[RadioPlay]

Say I was wondering if there are any of you out there who do little or no water changes. If so what supplements do you add to make up for trace elements? Thanks!

[ODDBALL361]

You have to do water changes there is no way around it.

[smidoid]

Never say never!

Everyone should follow the water change ritual - it gets rid of the nasties that your skimmer & bacteria are missing.

I do know a guy who swears he doesn't do water changes (because he lost fish when he did) but he also has other problems. I would donate a kidney just to go back and see what he's up to right now.

I'm trying to work out if it's possible to recycle our mature water using a bacteria supply and some supplements, but I doubt you could get away with never doing water changes. A daily ritual is better if you can get into the habit. Make some salty water up a the right SG and change a small amount daily - a seventh or what you need to do each week or a fourteenth of what you would do every two weeks. On smaller systems that's only a couple of small jugs and that might well be easier than swapping out a few gallons at a time.

If you have an overflow fitted to the system that vents to the drains, you don't even have to take water out! Just keep the level up to the overflow and add sufficient to overflow the old water out. Not a perfect solution, but it works and it's less hassle.

[RadioPlay]

Well I don't have a very aggressive reef but I have been up and running for about 3yrs. The last 2 of the 3yrs I have not done any water changes and the tank is doing great.

Like I said though I don't have a very aggressive reef: a 60G running 4X65wPCs housing some LPS, softies, a few fish and cleanup crew. Other specs: LR, DSB, HOT skimmer, 4PwH, 1 seaswirl and dose with B-Ionic.

I had one major crash in the beginning and that was due to forgetting to switch on the CenAir when I left for a weekend and temps sky rocketed to 95 in the tank. Only thing that survived was my tang.

Other than that mishap when I first started out, corals seem healthy, no major algae outbreaks(with the exception of diatoms when my RO needs new filters). When I used to test once a month everything was pretty stable. All I ever add for water is RO for topoff every other day. Although this is a prime example of building a reef very slowly. I only add a few items of livestock a year. Family and other hobbies keep me from pouring too much into my tank.

I was just curious if there were some trace elements that I should be adding, not necessarily that I was needing to add anything.

[optical]

hey radio,
as far as trace elements go, i just use strontium, molybdenum, iodine, and calcium. these are the basic trace elements that corals need. most reef salts will carry any other minute trace elements. i do less water changes now and my tank is doing great. 90 gal with a 30 gal sump and i only do 10 gal a month. i think the evaporation rate is high enough that the top off is enough to replentish with good clean water and keep it stable. my SG usually only fluctuates between 1.022 to 1.024 at the most. i know a guy with a fowlr tank and he hasnt done a water change in 4 years, only tops it.
he's got a slight cyano problem but thats it!

[RadioPlay]

Thanks optical! Is there a big difference after you add strontium and molybdenum? I've heard it's good for coralline but I'm definitely not having a problem growing that algae. I would say I have more of a problem keeping up with scrapping coralline off of my glass, that stuff grows like mad.

[optical]

i think the coralline would grow more rapidly with higher levels of calcium than anything else. whats your calcium reading @?
im not sure if the addition of these elements make a big difference because i've always added it since the begining of my tank. i do know that my lps corals have doubled in size since i added them in november thru january! especially the torch coral! its slightly smaller than a nerf football when totally expanded! it was baseball size when i purchased it! almost time to frag it, but im afraid to do it. i purchased a nice rock in october with 5 tiny orange buttons on it, now theres about 40 of em! one little anemone just divided, and ive noticed tiny starfish getting bigger and growing in numbers along with snails and other tiny inverts. i think theres a difference. but i guess im not really sure...for all i know the lfs could be selling me water in the labeled bottles! come to think of it, they both have almost no odor to it!
hmmmmm....

[greenbean36191]

Lots of people with large tanks don't do water changes. My tank is pretty small, but I generally don't do them regularly either, though I don't necessarily recommend it.

In the case of most "trace elements" there is no demonstrated need for them, so I'm not overly worried about adding them to the tank. Most are already at concentrations much higher than NSW and are added in food as well as through water changes, so there really isn't a need to replace them.

More than for replenishing trace elements, WCs are important for removing ions such as chlorine that accumulate over time through the addition of supplements.

[optical]

i dont test for those elements so i have absolutely no idea of how much are in the water. could be super high amounts for all i know, but none the less the corals seem to be "happy" with the quality of the water. seems like they cant really overdose with iodine and strontium...or can they?

[greenbean36191]

Very easily. Both are toxic and there isn't any demonstrated need for either at levels above NSW.

[Ninong]

Elevated levels of strontium retard coral skeletal growth by interfering with the deposition of calcium. Chemically, strontium and calcium are closely related and too much strontium will cause problems for corals just as it causes problems for humans. Too much strontium in your blood leads to deformed bones.

There is no reason to maintain strontium above 8-9 ppm (NSW levels). I have no idea what the strontium concentration is in my tank because I don't test for it. None of the strontium tests are accurate. There is no scientific proof, that I know of, that strontium is required for anything in our tanks. It's just there. And too much of it is bad for corals and for us. This is true of most of the trace elements. In fact, it's true of all of the trace elements if we're talking above elevated levels. The same thing applies to humans. We know that some trace metals are required in very small quantities for good health but we also know that excess amounts of any of them can be deadly.

Iodine is a good antiseptic. That's because it's quite toxic. There is no reason to maintain iodine above 0.06 ppm (NSW levels) in our tanks. For one thing, excess iodine can cause premature molting in crustaceans. Shrimp, for instance, rid themselves of the toxic iodine by depositing it in their exoskeletons and then molting.

Virtually all of the foods we feed contain iodine. Some foods contain an awful lot of iodine. I have never added iodine to my tank. I test for iodine every few months and I have never tested below NSW levels.

In fact, Dr. Ron Shimek tested the tankwater of 23 reef tanks and every one of them tested above NSW levels for iodine even though some of those reefkeepers had never dosed iodine.

One hobbyist whose tanks are fairly well known, since he has been keeping reef aquaria for about 20 years now, is Wayne Shang. His current 718-gal reef tank and his previous 300-gal reef tank are both pictured in several different books, plus his latest book of his own and his DVD. He has never added iodine to any of his tanks! Ever! And his tanks have spectacular SPS growth.

[smidoid]

You can overdose on oxygen! Practically anything has a toxic level - it's all about how much.

[sihaya]

I only do water changes like once every 2 months... the only thing I add to my tank is calcium hydroxide and if things get out of wack I add calcium chloride and/or baking soda. The tank is a year old now and I don't have any problems... corals are all doing great (or so it seems).