No water changes.. pls help.

[Aeros]

Pooooff!!!! There goes my brain.

So my intake from all of this:

Have a scrubber, a ca reactor and do a pwc once in a while.. am i right?

I find this reading interesting as I am scared of pressurized tanks in my living room. Its a very good option if your tank is not very big. (and even if it is big :mrgreen: )
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

In that article it's the same as BRS's bulk stuff. And just like this graph:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/r ... age010.jpg
Figure 5. Sulfate concentration as a function of time when performing daily water changes equivalent to 0% (no changes), 7.5%, 15% and 30% of the total volume each month (in other words, 0%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1% per day). In this example, sulfate starts at a natural level of 2710 ppm, and the model assumes the usage of a moderate amount of calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate to maintain calcium and alkalinity, and Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) to maintain magnesium.

Your Chloride and Sodium levels will trend the same, while your other ions get pushed out of solution. Funny how the graph is from the same article talking about excess Sulfate ions, then tells you to add extra Chloride and Sodium :?

If you run a Ca reactor you should never have to do a PWC for non emergency reasons (depending what you use as your reactor media that is). And I keep my CO2 tank in my basement and run a line up with the ATO. The line feed averages about 10 PSI but the line itself is considered zero PSI due to it not being sealed on one end.

[SantaMonica]

What about the consumption of sulphate, as in sulphur reactors? From:
http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=2

"Sulphate-reducing bacteria live in places where there is no oxygen, plenty of sulphate and some organic matter present, in sediments for example."

"Sulphate-reducing bacteria are widespread in marine sediments where there is plenty of sulphate. The reason why marine environments are not poisoned by the presence of hydrogen sulphide, which these organisms produce, is that under normal conditions their activities are limited by the supply of organic matter."

"Bacteria in the marine environment are mainly grazed upon by protozoa and invertebrates, particularly polychaetes."

...which then feed the corals and small fish.

[new2scrub]

santa: you lost me

so do we have to change any water or no?

[Aeros]

What about the consumption of sulphate, as in sulphur reactors? From:
http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=2

"Sulphate-reducing bacteria live in places where there is no oxygen, plenty of sulphate and some organic matter present, in sediments for example."

"Sulphate-reducing bacteria are widespread in marine sediments where there is plenty of sulphate. The reason why marine environments are not poisoned by the presence of hydrogen sulphide, which these organisms produce, is that under normal conditions their activities are limited by the supply of organic matter."

"Bacteria in the marine environment are mainly grazed upon by protozoa and invertebrates, particularly polychaetes."

...which then feed the corals and small fish.

Sulphate is only part of the issue, and a small one at that. Magnesium Sulphate is not dosed nearly as often as Ca, or Carbonate, as such Sulphate's percentage of total solution is low, and may even precipitate out. As for the bio usage, I can only add: the amounts added via dosing would not likely be used up faster then they are added. I base my conclusion on the observation that SG does not decrease with dosing. That it supplies a particular food chain is great to hear. I wonder what typical usage is.

Sulphate aside (I linked the chart above as an example of dosing sans PWCs), the clear point I wanted to stress is: Based solely on analytic conclusions, If you do not regularly perform WCs, AND you dose 2-Part (3-Part), you probably should do PWCs.

I plan on picking up a Chloride kit to see what my months of recklessly adding BRS 2-part did.