No Water Changes for 6 Months!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Excellent read. Would love to know more about this stuff, where in Aus is that setup?

I live in Aus and our water has a reasonable amount of chlorine in the tap water (to the point where i dont even want to drink it), ph is at 7.0 - 7.5.

I have not lost a fish to a w/c and i do regular 40 - 50% water changes (weekly - week and a half).
 
how can we confirm if the tests that he has done is authentic? If it is, then more power to him. For the rest of us grounded in reality and want our monsters healthy and doing good, water changes are a must.
 
redtailfool said:
how can we confirm if the tests that he has done is authentic? If it is, then more power to him. For the rest of us grounded in reality and want our monsters healthy and doing good, water changes are a must.
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After what I've read today, I'll agree with you ... but I think I'm gonna include a denitrator into my new setup cos they're cheap (to diy) and seem easy to make and efficient.

I'm thinking the inlet pipe could somehow be inserted into the main tank's return pipe just as it goes into the sump. That way you won't need an extra pump to run the denitrator.

Would that be possible?
 
jardiniboy, ive read a lot of articles on the web about diy denitrators and i have to be honest when i tell you that i think they are not that effective. The best nitrate remover for me in a closed fw system like a tank would have to be good old water changes .

Or you can do a drip system like the ones Neoprodigy and Rallysman uses.. low maintenance and effective.
 
te9500rpm said:
could that really be possible? and about the picture i dont believe that water can be that clean for 6mos or 1yr without water changes.
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I have a 30 gal livebearer setup in the same way with fast growing plants, it has been like this for a bout a year and i think i have done 3 water changes, the fish breed regularly and the plants grow furiously. I run mine with a canister filter of about 1200L and thats it.

as long as the stock levels are not too high it works for me, i also keep ghost shrimp (quite a few) and some regular snails as the clean up crew. even wen the occassional fish does die (not due to foul water but due to poor quality common fish at the lfs) i dont remove them, the cleaning crew does it. i do nothing to the tank except feed a bit twice a day.

just my experience with this ONE tank.
 
cockroach said:
I have a 30 gal livebearer setup in the same way with fast growing plants, it has been like this for a bout a year and i think i have done 3 water changes, the fish breed regularly and the plants grow furiously. I run mine with a canister filter of about 1200L and thats it.

as long as the stock levels are not too high it works for me, i also keep ghost shrimp (quite a few) and some regular snails as the clean up crew. even wen the occassional fish does die (not due to foul water but due to poor quality common fish at the lfs) i dont remove them, the cleaning crew does it. i do nothing to the tank except feed a bit twice a day.

just my experience with this ONE tank.
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A heavily planted tank with small fishes are a entirely new ballgame. That kind of setup
would be fine without regular heavy water changes . But the focus here is predatory monsters which have a very high bioload.
 
:bs::bs::bs:

Food goes into the tank, nothing comes out --> pollution!

Nitrates are not the only waste product to worry about, the true indicator of water quality is a change in conductivity. As for the denitrator: yes they work, but again: That's only nitrates. All the other crap stays in. Filter maintenence only takes care of solid waste, dissolved matter accumulates!

IMO this "experiment" is a tremendous disservice to our hobby, proclaiming poor maintenance as the ultimate tool. :banhim:

On the other hand, the guy at least runs decent filters LOL

HarleyK

on edit: As cockroach & redtailfool said, in a heavy plants>>fish tank it's a different story. This is not the case in the documented set-up.
.
 
Fishes in captivity release a type of pheromone which inhibits growth. Water change is necessary to stimulate fish growth unless size is an issue.
 
HarleyK said:
:bs::bs::bs:

Food goes into the tank, nothing comes out --> pollution!

Nitrates are not the only waste product to worry about, the true indicator of water quality is a change in conductivity. As for the denitrator: yes they work, but again: That's only nitrates. All the other crap stays in. Filter maintenence only takes care of solid waste, dissolved matter accumulates!

IMO this "experiment" is a tremendous disservice to our hobby, proclaiming poor maintenance as the ultimate tool. :banhim:

On the other hand, the guy at least runs decent filters LOL

HarleyK

on edit: As cockroach & redtailfool said, in a heavy plants>>fish tank it's a different story. This is not the case in the documented set-up.
.
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EXACTLY!!!

THANK YOU HARLEY K :clap :clap :clap

disolved matter has no where to go, so it just keeps building and building, if this is the case might as well keep em in the tiolet :grinno:

water changes are the flush to the system!!! :naughty:
 
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