Straight To Marine?

[AK77]

Cheers man,

So when the Live rock is established it essentially does the same job as the media in your filter, housing bacteria that break down ammonia to nitrite, then to nitrate. Then you can have aneorobic bacteria in a DSB in your sump (or in the tank aswell I assume?) which breaks down nitrate.

Does this mean you do less frequent water changes than with freshwater aquariums? As one of the reasons for water changes in that instance is to remove nitrate.

Awesome stuff! Its good to get a simple overview of the essential steps required for a tank setup. You can end up following an endless trail of ever more in depth information. Its knowing when to stop reading and when to start doing.

In one sense yes. There are people who haven't done a water change in over a year or more as their tanks have reached equilibrium. It all depends on the setup of your system. If you have a reef tank then other pollutants will build up over time, like the toxins that the corals release. You can run active carbon which will abosrb this. The downside is that the acrive carbon releases phosphates, so its a good practise to run iron oxide hydroxide/ granualar ferric oxide to absorb this. Macro algaes will also consume phosphates and nitrates, as will the nuisance microalgae.

Some corals will also require calcium carbonate to form their skeletal structure. This they do by absorbing it from the water. Over time, the calcium in the water diminishes and has to be replaced. This is done by use of a calcium reactor which uses calcium carbonate and CO2 gas. When you get into the big reef tanks is the time when it starts to get more complex. Far more water parameters come in to play and have to be maintained. There are also other micro nutrients in the salt water that get consumed too. These need replenishing. This can be done either through adding them directly to the tank, or doing a water change which will do the same thing. With the price of the additives, it's probably cheaper and better to just do a water change lol

 

[TigerIssey]

Nano tanks do need regular water changes to maintain their stability. The bigger the tank the more stable the water and changes are just for replenishing nutrients.

Depends on your set up and stocking levels as to how often you need to do water changes.