Anyone out here never do water changes?

[BiGGiePauls33]

sulfate is the third highest weight concentration in in seawater, so ICP test of sulfur result is meaningless.

I respect your knowledge, just trying to see what compounds would be affected by this.

 

[chadfish]

Curious as to the time frame. Also, if I read that two part method correctly, in which I believe it did, it states that using the original recipe for 2 part, then sulfate may build up over time, but no real concrete evidence that it absolutely does.
I have a year of results from ATI ICP and can say that sulfur has actually dropped minimally since starting no water changes. The only thing that has really increased at all is NO3 as my fish are fat like me, lol.

It’s at the bottom of this article.
The time frame is one year and he calculates the concentration going from 2700ppm to 4000ppm in one year.
He also has an article on water changes where he concludes that they help maintain balances of chemicals over time. It’s all theoretical, but good to be aware of.

 

[Chris A.]

That’s also accounting for no skimmate extraction. If you empty your skimmer cup once a week you will never increase your salinity.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Isn't this article about dosing 2 part and the accumulation of using said 2 part recipes? I'm definitely not as smart as some here but do enjoy debating as a way for understanding. Wonder if this is what he case for those of us that run calcium reactors?

 

[dz6t]

ICP-OES has its limitations, for example, copper at the natural sea level is below ICP-OES’s detection limit. If any copper was reported, it will raise a red flag for hobbyist to take action. Many light spectrum generated by the large mix of elements in sea water are overlapping, the data generated is not accurate enough to guide dosing for individual elements. It gives a ball park value (well some may be several hundred miles away from the ball park). It is useful for spotting anomaly. Since the ball park value, Triton provides dosing for a group of elements instead of individual elements.

Using hobby grade ICP-OES tests to guide individual dosing of individual elements is a bit far fetched, like the distance from earth to mars.

 

[dz6t]

For two part dosing, if you are not using Epson salt to add magnesium, there is no worry about sulfate increase.
These days, all major salt brands are loaded with magnesium, such as Reefcrystals, Coral pro etc, the need for dosing magnesium is reduced.

 

[dz6t]

The only benefit of calcium reactor IMO, is that it is easy to maintain for large systems. For example, if I choose to dosing two part on just one of my sps system, it will require 1800 mL each of Calcium and Alk solutions per day. So a gallon jug of two part only last me about 2 days. But I only need to add calcium reactor media once every two months.

 

[chadfish]

This is actually topical.. I couldn’t help but to see the parallel between water changes and this recent science news:
Regular blood donations can help remove toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from our bodies

 

[Joker]

I technically do water changes but not really in the sense of weekly water changes. I only add water I take out when I sell a coral other than that I haven't done a full water change sense I went to my 75g. If I do weekly water changes I will bottom out my nutrients. I can't get nitrate to show up on any hobby grade test kits and I barely have phosphate at 0.04. I feed very heavily and have lots of fish as well. But where I have tons of acros and lps, a over sized skimmer, and my refuge this is probably why I can't get readings. I do dose ab+ every 3 days as well.

 

[steevareno]

I haven't done any on my 1 1/2 old tank but the growth on most of my sps is not good admittedly. I do add trace elements weekly for color.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Sam Parker from Australia has just received an order of reef Moonshiners, mok-yi from inappropriate reefers runs this method hod along with Deven from reef dudes and many others as well. It's a pretty popular method in Texas. Check out Ocean Life Aquariums, their whole operation runs this way. https://instagram.com/oceanlife_aquariums?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

 

[robbous]

Not to confuse someone on the no water changes vs water changes, Reef Moonshiners from what I understand is more about coloration with elevated trace elements. Although it is recommended to not do water changes, Andre Mueller that happens to be the brains behind Moonshiners' states that you can do water changes if you like. @robbous has been on this method for I believe what I've read for about 6 years. Mike Paletta (sp?) Also runs this method but does do some amount of water changes. There's quite a few big named people in the industry that run this.

Yes i’ve been running the moonshiners method for about five years now and have not done a water change in at least four years.

 

[dz6t]

When ICP testing is not accurate enough, the back yard liquor method is out of the window, just basic science. Unfortunately ICP is not at the accuracy level they want you to believe.
There are two examples, when ICP just became popular, a famous reefer sent an seawater standard for ICP without telling them so, the results came back like falling flat on the ground with a bloody nose. Example numbers 2. fast forward to several weeks ago, see the video below, at 22:50, basically Tidal Garden mislabeled two vials with the same water, test results came back different enough…

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