no water changes ????

Hi ,

I have just read a thread regarding water changes . A number of people stated they do not complete water changes . "they dose" instead .

Can you explain what they dose with , how this works ,Is it expensive and most of all , what's best for the fish !!!

Many thanks

 

I do water changes 25% every 2 weeks, my corals thrive, this is done to replenish lost minerals etc, they look much much better then if i do it every month, they know, they will let you know...

 

I am down to once monthly, 20% water changes. I dose regularly with Ca, Mg and Bicarb to keep the numbers up to par.

 

I have my NO3 levels controlled in my 20G tank and do a monthly 25% water change. Many people say they don't do as many water changes after they get a Denitrator into their system (see pharmrjohn's post above). I would dose the absorbed elements though. I use Kent "Essential Elements", Mg, Ca, Str/Maly, then check my dkH and make sure pH is ok.

 

I was curious whether you guys also dosed trace elements, or don't you worry about that?

 

I'm hoping for a no water change setup on my new tank, just topping off, I plan on dosing trace elements, mg and phyto, that is it hopefully as I have a ca reactor for ca/alk and a po4 reactor running 24/7 as well

 

On my old system I used to pwc once every 4 months or so. On the 180 I have now it's on average about 5-6 weeks between 12-15G water changes. Sometimes a little more sometimes a little less.I only do them more often now because I have streamlined the process and it only takes about 5 minutes, with no heavy lifting. The old way sucked arse!

I don't dose anything but magnesium(a couple of random splashes here and there), but i do run a dual chamber CA reactor DIY plumbed into my skimmer intake to handle the CA needs and PH drop caused by the reactor.

Like I said on the other post, the only tests I do are PH(to tune the reactor, I also keep the test as a backup for my aquadyne) and a CA(for the reactor as well).


There is a lot to be said for water volume as to how often you should be pwc'ing.