No Water Changes - FarmerTy Reefing Method

[retiredsailor]

I'm sure someone will default to old tank syndrome and the accumulation of detritus in the sandbed. To me, that's like an old wives tale... or should I say an old sailors story.

I just think that's just an old veteran who becomes a little too comfortable in the stability of his system and let's a parameter drift slowly, causing a crash.

I do not doubt though the possibility of nutrient loading in a system letting out a metaphoric grenade and tanking the system. I just believe it to be a small likelihood in our reef tanks.

Don't try to put words in my mouth!

 

[hart24601]

With GFO, organic carbon dosing (biopellets), calcium and alk supplementation (reactor) and activated carbon I don't see why a system couldn't go a long time without water changes. Seems like many trace elements come from feeding the fish. I use an automatic water change system personally, but clearly your tank is doing well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

With GFO, organic carbon dosing (biopellets), calcium and alk supplementation (reactor) and activated carbon I don't see why a system couldn't go a long time without water changes. Seems like many trace elements come from feeding the fish. I use an automatic water change system personally, but clearly your tank is doing well.

My concern, and the reason I asked about calcium and magnesium, is that the amount of those used in the tank may not match the ratio present in the media used, so they may be slowly rising or falling.

For example, I use only limewater for calcium and alkalinity, and that adds a little bit too much calcium relative to alkalinity (It adds the equivalent of pure calcium carbonate, which corals do not deposit, but rather their skeletons have strontium and magnesium in place of some of the calcium). I see calcium rising in my system even with water changes. Without them I think it would become a problem in 3 years.

So picking a media that fits the demand in the tank is important for Farmer Ty.

 

[FarmerTy]

My concern, and the reason I asked about calcium and magnesium, is that the amount of those used in the tank may not match the ratio present in the media used, so they may be slowly rising or falling.

For example, I use only limewater for calcium and alkalinity, and that adds a little bit too much calcium relative to alkalinity (It adds the equivalent of pure calcium carbonate, which corals do not deposit, but rather their skeletons have strontium and magnesium in place of some of the calcium). I see calcium rising in my system even with water changes. Without them I think it would become a problem in 3 years.

So picking a media that fits the demand in the tank is important for Farmer Ty.

Great point Randy! Oddly, my Mg rose in my old tank slowly over the 3 years and I'd occasionally use a little 2-part to bring my Ca levels back up.

The new tank is only 1.5 years old right now and it hasn't been steady enough for me to notice trends yet. I'll document the different uptake levels of the tank as it goes along. My guess is my Mg keeps on creeping up like my old tank.

 

[VirusAcro]

How do you keep your sands so clean and white without water changes for over a yr and plus...???The reason i ask because if i go without water changes for 3wks i get detritus everywhere...now i wanted to learn a few tricks from you to keeps my sands as white as your...lol

 

[Triggreef]

I assume you set the reactor to maintain alkalinity. Have you tracked what has happened to calcium and magnesium in this time?

I assume not much if monitored and dosed. Just for haha's I tested my FOWLR going on 3 yrs with no water changes, no dosing, and only topping off. Alk had dropped to 6 dkh and Ca somehow built up to 650 ppm... Thought that was odd. Never tested parameters on that tank prior to a couple weeks ago as I'm going to attempt to sustain coral in it again now.

 

[Triggreef]

How do you keep your sands so clean and white without water changes for over a yr and plus...???The reason i ask because if i go without water changes for 3wks i get detritus everywhere...now i wanted to learn a few tricks from you to keeps my sands as white as your...lol

This is funny because I never had an issue as long as my tank was set up, I had a diamond goby that siphoned every square inch of that sand. Lost him just a couple weeks ago when I started doing water changes ironically and now I'm getting the brown diatom like stuff all over the sandbed.

 

[FarmerTy]

This is awesome to see a tank like this. I will go months without water changes, and as long as I can keep phosphates and nitrates in check, my SPS seem to do great. I break down and do water changes because I get too scared hahah

Don't be scared! All the cool kids are doing it!

Just going to go out on a limb here and say you don't have to have a skimmer either.

Sadly, since I run biopellets to address nitrates in the tank, I need to run a skimmer to export the bacteria sloughed off the pellets.

Here's some pictures yesterday of my auto neck cleaner for my skimmer. I left it alone for 6 months and the inside diameter of the neck was nice and clean and the rest was covered in crud as you can see.

