Denitrators

"Stoutman" [email protected] wrote in message m...
You were questioning the reason to change water
based on nitrates...

I am not questioning anything, I am answering Adam's (the OP) question.
See above in the thread.

You clearly point to relation between high nitrates and need for water change:

"Contrary to popular marine aquarium lore, you DO NOT NEED to do partial
water changes. My nitrites and nitrates are UNDETECTABLE using store
bought LFS test kits."

and he

"If something causes your nitrites and nitrates to be very low than
why would you NEED to do a water change? Just for fun?"

Nitrates is not the reason for a water change.

You know, there are much more different ions there
beside NO3-...

Yes, I am aware.

Then you are probably aware also, that 80% of their
levels you cannot measure at home acuratelly.

80% of what levels? Can you be more specific? Doesn't how
accurate you need to be depend on the ion you are referring to?

Out of the all ionic compounds in the sea waters only
small parts can be measured with aquarium test kits.
You can test carbonate hardness/alkalinity, calcium,
magnesium, nitrates, phosphates, couple of others with
questionable reliablity and that is it.
The rest of ions are just one big question mark.
You do not know how much are taken out and built into
corals and other invertebrate bodies, you do not know
how much is left there available in the water.

With partial water change you replenish
ions used up by growing animals/plants in your tank.

I add trace elements (Kent Marine Essential Elements) on a monthly basis.

Each element is used up in a different speed, but you dump
all of them on a monthly basis regardless if you need it or not.

How do you replenish your trace elements? Partial water change? When you
do your partial water change you are removing some percentage of water
(15-20%?) and adding artificial sea salt (usually contains trace elements).
How do you know your tank needs it (trace elements)?

When I am replacing partial water in my tank I am removing
some water with bad ionic proportion and replace is with
known to be good ionic composition water. Overall effect
is that the resulting mixture has ionic combination more
similar to natural sea water than an old tank water had...

That will lead over time to chemical imbalance and your tank
water will be far, far away from the content of natural sea water
compared to the water mixed from the fresh salt mix.

You are FAR MORE likely to cause a chemical imbalance by replacing a
percentage (15-20%?) of your aquarium water with home made sea water
than you are by doing no water change.

Can you present some reasoning behind this odd statement ?

You also remove organic byproducts your skimmer left behind.

Such as?

All these which make your water smell and look yellow.
Corals, other invertebrates, fish and plants constantly
release many substances to the water which accumulate
in the closed system like an aquarium.

My skimmer runs 24hrs a day. The organic compounds it doesn't remove on the
first pass will more than likely be removed on the second, third, fourth or
fifth, etc. pass.

How about these which do not stick to the foam at all ?
No matter how many times water will pass through the
skimmer...

You are not able to measure them or detect them in home situation...

Agreed. Therefore, I have NO reason to question my skimmers effectiveness.
I can only go by the health/appearance of my tank mates. They are doing
fine. All is well. My water is not yellow and it does not smell.

I would like to know more about your tank.
Its volume, quantinty and size of fish, other living
critters and plants/algae, amount of live rock, lights etc.
Would you be so nice and tell us more about your tank ?

And how can you tell your water is not yellow?
Have you poured it to a white plastic bucket and
compared its color to R/O water in a similar bucket?
I do not know a skimmer which removes all organics in 100%.

Changing water refreshes the water and brings it back
to its original ionic combination...

The only way YOU would "bring it back to its original" condition is if you
changed 100% of your water. Is this what you are doing? If this is what
you are doing you are doing more harm than good.

No, I am not replacing 100% of water in my reef tank,
I do it in my grow up tanks for my baby maroon clowns.
And of course it is true - it would be 100% in original
condition only if replaced in 100%, but if you replace
only 20-30% than the water is more similar to the original
ionic composition than the old water before the change.
Do you agree ?

Would you be fine if your house was perfectly sealed
from the outside air and you just reduce amount of
CO2 and add oxygen on regular basis but would not
exchange air for years?

Another straw man.

How do you think your house would smell ? :-))

I do not have microorganisms that eat and decompose
my excrements, my aquarium inhabitants do.

I would like to duplicate this perfect bilogical balance
you have in your tank. It sounds almost magical...
Can't wait to learn more about your tank and see how
you managed to get is so perfectly ballanced it does
not require water change.
In my opinion it would require very high biodiversity
with right amount of fish, invertebrates, plants/algae
working in perfect balance without algae taking over
the tank or fish pooping too much plants can process...
Such a balanced micro-ecosystem would be a dream of
all aquarists. So please do not delay and tell us
about your amazing tank.