No water changes for one year

I am pretty sure that hob whisper filter denitrates the water via the
cartridge it uses. It is pretty common for filters to control
ammonia/nitrates/nitrites with a cartridge containing something like
zeolite that absorbs such things. However my impression is if you use
such measures you're committed to doing so until a major change takes
place with the tank. Tank cycling involves good bacteria eating ammonia
and nitrates, reproducing, and populating surface area aerobically (the
good bugs need oxygen) so if you take away the ammonia etc. then those
good bacteria are greatly reduced if not eliminated. Then, if you start
not using cartridges or replacing them in other words then fish will
probably die off because the tank will start cycling again now that
ammonia et. is there and not absorbed by the zeolite or whatever. So in
the long run it is best to not use such cartridges and cycle the tank
before more than 1 or 2 fish are in the tank. Otherwise you just have
to keep replacing cartridges for the life of the tank setup. Hope I've
helped and if I'm wrong someone please step up and point out what they
want. Later!

Bob Wennerstrom wrote:
I've got a 15 gallon tank with about eight platys and a pl*co in it, no
plants. I used to lose a fish every 6-8 weeks. This seemed to happen
right after water changes even though I was using that chlorine remover
stuff and only changing about 2 gallons/week. So I did an experiment
beginning last March. I stopped changing the water. In the last year I
have had zero fishes die. I'm using a Marineland Emperor, wash the
filter every couple weeks and change the filter/carbon thing about every
3 months. No UGF.

So do you think I've got wicked nitrates buit up in the tank and the
fish are just used to it? I keep reading about how important water
quality is and how important water changes are yet I get good results
for a whole year never-ever changing the water, just adding to make up
for evaporation. Carbon doesn't remove nitrates does it?

Comments?
I suppose that, by only adding make-up water required by evaporation,
the tank water may become quite hard. Platies may require harder water.
Steve

I sent an email to Tetra, just to see what they would say. I got this
response:

On the filter boxes I have here, the filter talks about eliminating
ammonia and nitrites but nothing about nitrates. If you can e-mail me
the bar code I can have Quality see if there was a misprint on the box
you have.

Thank you
Consumer Relations

At first I thought that I may have been mistaken, but after checking
the box, I was not. I am going to write them back and tell them. I
wonder if I should ask for coupons, eh?