Don't try to put words in my mouth!

At first I wasn't sure what you were referencing but now I got it... undeveloped funny bone here from being dropped as a baby. [emoji14]

How do you keep your sands so clean and white without water changes for over a yr and plus...???The reason i ask because if i go without water changes for 3wks i get detritus everywhere...now i wanted to learn a few tricks from you to keeps my sands as white as your...lol

The video might be playing tricks on the sand. Don't get me wrong, it's white. I just don't want to give the impression that it's gleaming... blind you white. I do have a ton of flow and random/alternating flow patterns that makes sure things don't settle too much in the DT.

 

[FarmerTy]

Nobody else running a SPS tank with no water changes? Surely I'm not the only one.

 

[FarmerTy]

"It sounds like the triton method.
constant renewal of trace elements and salt"

Except I'm not trying to sell you anything. [emoji6]

 

[Midrats]

Is it sad that I get excited when I see thick nasty sludge?

 

[FarmerTy]

Is it sad that I get excited when I see thick nasty sludge?

The smell would have quelled your excitement very quickly. That was a good 6 months of buildup on my autoneck cleaner. Worth every penny!

The inside of the skimmer chamber was nice and clean the whole time.

 

[Midrats]

Nice, it's like your skimmer has a bidet.

 

[leptang]

I'm no chemist but I have heard of other types of elements that can build up over time in a closed system. The kind of elements that are not tested by reefers or even test kits available to test the element buildup, and may impact health of your animals. I myself have gone for a couple months without a WC but the unknown elements scares me into doing a WC.

 

[FarmerTy]

I'm no chemist but I have heard of other types of elements that can build up over time in a closed system. The kind of elements that are not tested by reefers or even test kits available to test the element buildup, and may impact health of your animals. I myself have gone for a couple months without a WC but the unknown elements scares me into doing a WC.

Well, I can tell you nothing builds up lethal enough for 3 years if you run a similar style system as mine. Haha. After that, there's no guarantees!

I am at 1.5 years with my current tank so I'll let you know how it goes in another 1.6 years when I beat my old record of 3 years.

 

[Triggreef]

Well, I can tell you nothing builds up lethal enough for 3 years if you run a similar style system as mine. Haha. After that, there's no guarantees!

I am at 1.5 years with my current tank so I'll let you know how it goes in another 1.6 years when I beat my old record of 3 years.

A lot of variables there. I'm no proponent of water changes and very seldom do them as well. But different people have different things in their source water which may or may not be pulled out by ro/di or other means. I fight with zinc and copper in my well water so every now and then I run the triton detox which does work well but there could very well be things even the triton test doesn't pick up on. Who knows? Not me. But I don't think these minuscule little 10%, 20%, or even 30% water changes are really going to keep up with removing whatever might build up over time either. Especially when you add in ATO water etc...

 

[hyperionfall]

I am running a no water change tank. I have a large algae scrubber, a ball of chaeto, I intermittently skim I always use RODI for topoff. As far as trace elements you can go with testing services like triton (i use this) or aqua medic. Triton provides trace elements i don't think aqua medic does though. As far as detritus build up a diamond goby or two depending on tank size some digging stars and a tiger tail will take care of that. Just started some sps a few months ago and they are doing awesome. I even have a rescue acro from a LFS customer, the LFS recomended me to them, that is coming back. There are many many tanks out there with no water changes but you must stay up on the trace elements over long periods of time. A good diverse cleanup crew is a must as well. I have fat fish.

 

[RafaelsReef]

Nice tank. Wish I could grow some SPS

 

[leptang]

Well, I can tell you nothing builds up lethal enough for 3 years if you run a similar style system as mine. Haha. After that, there's no guarantees!

I am at 1.5 years with my current tank so I'll let you know how it goes in another 1.6 years when I beat my old record of 3 years.

I'll be following this tread

 

[FarmerTy]

I should note that I am only able to achieve no water changes because I employ other strategies to negate the need for them, mainly for nutrient removal and supplementing the foundation elements and some trace elements.

I use biopellets to remove nitrates and GFO to remove phosphates. I use my CaRX to replenish Ca, alk, Mg, and to some degree, trace elements. I also dose aminos 2x/week and feed the fish like it's a Vegas buffet. [emoji4]