No Water Changes

For the past 3-4 years I have done 40% water changes weekly using Salinity Salt. As long as I get Salinity and temp correct, the rest of the parems are so close, even from different buckets. I mix the water at least 24 hours in advance to well aerate.

At this point, I have cut down to feeding to 3 times a day, so I am now doing 40% water changes every 10-12 days....

I have never had an issue from a water change yet....and only very positive results!
 
Ralph ATL;1013775 wrote: For the past 3-4 years I have done 40% water changes weekly using Salinity Salt. As long as I get Salinity and temp correct, the rest of the parems are so close, even from different buckets. I mix the water at least 24 hours in advance to well aerate.



At this point, I have cut down to feeding to 3 times a day, so I am now doing 40% water changes every 10-12 days....



I have never had an issue from a water change yet....and only very positive results!



If I followed that method, It would be 200 gal every 10 days. That's $60 of salt, 30 X a year. I know I spend more than &1,800 a year on my tank, but I could not spend that on salt.

This is why I'm interested in other methods.



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Ralph ATL;1013775 wrote: For the past 3-4 years I have done 40% water changes weekly using Salinity Salt. As long as I get Salinity and temp correct, the rest of the parems are so close, even from different buckets. I mix the water at least 24 hours in advance to well aerate.

At this point, I have cut down to feeding to 3 times a day, so I am now doing 40% water changes every 10-12 days....

I have never had an issue from a water change yet....and only very positive results!

40% weekly seems a bit excessive?
 
MarquiseO;1013707 wrote: Yes, sometimes it becomes so effective at removing those two and it becomes a pain. Yes, you can cut back but your bacteria pop will still continue to grow until eventually they die off due to starvation which sometimes doesn't happen right away. While that is going on, your corals are paling out due to not enough nutrients so its just easier to add nutrients. That's why I do it.

I haven't posted a recent display pic but I will soon. I haven't updated here as much as my others.

Nope, my top-off is pretty consistent. I check the SG every now and then when I do maintenance on my tank and it is always spot on at 1.026 which I calibrate to make sure its correct each time.

Keep in mind that this can be tedious for some if you have a busy schedule but it fits my schedule at night time. I do all the maintenance at night before preparing for bed when I do, do it.



Yes, all those can be bad but I can catch bad chemicals before lots of it is being dosed into the system from when I swap out bottles of supplements. If I dosed 1ml instead of 100mL, all I had to do was look at my dosers UI and see how much was dosed and click "manual dose" to add the other 99ml. Not being a "smart ***" but it is simple as that. I perform maintenance on my equipment same as anyone who does do WCs to prevent failures.


Define Quality salt mix. Is it the proper portions of each element in the mix? Or is that it worked for you so its defined as quality? Does it apply to pricing? IO for example, is cheap, some say its quality but other say its not because it doesn't mix well and occasionally a bad batch is sent out. It, also, takes more of it just to reach the desired SG of 1.026. Like I said cheap doesn't mean, bound to fail. In that case, don't use IO salt. Also, fluctuations happen more with WC than with dosing. I have direct control of the amount of elements going my system while you have varying with every WC and salt mix. Then you have to adjust those parameters either too high or too low with supplements just to get where you want to be. It's not about cost saving tbh, it's about not doing something that is necessary; taking control of your system. The Triton Method, DSR, and Zeovit(uses WC) is all about stripping your tank water down and putting everything back at the amount you would like and continuing based on that. For someone new into this hobby, yes, you can teach them about WC until they catch on to dosing and knowing their tank. Ultimately, it ends with their desire of how their system should be taken care of.




I see you were a bit confused on this, so I will clarify for you. I never said having clear water was a direct issue but I can tell you how it can be in relation to bleaching.

For example, Jack does a WC but has not used carbon or any water clarity products because he knows that his WC will correct the clarity and this is done every 2 weeks. His tank has now become clearer and now more of his LED is penetrating through the water. His LPS were used to an equivalent of 40% output but now that his water has cleared and at a sudden rate, his blasto has now bleached or burned due to the sudden increase of output coming through.

I can't tell if you're just not comprehending that you're throwing up invalid straw man arguments or you're just brilliantly trolling...

Your light "example": yes, that's how light transmission works. No, that's not a probable scenario in reality. Jack must have really gnarly water quality if you're concerned about a wc increasing the water clarity that much!

Your dosing response: I see you completely missed the point. I was showing you how silly it is to use a 10% water change schedule as your basis. Just as it's silly to use a 1 ml dose. Your response is correct...yes, all you need to do is dose the correct amount...or change the correct amount of water. It's the same process. However, contrary to what you believe, you can't do too large of a water change. You can, however, dose too much.

Define quality salt mix: price, annecdotal evidence, etc. doesn't come into consideration with the term "quality", but you generally do have to pay for that quality. IO is not a quality mix. It's a budget mix. To get the better salts, you will have to pay more than IO pricing.

As with everything else, there's a product that becomes the "gold standard". Tropic Marin Pro is exactly that in the consumer market. Salinity was based off of TMP. There may be others, but I'm not familiar with all of the different salts anymore. On the commercial side, there are other mixes available. The key being the grade of elements that are mixed into the salt.

You should have that same thing on the dosing end, with some products being more pure or less watered down than others.

MarquiseO;1013707 wrote: ...It's not about cost saving tbh, it's about not doing something that is necessary; taking control of your system. The Triton Method, DSR, and Zeovit(uses WC) is all about stripping your tank water down and putting everything back at the amount you would like and continuing based on that...

THIS gives a much better picture than anything else. I can appreciate the thought behind that as it's something more/better than simply trying to save a few bucks.
 
Just tested my new water from a new salt bucket.

3.6 dkh

Um... Now what?
Glad I dodged a crash here but am I just supposed to add alk to the rest of this bucket
 
Personally, as a large system owner, I find these "Controversial" methods interesting. I think, however, if I was to pursue this style of reefing, I would prefer to learn to mix my own product rather then purchase supplements from other companies.

For now, I am planning one doing water changes, but I am also planning on learning more about water chemistry and as time goes on experiment with a these methods.

I know there are a number of people that dose with labeled product, but it seems like purchasing raw materials and developing your own, much cheaper method, would provide a lot of intellectual enjoyment for years to come.
 
If the past 3+ years at an aquarium maintenance company has taught me anything is that water changes are BY FAR the most effective way to keeping a beautiful healthy tank. We service over 900 individual tanks and this has been proven time again and time again in almost any situation. We have tried pretty much everything there is try and every product on the market and it always comes back to water changes... and believe me if there was a more effective method... and cheaper to us, we would ALL OVER IT!!!

I'm 100% sure this method and other methods can be made to work. Maybe even cheaper then a good water change routine... but in my opinion I feel like it's too much hassle for what it's worth. And I have to agree that water is the most consistent and guaranteed thing for your tank.
 
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