Water Changes

[lazylivin]

Normally I do a 14g water change every other week. I am guessing total water volume is somewhere in the neighborhood of 80g. Due to a busy schedule the past couple of months I have not done a water change in about 6 weeks. Tested the water yesterday and nitrates are not detectable and phosphates are .02.
My question is there any reason to continue the biweekly maintenance or can I change the schedule to do same water changes but about every couple of months if water continues to test fine? Are there other considerations such as trace elements that I risk depleting and causing issues? or are there other things that build up in our reef tanks that we cant test for?

More information
Aqua C Remora Pro skimmer - (doesn't pull much out of the tank but I feed very little)
Alkalinity and Calcium is maintained by dosing pumps. Mag is added twice a week manually.
Carbon and GFO is used in a reactor changed about every 6 weeks
Test Mag, Alk, Ca weekly and adjust dosing pumps if needed. PH is monitored realtime via pinpoint probe.

[Wall_Tank]

That's a good question.  There would be other items that would be depleated, but at what rate is hard to tell.   My thoughts are that your normal schedule may have set you up good for a small lapse.   After 6 weeks you may have not noticed, but things may be on the decline..........

If you want to back off, I think I would go from biweekly to monthly for a while and see if you notice a change, rather than going to a further extreme.


 

[TechGuy]

Thats debatable. I think you SHOULD to replenish trace elements, and not the ones we test for. Not alot of research on the subject.

But I think the best test for you tank, is how does it look? Does everything look good? Are you a good judge of a healthy tank?

So that really doesn't answer anything, just gives you something to think about.

[coral ranch]

my corals always look much better shortly after a water change even though there were 0 detectable nitrates and phosphates along with good ph, alk,and cal before the change .I have always attributed this to trace elements being replenished among other things from the water change. I always keep my routine water changes up because it seems easier to keep a working routine up than to let it slide and try to get back to where you were,

[Reefd Up]

Lazy - I've been working on a trace elements presentation...I'll try to talk to you about it later (it's no where near ready for posting.)

I'll talk more later...it's late. 

[verper]

One thing I've noticed (anyone else?) is that my skimmer works better after a water change both in my display and QT tanks.  It may have something to do with the old salt water in the tank losing some surface tension.

My experience (and I've done it twice through laziness) is that your Nitrates will increase over time without at least biweekly water changes.  I've done the 30+% water changes once a month for a year thinking you export more nutients this way but it seems like more stuff settles in the tank prior to the water changes.  I was able to keep phosphates in check with GFO, but not the nitrates.  Just by the test results, my tanks like a more frequent water change.

[lazylivin]

Thanks for the different points of view and considerations I never thought of. Sounds like the consensus is to keep the current routine which I will do but not worry to much if I miss it by a week or two occasionally.

Looking forward to your presentation on trace elements. I am sure it will be good and I enjoyed the one you put together on reef pests.

[Wall_Tank]

Not sure if you have seen this article

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

Since I am a lazy man too, I'm have a litermeter doing continuous water changes.  Right now on my 90 gallon tank, I'm doing about 25 gallon/month.