I voted never, however I did do 1 - 5G after having the tank for about 2 months. Y? Because everywhere I read, "You got to do water changes". Ba, humbug. I agree, if it ain't broke, don't g00b with it. I suspect most folks that *must* do water changes do so because of tests showing high bad things. Ever wonder why? The truth is, you could probably dump all the extra filtration trash if you were really willing to work at it. However, seems everyone wants 100lbs of
LR in their 30G tank with 2 percs, wrasse, couple tangs, several corals, all the 'clean up crew' they can afford and o ya, did I mention, I just added a lionfish. I guess my point is this: If you flood the environment (overload) you have to do something because your natural filters will never be able to keep up with your 'bioload'. (p00p and what not..
Its a lot like oil in your car. We put oil in every 3000 mi (ok, your supposed to ; ) or so cause we wear it smooth out. We know its going to happen, but we still dump in all this expensive time and $$ into our oil pan so we can squeeze yet another meesly 3 - 4000 mi out of our car. Obviously the engine puts way to much load on the supporting environment, but we do it anyway and so we are stuck with some mundane, on going maint routine. There are however lots of folks (Im one) and a host of articles out there on running a tank with minimal effort. With, in some cases, better results than all the reactors, filtration, skimmers $$ can buy. Its not an approach for everyone, but I frown on anyone who says it 'just can't be done' or someones tank is not living up to its 'potential'. (Check out my gallery..no water changes in almost a year and skimmerless - Cnat stop the xenia from taking over the tank and coraline algea? fughettaboutit) Theres far more to a healthy tank than throwing a bunch of cash at it. It takes time, effort, the love of reef keeping and sometimes a dash of luck. All this I guess to say, water changes work for you? Geat, keep up the good work. If you have never done anything but feed your fish, consider yourself lucky, you have acheived some level of equilibrium most keepers will never try to find.
nother 2 cents..think Im up to about a dollar tonight..time to log ; )