Doesnt Believe in Water Changes PHOTOS!!

I don't see how he can do absolutely no water changes. I mean I don't do as many water changes as others (once a month), but I still do them. Imo the corals are not showing their true colors, could be the photos of course.

My main thing is where is this waste going? does he have any way of exporting that waste? I mean if you pee in a bucket, that waste still stays there unless you take it out; that is what is happening to the waste in his tank. when you are trying to have an ecosystem going in a closed box like we are, you have to rely on manually doing things the ocean would naturally do for these animals. I wouldn't do what he is doing, but to each his own I guess.

 

how can you say out of 2 pictures of the tang that it looks anorexic? Sorry but I am going to call BS on that because the picture quality plus the fact that it isnt a good picture of the fish makes me believe that you cannot accurately state that. If you saw my tang, you would definitely say it looks anorexic and it eats all the time..I swear I can't get him fat lol.

I do agree he may be get away with it though with all the money and time put into it, why not spend a little extra time to take care of it.

 

If you've ever seen a Yellow tang in the wild, they are fat and almost round. Unfortunately a lot of tangs in captivity are quite anorexic, they are grazers and need to eat almost 24x7, most people don't provide close to this amount of nourishment. Others have parasites etc... Occasionally people have fat ones, but it is unfortunately uncommon.

Anyways though, there is a front on photo and it is clearly not round....



This is what a yellow tang profile should look like (note: image taken from http://www.marzeion.com/system/files/images/yellow_tangs.jpg):




Sorry, no way that fish is getting enough nutrition....

 

I kept my tank for months at a time without water changes with no problem. I dont know why some of you seem to think it doesnt work. I dosed 2 part and had a skimmerless system with chaeto to absorb nutrients.

With that setup, I had a beautiful, thriving tank full of SPS. For those who say it looks browned out, be aware that in the wild SPS is all brown, and that it takes time to adjust. On top of that, the valadia is commonly found in that brown/purple combo.

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Sometimes, but more due to coral selection and tricked out lighting. For example, in this video, these are natural corals in the ocean and are quite bright. They are selected to be marticultured for their brightness. They may be brighter in our systems, for reasons such as slightly higher nutrients and light spectrums not found in the ocean. All corals have a natural color though, under a given spectrum. Ones that are brown, that are not naturally brown under that lighting is not a thriving coral. Ones that are truly brown typically are not selected for sale in the aquarium trade.

Wild Pacific "Fragile Paradise" 2009 Coral Gardening in Fiji - YouTube

I agree 100% with fishyfinder though. You can sometimes get good with less maintenance, but you can get better with more.

 

As many have pointed out you can get away with it(depending on the setup), but the colors and the growth rate of corals won't be nearly as good as someone that does even small water changes.

 

He has a sump underneith, with a protein skimmer.

 

FWIW SPS is not all brown in the wild.

 

Water changes are not necessary, but you do have to properly clean the water with other methods. Water changes are just a easy band aid for poor maintenance if you are a beginning reefer. If you know what you are doing and have proper sytem, they are not needed.

Also, I did nt test "that" much. But two different things... I knew my nitrates were low, didn't bother with PH, no need to bother with ammonia and nitrites... but you HAVE to test for Alk/Ca and Mg in a tank that has a load that uses it... and IF you are not testing and not supplement ALL of them you HAVE to do lots of water changes just to give enough. Of course supplementation is then all you need to do instead of 20-30% WCs weekly.

So many time in this hobby people think that just because they run a certain way and nothing dies then it works good. Far from it. Why even bother with a tank if you are not going to try and run it in a an ideal way. what "ideal" is is certainly debatable, but running a system with bare minimum and calling it good is not a good way to run things. I would say your friend is getting away with bare minimum and just keeping things alive. Keeping things thriving is a different story.

 

Powerman short term I agree. Long term I don't. There is really no other way to remove purely hydrophilic contaminants, effectively, without at least an occasional water change. That doesn't mean you need to do lots of small water-changes, however smaller water changes more often creates less less perturbation.

Also, after a decade of experimenting, I'd say there is no easier way to make corals look more perky and grow fast than regular waterchanges.

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