought.......
The people on the space station use air scrubbers to constantly clean the air / remove carbon monoxide/dioxide etc, and water filtration to reclean the used water, (including urine) all for re use..... and NASA has I suspect the best scientists on the plant..... but even they can not create an infinite recycling process of high quality and have to send up "clean" water etc every few months and to take the waste away.

I'd hate to live in that environment, so my for me weekly water changes are part of the fun of having pets

 

[Sabellafella]

Unbelieveable man, what an amazing article. I know this is an article but hopefully you can maybe write something up for the team to pin/sticky. Lot of good downright solid information here

 

[chefjpaul]

Nice read.

 

[jsker]

Some of my best systems I would do a water change every couple of months. Right now I am doing the weekly changes and thinking of going to twice a month or even monthly. I am dosing the balling method and the only reason for water change would be to export nutrients. What your thoughts?

 

[jeremy.gosnell]

Am quite relieved to have read this article for the simple fact I live rural and rely predominantly on rain as well as bottled water, and was worrying about the availability of sufficient water to maintain weekly, and monthly water changes.
Targeting the ignorant ie me, what equipment would I definitely require to maintain water quality and hopefully reduce volume required for water changes. I am not looking to reduce maintenance requirements as assume to some extent it'll increase ie filter socks, skimmer cleaning.
Any advise welcome

The back-bone is really a good, oversized protein skimmer. Solid waste makes the bacterial filter in the tank less efficient, so it's of great benefit to the overall system to have that removed. I feel like I've been beating this dead horse lately, but a sulfur based nitrate reactor is great for removing nitrates (one of the things water changes often target) and would certainly help maintain low nutrient levels between water changes. I would also recommend running GFO to absorb phosphate, or a phosphate liquid such as Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate E. For maintaining clarity, I personally like ozone. I've used it for nearly as long as I've kept saltwater tanks and am surprised that it's not more common. I assume that the fact carbon also clarifies water (and comes with less risks) is why ozone isn't more popular. While an ozone generator is more upfront cost than a carbon reactor and media - long-term it's pretty economical, as ozone generators use VERY little electricity and provide ozone gas for free. A good skimmer should be ozone rated and it's easy to inject ozone into a skimmer, creating an ozone water interface. You will need an ORP controller to safely run ozone, and you want to keep your tank's ORP between 300-400 mv. 350 is a healthy number to shoot for. Ozone use is its own ball of wax and if folks would like, I can compose an article that details ozone use top to bottom and covers it entirely. With those systems in place, you could limit the amount of water changes needed quite a bit, if you're dosing (or use a kalkwasser/calcium reactor) to replenish trace elements.

 

[jeremy.gosnell]

Some of my best systems I would do a water change every couple of months. Right now I am doing the weekly changes and thinking of going to twice a month or even monthly. I am dosing the balling method and the only reason for water change would be to export nutrients. What your thoughts?

What kind of nutrient load are your test kits reporting? I would take it one step at a time. Record your nitrate load one week, skip the water change and let it roll well into the next week. Check nitrate again. If you don't notice much fluctuation, let it go another week. However, if you're consistently running a high nutrient load, then it's probably time to re-evaluate the system as to why.

 

[Cristy17]

Great article! Very informative. Thank you!

 

[jsker]

What kind of nutrient load are your test kits reporting? I would take it one step at a time. Record your nitrate load one week, skip the water change and let it roll well into the next week. Check nitrate again. If you don't notice much fluctuation, let it go another week. However, if you're consistently running a high nutrient load, then it's probably time to re-evaluate the system as to why.

I am feeding heavy on purpos, I am two days late doing my weekly water change, and as you stated I am going to let it ride till next week. I tested today and my nitrates are the lowest they have been in months. I will test again 3 days just to see. FYI I am at a 8 ppm today
Thank you for your quick answer.

 

[Brad Syphus]

Very nice read Jeremy. I run a big Delltec Skimmer, use a Bio De nitrator, and fluidized reactor with Rowaphos. I also use ozone and and all of my top off water runs thru a kalkreactor. Big Deltec Calcium reactor and I dose ESV 2 part , 60 mil of each a day. Plus I do a 10% water change every Saturday. So, I guess I have all of the bases covered. Nice to hear I'm doing something right.

 

[Jenz]

The back-bone is really a good, oversized protein skimmer. Solid waste makes the bacterial filter in the tank less efficient, so it's of great benefit to the overall system to have that removed. I feel like I've been beating this dead horse lately, but a sulfur based nitrate reactor is great for removing nitrates (one of the things water changes often target) and would certainly help maintain low nutrient levels between water changes. I would also recommend running GFO to absorb phosphate, or a phosphate liquid such as Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate E. For maintaining clarity, I personally like ozone. I've used it for nearly as long as I've kept saltwater tanks and am surprised that it's not more common. I assume that the fact carbon also clarifies water (and comes with less risks) is why ozone isn't more popular. While an ozone generator is more upfront cost than a carbon reactor and media - long-term it's pretty economical, as ozone generators use VERY little electricity and provide ozone gas for free. A good skimmer should be ozone rated and it's easy to inject ozone into a skimmer, creating an ozone water interface. You will need an ORP controller to safely run ozone, and you want to keep your tank's ORP between 300-400 mv. 350 is a healthy number to shoot for. Ozone use is its own ball of wax and if folks would like, I can compose an article that details ozone use top to bottom and covers it entirely. With those systems in place, you could limit the amount of water changes needed quite a bit, if you're dosing (or use a kalkwasser/calcium reactor) to replenish trace elements.

Your awesome; thanks for the reply!

 

[blacktippr]

What ever happened to the article, can't read it , was it deleted. I'f so, would like to read it, somebody please PM IT TO ME!

 

[illjoshlli]

This was great read. Easy and to the point.

A few things stood out to me. Advancing technologies has also made water changes much easier. With many companies out there making dual-headed peristaltic pumps the need to lug water around can be all but eliminated. For less the $300 bucks a Stenner dual-head pump can push/pull your water 50 feet through 1/4" hose. You can either manually run it, put it on a cheap timer, or a controller for full automation. Doing this has reduced my water change 'effort' down to a 30 min. task each month to mix up new saltwater. I have a 35 Gallon new-saltwater bin in my basement along with a Stenner 100DMP4. My tank is upstairs with a couple of 1/4 in lines running between the two. The Stenner runs every other day changing out a gallon at a time. Since I let it run without any babysitting I have it hooked up to an Archon controller that monitors salinity. This would not be necessary if I was manually running it.

I appreciate that you pointed out that a 'standard' water change is a good excuse for examining your tank. This is something I just recently did to clean out the sump and I noticed a few pieces of equipment that were either on their last leg or barely performing due to build up. If I didn't do this manually change I probably would not have caught it.