[john h]

hi all i was just wondering if during testing water quality etc all was fine and the tank was ticking over fine all livestock fit and well and the sump/refugium was working with alsorts of pods sponges ets thriving do you actually need to change the water regular? or are we just changing for change sake and making the salt manufacturers richer?
also during these water changes are we removing potentialy benificial organisms/bacteria from the system
so i ask does the phrase "if it aint broke dont fixit "apply or am i being a lilltle nieive here.
ps dont shout too loudly at me its only a thought!

[wayne sarah kernow]

I'm not an expert but....

I hardly ever change mine but you need to be exporting nitrates some how. cheato etc will remove your nitrates as its ripped out.
Minerials are being depleted by your livestock so as long as your using additives separately this is no problem.

I find changing water just unbalances things and nothing seems to like it.

[john h]

thats good to hear yes im putting supliments in and have algea etc in the sump so ill just keep on as i am
thanks john.

[lindsay]

I think a lot of guys who run calcium reactors are happy not to do regular water changes as the reactor replaces the minerals the corals use .But i like to do a 10% water change split into two ,ie 5% at the start of the week and 5% mid week as this works well for us .

[ben]

im busy with water changes at the moment ,but only as i have a new set up. they might slow down a bit as it matures

[john h]

thanks for the input i think i will try to leave the system alone and keep an eye on things ill let you know how it goes but so far so good but its early days yet.