No Water Change in over a year

[Jesse Greer]

My friend is setting up a 150 gal tank. I don't want to take the tang to the fish store. Believe me he is fine. My friends has be beating me up about this. My friend is an experienced reefer. He has recently moved and is in the process of cycling a new tank. Thank for your concerns.

 

[Jesse Greer]

Thanks.

 

[Mebbid]

[
I agree about the tang, but tube worms do eat fish poop and I can prove it by catching it on a video. I have witnessed it. I do agree that if they too are eating, then they are expelling waist in the process. In the tank I have, it has an over size pump. Nothing sets on the bottom for long. After feeding, when the pump is turned back on, everything is lifted up and pulled through the filter pretty efficiently. What the tank inhabitant don't get the filter does. Now of course I could be lying or just mistaken but my tank is prof. My nitrates are zero, phosphatase are zero, no algae. How can this be. When others clean their sand, and their rock and still have these problems with algae and nitrates, and I don't clean mine, how can you explain this. Let the results tell the truth.

[/QUOTE]

Fish poo, whether it's eaten by tube worms or not is still poo. The tube worms will poo it right back out. The same goes with any inhabitants in your deep sand bed. When you feed the nutrients go into your system.

Roughly fish poo will break down primarily into Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and then a whole host of micro nutrients. Assuming there are micros that aren't absorbed then they will just keep rising.

I'd still be really interested to hear about the

 

[Fishman007]

My friend is setting up a 150 gal tank. I don't want to take the tang to the fish store. Believe me he is fine. My friends has be beating me up about this. My friend is an experienced reefer. He has recently moved and is in the process of cycling a new tank. Thank for your concerns.

Alright thats good. Glad you understand.

 

[Jesse Greer]

There should be a quote button on the bottom right where the reply is. I'm on my phone so I'm not 100% sure where it is

Did it work.

 

[Fishman007]

Did it work.

Yes it did.

 

[Jesse Greer]

Although it may work without having to change water so often, the trade off is that you spend more time in monitoring your water parameter and dosing chemicals. It is a gamble and it will crash if you don't do it right. For people who doesn't have so much time and has a regular job like me, the pwc is the simplest way to maintain a saltwater tank.

When it comes to dosing, once you know what your tank consumes, then it is just simple math. I spend more time cleaning the glass. I probably spend about five to ten min in a week dosing. I do my testing every two weeks, so you spend more time then I do.

 

[jeffaquarius]

When it comes to dosing, once you know what your tank consumes, then it is just simple math. I spend more time cleaning the glass. I probably spend about five to ten min in a week dosing. I do my testing every two weeks, so you spend more time then I do.

This may be true once your tank is already stable to where you want it to be. Prior to that I think is where you spend so much time figuring out to balance everything.

 

[Jesse Greer]

Agree.


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[meegosh]

I'm not a saltwater guy myself but this is interesting. How long has the tank been set up? How long since the last water change? I would be curious to see the long term effects, not just a year.

 

[Fishman007]

I'm not a saltwater guy myself but this is interesting. How long has the tank been set up? How long since the last water change? I would be curious to see the long term effects, not just a year.

On his profile it says a year old, so he has never done a wc

 

[Jesse Greer]

Sorry, my profile is miss leading. My tank has been running for 16 months. I haven't done a water change in a year.

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[meegosh]

Sorry, my profile is miss leading. My tank has been running for 16 months. I haven't done a water change in a year.

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Thanks for the info. I don't know if I'm convinced however. If it works for you, great. I don't think you can declare success just because the inhabitants haven't died after a year. I'd be curious about the long term issues that may arise. Will keep an eye out for maybe a year two update!

 

[Scottyhorse]

You can go online and google 'low tech reefs' or 'low maintenance reefs' and quite a few pop up. Some use similar methods as the OP, some don't.

 

[melosu58]

Sorry, my profile is miss leading. My tank has been running for 16 months. I haven't done a water change in a year.

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My issue is you have not done this long enough to be saying this. I can say weekly PWC`s are a good thing because I have been doing it for 15 yrs. I have the tank and time to prove it. I have known many a person that does not do PWC`s and they eventually have a post that says something like "Why is my tank dead". When you have not done a PWC in 10 yrs and everything is fine then let me know. Sixteen months isn't going to cut it. IMO

 

[Gregcoyote]

My reef is now over 20 years old and very full of corals. I do modest water exchanges now (5% every two weeks) but there were times I went long periods of time without water exchanges at all. If you carefully dose you can get away with it for a few years. But after that toxins can build up and you will see a downturn in the tank, IMO. Deep sand beds can do a fine job of nitrogen export, but they aren't miracle workers. No system is except the ocean and it has it's own problems with toxins. I started a post on this approach last week. It certainly has merit, but I don't think it's safe to believe it eliminates water exchanges permanently. Flushing out toxins you can't measure is a good policy. Even 16 months is too soon to make a general statement about the long term viability of your approach. Keep us posted as it is interesting.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/9/aafeature

 

[Jesse Greer]

My reef is now over 20 years old and very full of corals. I do modest water exchanges now (5% every two weeks) but there were times I went long periods of time without water exchanges at all. If you carefully dose you can get away with it for a few years. But after that toxins can build up and you will see a downturn in the tank, IMO. Deep sand beds can do a fine job of nitrogen export, but they aren't miracle workers. No system is except the ocean and it has it's own problems with toxins. I started a post on this approach last week. It certainly has merit, but I don't think it's safe to believe it eliminates water exchanges permanently. Flushing out toxins you can't measure is a good policy. Even 16 months is too soon to make a general statement about the long term viability of your approach. Keep us posted as it is interesting.

Feature Article: Jaubert's Method, The 'Monaco System,' Defined And Refined — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

I agree with you 100%. This is my second tank. I started with a 14gal bio cube and did water changes weekly. I'm not saying I will never ever do a water change again, nor am I trying to tell people to do the same. This is more of an experiment. It does work, but I will probably do water changes in the future here and there. I just think a deep sand bed helps in making controlling nitrates easier. I think it would be great for people to incorporate deepsand beds, and deep sand bed care along with water changes as part of their tank maintenance. I respect any one that has been in the game as long as you and love your knowlege and wisdom you have to offer with this hobby. Thanks.

 

[Jesse Greer]

Check out new york steelo on youtube. He has a lot of imformation on this topic and has more experience than myself.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I like experiments. Just document what's happening along the way to reduce variables that could mask the results. Deep sand beds are old school. They do have the risk of releasing toxins and nuking the tank if disturbed. Something that rarely happens with skimming and live rock (Berlin method). In my case, I went for algae turf scrubbing and using algae to export excess nutrients and toxins. Just goes to show there are multiple paths to any end.

 

[jeffaquarius]

I agree with you 100%. This is my second tank. I started with a 14gal bio cube and did water changes weekly. I'm not saying I will never ever do a water change again, nor am I trying to tell people to do the same. This is more of anf2f th experiment. It does work, but I will probably do water changes in the future here and there. I just think a deep sand bed helps in making controlling nitrates easier. I think it would be great for people to incorporate deepsand beds, and deep sand bed care along with water changes as part of their tank maintenance. I respect any one that has been in the game as long as you and love your knowlege and wisdom you have to offer with this hobby. Thanks.

The length of time since your last water change at least have proven that it works.There was another poster a while back similar as yours. I think the main point here is just to share the information to help others having problem with nitrates and so forth. It may not last for another year but it is a step to attain having a low maintenance tank. Your post is being appreciated.