Clean tank you got there. My favorite part is that you don't have 150 frags closely spaced next to one another. Looks really natural, props on your patience man. 👌
It can work, unfortuntly I think it's the luck of the draw as to how it will go once you start to remove the water changes ect. I do think the tank needs to be up and running for some time though before stopping them.
My tank started to use quite a lot of elements and the weekly water changes could hardly keep up. The corals didn't like the swings, so I started dosing all-for-reef. It has been 2 months since my last water change, since my nutrients are low and dosing takes care of the rest. I like the hobby much more with less water changes. I have a 20 gallon nano tank now, but this d-d 1200 is on my wish list.
I think as long as everything is stable and inline with where it should be doing no water changes is fine. Keep an eye on Salinity though as this can slowly ruse over time due to dosing.
I haven’t done a water change in almost 1 year. I swear by having a packed refugium ! My nitrates are zero, I dose once a week (alk,calc,mag) I use nyc tap water for fresh water top off. I have acros, zoas, torches, hammers, Kenya trees, Xenia, Duncan’s.. moray eel, clowns, anthias, damsels and my tank is thriving. When I was doing constant water changes I was losing a lot of coral and fish! Once I stopped everything started to thrive and flourish … I have chaeto growing and mangrove plants in my sump, I have a lot of rock and bio balls/brick down there and I truly truly believe that because I have a lot of life down in the sump I am able to break down all ammonia/nitrates.
I watched alot of these videos of people who dont do water changes and I think there are 2 things that need to happen for one to not have to do water changes. The first is having a refugium to remove nitrates and phosphates. The second is dosing trace elements to reintroduce any absorbed by the corals.
I didn't have a refugium, but you are right about them. The thing is, for them to be fully functioning, they need to be about 30% of the total tank size.
Not many people keep the same tank for 10 years without upgrading or breaking it down to change it up a bit. I'm not against water changes, I just now have a better understanding of why we do them.
Water changes are fine but they must be 5-10% max per week, I control my nutrients by controlling levels of feeding and how much I skim, all for reef is a good product but water changes just refresh things and provide things are are not in one solution suplimemts, salt has an absolute balance of everything so feeding 5-10% of fresh water in a week helps keep things in check I check levels weekly and dose nutrients if I need to, as long as your daily weekly tank care routine is the same stability will be met regardless of what that stability is
@@darrensaquaticsworld thanks, I’ve had a 4 year break from the hobby and I’m looking at getting back into it. I’m looking at methods that require no water changes. Would you recommend ATI pro?
@Jon Sleight Yeah, it has been fine for me. Not the easiest to get in the UK, and it will slowly raise your salinity over time, so you will need to keep an eye on it. I think you could use most methods and do zero water changes as long as the elements are being replaced. What I would say is zero water changes on a brand new tank could get really messy real quick, but you never know you might get lucky with it.
