Why does it seem like the less I touch the tank the happier things look?

[Kerchakone]

I go lazy on water changes and the coral looks happier. The crabs aren't dying as often. The coralline is growing faster. Since I've gone REALLY lax on maintenance i've noticed thriving once almost dead corals. I don't get it.

(reason for the lax: I've been so poor i can't afford the IO salt.) I don't even have enough money for test chemicals. My girlfriend has been out of a job so I've been working two jobs just to pay the bills.

I've got 2 false percs one ric and a green stripe mushroom in a 46 gallon tank with 27ish lbs of LR.

[glampka]

My wife's cube in her office at work is the same way. Thriving like crazy since I don't do water changes that often or clean the foam as much as I should. Sometimes I think we over think things too much.

[fishnu]

If it's not broken.............

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by Kerchakone

I've got 2 false percs one ric and a green stripe mushroom in a 46 gallon tank with 27ish lbs of LR.

In that sentence is a large portion of your success.

#1 Light Bio-Load... VERY key to success in a SW tank

#2 you don't have many corals to deal with. A full blown reef tank needs VERY high water quality and the corals you have aren't overly "Sensitive". I'd be willing to be if you added more corals (especially more demanding ones) you'd have to step your game up several levels to maintain them.

It's awesome that your tank is doing well. Keep up the good work but please stay on top of testing when you can. When it goes south it will do so in a hurry if several factors come to a head at once.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

[Triggerjay]

This question came up on RC the other day in the SPS forum. Some of the SPS guys do not like to do water changes due to the fact they spend so much time getting the water where they want it, they want to keep it that way. They feed very sparingly, blow rocks down, and use poly filters to catch the trash when they do blow the rocks off... Most of them have had great success with this method. Now, they still do water changes, but the frequency is every couple months.. I do NOT do this myself, so I cannot say whether its a good thing or not,... but I guess it works for them.

Jason

[Frankie]

I seem to have the same problem. I do very little to my tank except testing, cup cleaning and glass scraping. Just don't slake on testing. Salinity can get out of wack very easy from toping off and C++ can deplete. Since I added the reactor that had been very stable for me along with Mag, and alk. I test once a week and "eye ball" my corals several times a day. Oh, I also change out the micron socks every three days.
Very little work indeed compared to the work out i use to get.

[vdituri]

This rule also applies in nature.
The more we leave it alone, the better it does.

[Varga]

I have been thinking about this topic and Im gonna start leaving it alone starting today.

how does this sound for one month; no dosing, no wc, just top off every day and thats it

[Stacef]

You know, when there is a small bioload, and not a mass of sensitive corals, I believe that leaving it alone after stable (but still testing) may work. It is of course not the same for every tank. But I know in my tank, when i was doing regular water changes, things were going out of wack. And now, everything is wonderful. (For now.. knock on wood)

[Tru2nr]

i know a guy who has yet to change his water once and has a bunch of corals and his tank is amazing i would never do that but it works for him i thinke very tank is different and you have to treat it that way some of the things people do is because that works for them and it may not work for you

[Dentoid]

I think this is a fundamental problem in this hobby. Too much tinkering going on for success to get a foothold!