who has gone the longest without a water change?

[new2scrub]

I myself have gone about 8 months so far without a water change and things are looking good. but whats the longest?

[zoa]

IIRC.....The longest I know of is santamonica. Its been so long for him I've lost track. Lol. Years.

[SantaMonica]

3 years. And that includes iron overdosing (1/2 gallon), anti-bacterial poisoning (packaged egg whites), huge nutrient spikes (from turning off 3 powerhead that were feeding sponges behind the rocks), etc.

But the record I believe is Inland Aquatics, at 15 years.

[Floyd R Turbo]

They do 5% per year though :twisted:

[Rumpy Pumpy]

They do 5% per year though :twisted:


Lightweights

[iggy]

Keep in mind if you do two part or three part it might be necessary due to potential to increase salinity.

CaCl2 + Na2CO3 will produce CaCO3 + 2NaCl. I use gallon with 2 1/4 cups of calcium chloride a month now.

[Floyd R Turbo]

That reminds me that I need to check salinity...

[SantaMonica]

That's perfect then, because you throw out a little salt with acclimations.

[iggy]

Heres a php calculator for salinity increase.

http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calc ... alance.php (http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/TwoPartImbalance.php)


Three years without water changes using recipe 1a assuming 140 gallons and 125cc/day of calcium and alkalinity without water changes gave these results.

Initial chlorides 19357 final chlorides 25881 with final salinity of 45 ppt. Thats a big increase!

Are you using Kalk or Calcium Reactor? I assume Inland uses a Calcium Reactor.

[SantaMonica]

I dose about 2 gal a day of kalk. So minimal Cal needed. Alk goes faster.

2 dry onces of baking soda raises my KH by 7 points.

[iggy]

actually I made a mistake it is 45 ppt after 1 year not three assuming calculator is correct.

[MorganAtlanta]

I dose BRS two part. I've noticed my salinity creeps up, so I have to pull off a gallon of water every now and then. 8 months no changes for me so far.

I do wonder if it make sense to do changes to rebalance all those things we don't measure for, or which a scrubber might not take out at the correct rate, but then I've read articles showing that the compositions of the various brands of salt are all over the map as well, so who knows what I would be "rebalancing" to.

[Floyd R Turbo]

45 ppt? you need to knock that down to 36 maximum IMO

[iggy]

Calculator doesn't account for salt losses splatter on wallboard either. In either case salinity will raise a bit.

[SantaMonica]

All traces in the ocean are provided for by algae (except cal, alk, mag and str). Algae is 90 percent of all biomass (except bacteria), and provides 100 percent of all consumable material. This would include traces.

So if your system is controlled by algae, then it will have the same makeup as the ocean (or lakes, if FW).

[iggy]

I found I am adding 24 cups a year of sodium chloride due to two part recipe 1. This 53% by weight of two part salt mix.

Not a natural process at all!