New way to save water and do water changes?

[samuel88]

this isn't really a question but just to share some info that i read recently.

i read this book, i forgot what it was called (the captive reef? or something like that) but in it, the owner had a FOWLR 400 gallon and a reef 300 gallon tank.

in his reef tank he had almost no fishes and had around 30 clams (more or less i forgot)

so he said that clams take in absorb dissolved organics and nitrates so in a way clams filter the tank water.

and what he did was, every one or two weeks he would take water from his FOWLR to put into his reef tank, and his reef tank water into his FOWLR tank.

it's a win-win situation cause the reef tank needs some nutrient rich water which the FOWLR provides, and the FOWLR needs clean water which the reef tank provides (via the clams which absorb the nutrients and maybe other corals that require nutrient rich waters)

so in this way he saves alot on salt and water at the same time.

has anyone here ever tried this, and do you think it works?

[cool guy]

Interesting bro... Any bro can advise wit tis method...

[onizukaa]

i dont think it will work for the reef tank, as reef tank does need calcium / kh / mg for it to make corals happy, those high nutrient from fowlr will not work for it, but for the fowlr, yes it's still ok and will work....

do correct me if i am wrong

[yikai]

so essentially.

dirty water from FOWLR goes into reef tank to be cleaned by clams

clean water from reef tank by clams goes back into FOWLR tank.

so essentially, replacing water.

problems i think would arise

1) take the clams v long to clean the water

2) keeping nothing but clams? isn't that a waste of money

3) you will need 2 very huge tanks to see any significance

4) the clams cleaning the water is a very debatable topic. might as well use macroalgae to clean the water? like chaeto?

[samuel88]

the reef tank didn't just have clams, he had quite a amazing array of SPSes as well. it looked pretty impressive. the tank with clams was a display tank as well.

and well according to the author, the nitrates dropped straight to zero in a few days.

regarding the calcium and stuff, he did use calcium reactors and kalkwasser. but if it really does work i think it really does save alot of water and salt.

i guess using macro algae to filter water is good as well. but i'm not sure if they'd be nice in a display tank like the clams are.

[mengyang_neo]

I am thinking if this method really can work, why dun he connect both the tank then maybe he no need to change water anymore. The clean and nutrient rich water will be continuously changing.

[tunicate]

I agree with Mengyang, isn't it the same as putting all the fishes, SPS, & clams all into a single tank? Voila! No more water changes. I'm skeptical about this....

[samuel88]

I agree with Mengyang, isn't it the same as putting all the fishes, SPS, & clams all into a single tank? Voila! No more water changes. I'm skeptical about this....

perhaps the reason he keeps one FOWLR and one reef tank is because not all fishes are reef safe, compatability issues i guess.

and i don't think he put his two tanks close enough to connect them with a pipe, i wouldn't put 2 300 to 400 gallon fish tanks in the same room.

anyone here with a clam tank has any opinions on this? do clams improve water quality since they are filter feeders?

[thomas_lim]

There is no right or wrong in this concept. As long as it work for the person.

Do remember we have limited estate space here in Singapore for most of us barring those who stayed in large landed or hardcore one who will surrender their "prime" space to house all the huge tanks.

I'm more incline to getting a system which work for you even with minimum or no water changes.

If the export of nutrient can be done effectively thru mechanical or biological mean.

You will only need to dose supplement and top up fresh water to your system.

There are many schools of thought. I belong to the old one and prefer a minimum disruption to the system.

Remember reefing is a hobby. Don't be slave to it

[BFG]

Do what works for you.

[Gouldian]

this isn't really a question but just to share some info that i read recently.

i read this book, i forgot what it was called (the captive reef? or something like that) but in it, the owner had a FOWLR 400 gallon and a reef 300 gallon tank.

in his reef tank he had almost no fishes and had around 30 clams (more or less i forgot)

so he said that clams take in absorb dissolved organics and nitrates so in a way clams filter the tank water.

and what he did was, every one or two weeks he would take water from his FOWLR to put into his reef tank, and his reef tank water into his FOWLR tank.

it's a win-win situation cause the reef tank needs some nutrient rich water which the FOWLR provides, and the FOWLR needs clean water which the reef tank provides (via the clams which absorb the nutrients and maybe other corals that require nutrient rich waters)

so in this way he saves alot on salt and water at the same time.

has anyone here ever tried this, and do you think it works?

Yes, he is Wayne Shang - http://www.underseadiscovery.net/home.htm, I think it will work if the Reef Tank is indeed nutrient low, if not, by blindly introducing nutrient rich water into your reef tank will only cause algae bloom.

As BFG has mentioned, "Do what works for you". Everyone of our tanks are unique and the surest way to know what your tank need is to test the water parameters. If my tank is high on nutrients and my sps is browning - no Wayne Shang or Eric Borneman will be able to convinced me to add more nutrients into my tank!

HTH

[Ketchup]

hmmm, i feel that it might work but the thought of adding nutrients quickly into a SPS tank doesn't sound very "safe" to me! lol..

I was thinking about something in the line of this as well.. like having a SPS/few fishes tank and a LPS/more fishes tank. So the water will flow from SPS tank to LPS tank to sump/skimmer and return to SPS tank... I feel this is more logical. What's other reefers' thoughts?

[mengyang_neo]

1 thing to take note is the author has very big tank so this method may work. Imagine 1 normal red plastic pail of high nutrient water pour into a 100 gal or 400 gal tank will make a great different.

[Ketchup]

ya Meng Yang, I noticed that... thats why i think a constant flow might be better... unless they worried about contamination.