Hi. I have heard that is you balance your tank right right that it is possible to almost never have to do a water change. The only problem I have with mine is the acidity get's pretty high. Has anyone found or know if it is possible to somehow have the perfect little ecosystem in your tank so that water changes are not necessary?
Never do a water change? Possible?
- Thread starter Calvin Klein
- Start date
..get a 100+ gallon tank.
LOTS of plants, hi tech plants and good strong light...and about 5 male guppies ^_^...
maybe a few more fish non reproducing fish but not many...than you might be able to.
LOTS of plants, hi tech plants and good strong light...and about 5 male guppies ^_^...
maybe a few more fish non reproducing fish but not many...than you might be able to.
pphh...blah!!!! ill get them my cam is being dumb
if you planted it soooo thick you couldn't see the bottom!! maybe?
if you planted it soooo thick you couldn't see the bottom!! maybe?
Ok serious answer. Even in the natural ecosystem, water change is still required. They comes in the form of floods, rain.... etc. Hobbyist have invented the drip system to replicate rain, whereby clean water is pump into the tank and carries all the waste into the drain. So in a way you are not doing any water change with buckets or pythons. The water just changes itself.
^^ That
If you add a lot of plants, debris will form on the water and eventually the plants may not be able to handle it all decomposing.
Also, if you just top off your water from evap, your hardness can get out of control. Because evaporation is inevitable.
If you add a lot of plants, debris will form on the water and eventually the plants may not be able to handle it all decomposing.
Also, if you just top off your water from evap, your hardness can get out of control. Because evaporation is inevitable.
The guys I've seen really give this concept a try are people who live in places where water available to them is scarce--Australia comes to mind. I've seen several threads where people have been running tanks down there for a long time without any water changes. I believe they use a lot of plants growing above the surface of the water, with the roots in the tank water. Search for some threads and some should come up.
In reality it is not possible. Some people have done as good as they could, and it worked out well enough for years even, but in the end it doesn't work.
Any system has nutrients in and nutrients out. Our tanks require nutrients in and therefore require nutrients out.
There are many hurdles that would be required to achieve this, we can handle some of them at best, but long term we can't get around all of them.
Even with lots of plants you can only take care of nitrate, not all of the other things that build up and lower water quality (dissolved organic compounds, growth inhibiting hormones, etc.).
Eventually something is going to catch with you (or the fish really) and it won't work.
Any system has nutrients in and nutrients out. Our tanks require nutrients in and therefore require nutrients out.
There are many hurdles that would be required to achieve this, we can handle some of them at best, but long term we can't get around all of them.
Even with lots of plants you can only take care of nitrate, not all of the other things that build up and lower water quality (dissolved organic compounds, growth inhibiting hormones, etc.).
Eventually something is going to catch with you (or the fish really) and it won't work.