water change

[sikander]

Hi All,

i have a tank fish only with no LR just rocks and its around 1 year old now i every 2 months do 20 % water changes in the tank but some of my expert friends told me keep live rock in the sump and you need not change the water
at all .....please can any one give some details on it

or advice me on water changes for marine tank which is fish only tank
regards,
sikander

 

[thincat]

testing your tank will tell you when to change water in a FO tank. Watch your Nitrate level and for any spike in Phosphates and keep and eye out for nitrites. LR in the sump won't reduce nitrates.
PS: Welcome to the site!

 

[mtlion]

LR will not allow you to never change the water. Like Thincat stated, check your H2O parameters and that will let you know. Personally I change out 10G of H2O every 2 weeks no matter what.

 

[melosu58]

You have to see something here. PWC`s accomplish many things. Two main things they do are 1) They replenish trace elements that get used up during fish and coral processes. These trace elements are found in marine salt mix that you do PWC`s. 2) They dilute excessive nutrients in your tank that causes nuisance algea and poor fish and coral health in your tank. PWC`s are very important in a SW tank. Your friends advice about never doing them is not wise. I`ve done weekly PWC`s for 11 yrs now and I`m glad I did and will continue to do so.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with everyone's advice here... you got some bad advice from your expert friends! Water changes are a necessary evil. I'd guess that if you're only doing a 20% change every two months, you have algae issues? That seems like a long time between water changes to not end up with some sort of problems.

Whether rock is in your display tank, or in your sump... it's doing the same thing - acting as biological filtration. If it's been in your tank for a year, you DO have "live rock" by now. ("Live" refers to the bacteria population.)

 

[InfernoST]

I agree with melosu58 and am pretty new to AA, even though I only have a freshwater tank at the moment I followed the advice of the AA members regarding cycling, PWC's and constant testing have left me with very happy/frisky fish and a crystal clear fish tank.

 

[thincat]

Nice post...infernoST.

 

[InfernoST]

Nice post...infernoST.

Thanks thincat.

 

[sikander]

thanks a lot buddies i will do PWC' every time now ..... i have got to learn a lot from you people
regards ,
sikander

 

[melosu58]

Read this also

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[sikander]

thanks melosu58