No Water Change Needed!!!

I

isaac newton

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Mar 22, 2003
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No joking :) suppose to get your attention!!!!! Has there been any tank out their which requires no water changes (i.e plants take care of nitrates and nitriates ammona etc.. Fish waste disposed via some method.. System which purifys water)????? In essence a self sustaining tank...


(P.S. if someone did have one and found a way to set it up requiring little investment it would be a dream for aquatic hobby)
 
how about a continuously water changing tank?. set up a 1/4 inch line from the house plumbing, throttle it down to few gallons a day, inject the dechlorinator, and have an over flow on the tank
drain into house plumbing.
 
In the long run, it won't work. There are too many trace nutrients, buffers and such in the water that get depleted eventually. One cause of 'old tank syndrome' is too few and too small of water changes, resulting in a depleted buffer and pH crashes. The dissolved solids--all the stuff we don't test for--will build up and cause problems as well.

A tank can go for a long time without a water change and not show any serious consequence, but on the chemical and biological level, it's a down hill slide.
 
The need for water changes cannot be eliminated altogether, but can be reduced. Good biological filtration, low stocking, and heavy planting of floating plants and plants such as vallisneria (which both take in large amounts of nitrates) can reduce the need for so many water changes...I have a 35gal community tanks which I only change 25% of the water of every month - and the fish are perfectly healthy. It is when the general rules of fishkeeping are broken (such as overstocking and not enough filtration) that the need for so much maintance is required...keep to the rules, and maintance can be an easy, even enjoyable, task.

Thom.
 
Would you buy a dog and then find a way to not have to walk him? (I realize some people may say yes, and that just means they shouldn't have pets, or kids) I don't think this hobby is for lazy people. I find half the fun is working on my tank, especially with plants. Back to the question, it can be done with about twice yearly water changes (read Diana Walstad's book), but again, why would you?
 
Get a home with extremely high ceilings and plant a tree in your tank. That may be a plant that will be able to use up fish poop as fertilizer fast enough.
 
Here is what you are looking for, although it is a marine environment: http://www.eco-sphere.com/ecospheres.html. If you want more information, just ask; I happen to be a dealer for them in my gift shop. They live on the average two years. I have several in my store that are over three years old. The shrimp are not SUPPOSED to reproduce, but those in one of my setups did and all are thriving. Some have lived up to ten years like this. But they don't know how old they are when they are put in the system, so there is no way to forecast the life of a particular system. They are guaranteed for six months and can be "recharged" for a fee after that. The shrimp waste provides fuel for the algae and the algae provides food for the shrimp. Just set it in room temperature and give it about 8 hours per day of light, and watch it. They also have fresh water systems, but those require feeding once a week and water changes twice a year. The marine systems are completely sealed so you CAN'T do anything with it except place it where it will thrive.
 
My grandmother has one of those that is still going strong after 4 years. She freaked at about 2 years, because one shrimp vanished, only to show up again a week later--we think it molted.
 
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