Curious Question

[Ricko]

I have decided to start 150ltr water changes on my tank every mth or so for two reasons: 1)something to do, and 2)everyone else does them so they must be beneficial.

This will be my first water change in 7 mths, ammonia nitrite and nitrate are nil, and calcium and trace elements are added back to the tank regularly.

So my curious Q is(and sorry if i'm coming across as being ignorant or stupid), what exact benefits will my tank recieve when i start doing this???

 

[M.Maddox]

So, by trace elements being "added", I assume you're testing for and have are certain that there are adequate levels of calcium, strontium, magnesium, alkalinity, cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, vanadium, boron, manganese, and more?

All I can say is you must have a small selection of very hardy livestock in relatively poor health, well acclimated to sub-par water conditions. The benefits of partial water changes are many and easily found online, so I can only assume you even bothered to post and ask in order to "brag" about your "7 months with no water change" system. I feel for your animals. Badly.

I recommend large weekly partial water changes, but I only consult to universities and zoos that maintain thousands of gallons of marine systems, so what do I know?

 

[Ricko]

Yep i'm using up my time to "brag" on a website,,,you got me.

The rest of your answer i appreciate,,thanks.

 

[sweeTang21]

So, by trace elements being "added", I assume you're testing for and have are certain that there are adequate levels of calcium, strontium, magnesium, alkalinity, cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, vanadium, boron, manganese, and more?

All I can say is you must have a small selection of very hardy livestock in relatively poor health, well acclimated to sub-par water conditions. The benefits of partial water changes are many and easily found online, so I can only assume you even bothered to post and ask in order to "brag" about your "7 months with no water change" system. I feel for your animals. Badly.

I recommend large weekly partial water changes, but I only consult to universities and zoos that maintain thousands of gallons of marine systems, so what do I know?

i dont want to get in the middle of anything, but that may have been a bit over the top. lets try and keep the flaming to a min.

now for the water changes. I would start them just for the health of your livestock. I do have to say, 7 months without water changes is possible but its not ideal lol. ive seen people do this, and then battle hair algae, or red cyano or something along those lines. Many qualitys of water that we do not test for do not get replaced with the addition of chemicles and what not, so its only best advised to keep up on the water changes. if you make your saltwater, then water changes will help on keeping up with the "strength" of your saltwater and make it a bit more pure.

for your first water change, id start small and work your way up, even though your tests show that evertyhing is good, id have reason to believe there "may" be something fishy going on here, no pun intended

 

[BIGgourami]

So, by trace elements being "added", I assume you're testing for and have are certain that there are adequate levels of calcium, strontium, magnesium, alkalinity, cobalt, nickel, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, vanadium, boron, manganese, and more?

that's about all i agree with... the salt mix would have more micro nutrients than the additives would

the companies can only attain and implement so much stuff for their product, but marine salt is kind of the "real deal"



another thing about water changes is it gives you an excuse to clean out stuff you'd normally forget otherwise... take apart filters, stir gravel, fan dead spots, touh up salt creep, all the stuff you normally only do when you REALLY need to... and being proactive is always beter than reactive

 

[Ricko]

Thankyou Sweetang and BigG,,,at least you guys didn't rip me apart lol.

The reason i ask is a bloke i know changes 95% of his water when the nitrate hits 10ppm. This happens after a few years, so massive water change after a few years and he has one of the best reef tanks i've seen.
Thats why i was asking,,,,thought maybe the water change in most cases was more a nitrate thing than anything else???

 

[sweeTang21]

well it does have a lot to do with nitrate, but the other chemicles within the salt are important, otherwise they wouldnt be there. Do you keep any corals in your system?? i think not but im not sure. If you dont have corals, sometimes you can get away with less water changes because most fish dont need the same nutrients as corals, but i still wouldnt use that as an excuss for no water changes lol. like i said, when you start water changes, start small and work your way up to your 20-30% every two weeks and this should get your tank looking nice, if it isnt already, and you may even see an increase of fish activity.

also last thing, be careful with your sand bed. its been so long since you've done anything, stirring the sand bed a lot can release a ton of bad stuff into the water. as the bacteria in the sand break down nitrate, ammonia nitrtie etc... it creates a gas, and a massive release of this stuff into your water column could spell disaster. Ive seen it happen many times, and it happened to me when i was moving to a different appartment.