joeman
MorphingSquid
Here is a question I have been asking for a while and have not got a definitive answer for:
Do you think it is feasible to create a system where water changes are not required?
Assume a very low bio load, plenty of live rock sitting on a sand bed and a sump + refugium + skimmer + denitrator + UV sterlizer...
One long standing reason for changing water has been to dilute (reduce) the nitrates that accumulate from anyting that was not caught by the skimmer then overwhelmed the anaerobic bacteria in the live rock etc...
Well with the addition of a dinatrator it becomes possible to maintain nitrates at zero.
I also believe it is possible to maintain a similar level of control over phostphates etc.
So the next reason I have heard is that "we just don't know what is important in water = additives alone are not sufficient", but this argument just does not stand, for I use RO/DI water (essentially just H2O) and add synthetic salt mix - what is the difference between that & topping up with RO/DI water + additives to maintain target levels?
So the real question is: what would be missing or what would accumulate to such levels in the tank that it would harm anything trying to live in the tank?
It would be great to get people's thoughts on this as I just can't get to a satisfactory answer myself.
Do you think it is feasible to create a system where water changes are not required?
Assume a very low bio load, plenty of live rock sitting on a sand bed and a sump + refugium + skimmer + denitrator + UV sterlizer...
One long standing reason for changing water has been to dilute (reduce) the nitrates that accumulate from anyting that was not caught by the skimmer then overwhelmed the anaerobic bacteria in the live rock etc...
Well with the addition of a dinatrator it becomes possible to maintain nitrates at zero.
I also believe it is possible to maintain a similar level of control over phostphates etc.
So the next reason I have heard is that "we just don't know what is important in water = additives alone are not sufficient", but this argument just does not stand, for I use RO/DI water (essentially just H2O) and add synthetic salt mix - what is the difference between that & topping up with RO/DI water + additives to maintain target levels?
So the real question is: what would be missing or what would accumulate to such levels in the tank that it would harm anything trying to live in the tank?
It would be great to get people's thoughts on this as I just can't get to a satisfactory answer myself.