Some questions on salt water fish keeping...

Hey i have bought myself a new marine tank and have a few questions that i need answerd , are there any experts on marine life i could call please.

Only if you know for a fact please pm me your number so i can ask you a few questions.

One and most important probably is "can i let my tank run for 8 months without changing water if i have only live rock and coral in it?" will they survive and grow without having to put in new water every month?. So the water can age and build necessary bacteria for fish.:bigsmile:

If the answer is no, how long can it run with them in it without having to change the water?

Please only answer if you know you are correct for a fact or/and have done this yourself.

Thank you

 

Try MASA (Marine Aquariums South Africa), TASA's sister site. They have lots of info and are dedicated to marine aquariums. Marine Aquariums South Africa
Hope that helps.

 

Yep, what firefly said...

Why would you want to not do anything for 8 months?

If there's life in the tank then a) they need sustenance and b) there will be waste. You will need to feed the tank a bit to keep all the bacteria etc going. When you should do a water change varies drastically depending on the setup, you could test your parameters and see but it's easier to just do a water change now and then.

 

There are 2 schools of thought on this 1. is pro water changes 2. is anti-water changes. I personally do water changes every 2 - 3 months on a fully stocked reef system. However, I must admit that I can see a positive difference in my corals after a water change. If you don't do frequent water changes ensure that you add your additives regularly esp. calcium, magnesium, buff & iodine.

 

Hi, if you are running live rock and coral only , you would need a good skimmer , but in the early years ive left my tank for 4 months running on the natural berlin method - liverock and skimmer and all was exelent ! - so i thourght...
The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate was Like testing tap water, but when i tested All other paramiters - Alkilinaty, p.h , calcium , strontium ECt, they were dangerously low.
The fish and soft corals looked fine cause the change was gradual and the ammonia ect was always GR8.
The Hard corals looked o.k , but didnt grow at all.

I started with 30% water changes a week for 2 months and then went onto my normal 30% every 2 weeks and the levels of trace eliments and alkilinaty staberlised the hard corals started growing again and i only then saw the improvement in everything, even though it "looked" fine during the 4 month period of no water changes.

I supose if yopu have no nitrate forcing you to do the change -you could just test and add buffers ect, but sea water has it all_ and salt mix is even better .

Good luck with your tank
David