Sooooooo my water chemistry is fine....all fish and corals doing well...nothing under stress....and yet i keep hearing do those weekly water changes...something to do with reintroducing more minerals in that fresh water.....my crushed coral im sure has plenty of minerals as God put them in there.....seems as though the microrganisms are doing there jobs....the carbon is doing its job.....so why are we changing our water?
Dont make me get out my 1960 gilbert chemistry set bust out the microscope and analyze this stuff.....just give it to me straight.....or is this just something to sell more salt and get me into the lfs regularly? lol
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"he who made kittens made snakes in the grass" ian anderson
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07-16-2011, 01:06 PMPost #1: rulost2001Water Jive Talking ?
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07-16-2011, 01:10 PMPost #2: larryandlaura
To remove any ammonia nitrite or nitrates. Plus add new calcium and other minerals. Water changes are good.
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07-16-2011, 01:47 PMPost #3: MizTanks
I do agree with Larry that water changes are good. However :) There are some of us (me) who have chosen to slow down on them for several reasons. My biggest reason is, I've discovered dosing! By dosing 2 part I'm able to keep a better handle on my ca/kh levels. So they are always there when my corals need them. As far as trace elements, well I dose those too :) just not every day. 1x bi-weekly. To be honest, ever since I stopped the weekly 20% water changes my corals (zoa's especially) have flourished. I have a small system, 26g and I do believe that my weekly water changes were shocking everything. To much of a good thing :) I am now enjoying my tank a lot more :) It's been like 6-7 weeks since my last wc and my tank's never looked better.
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07-16-2011, 03:39 PMPost #4: rulost2001hey larry.....dont get me wrong....im new at this thing...but i need to prod a little to get to the bottom of this.Quote:
Originally Posted by larryandlaura
if i check my nitrate level my nitrite level and my ammonia level and they are really really low....like the lowest color on the charts 0ppm or so.....then there is no presence of this stuff in my water.....i believe....correct me if im wrong....anybody? and also if my gravel is crushed coral....which is probably calcium rich....why would i need more calcium......and its just a guess but im thinking theres almost no calcium in tap water????? soooo im thinking maybe some other minerals in the tap water??? idk my heart says water changes who really wants to be swimming in pee water.....but is it really? with all those micros in there and filtrtion? my head says wait a minute does this diluting the water chemistry really make sense. Does the trop do water changes or are all there critters doing all the work? -
07-16-2011, 05:14 PMPost #5: AZDesertRat
You would have to lower your tanks pH down in to the low 6 range to receive any benefits from the calcium in the crushed coral, thats how a calcium reactor works. Calcium will not go into solution at the 8 range we keep our tanks at.
I hope you are using RO/DI water and not tap water??? Tap contains many things you may not want in your reef, at least at the levels they may be present. The idea is a salt mix will contain everything you need at the correct levels when mixed with RO/DI or distilled water. Many things are cumulative , continue to concentrate and water changes are the only way to reduce or remove them. -
07-16-2011, 10:14 PMPost #6: rulost2001okay....now it seems were gettng to the bottom of this.....and yes i did my water change this eve......what things would be cumulative.....tiny bad critters?Quote:
Originally Posted by AZDesertRat