Water changing, who doesn't?

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PreciousMama

Sorry if this isn't the right area for this.  I wanted to find out who doesn't do water changes and how your able to keep from having to do them.I'm looking at putting a 90 gallon on my second floor and doing water changes will be a pain.  I'm trying to figure out a way to make things easier on myself and my back.  My house is hooked up to a filter system so I'm good there.  I do have a bathroom about 8 feet away from the area my tank will sit.  I'm not entirely sure how to hook up the hose to my sink.Any suggestions from the experts on how to make this easier?Just for information purposes, I plan on building this tank very slowly.  I want to get the equipment I need to do things the right way first.  I've been donig alot of research and read that if you have a good skimmer, a good reactor, and a good refugium setup, that water changes can be done once a month or not at all.
 
I would consider watching the BRS or Fish of Hex youtube videos on no water changes. I'll be honest i haven 't done a water change in 8 years.  Only top off via ATO. But i have strong fish like clowns, yellow tangs, royal gramma, and melanarius wrass.  Softies and LPS for corals.  Also i have a very healthy cheato light, reef octopus, filter socks changed on a weekly basis, and bubble magnus doser alk, calcium, and mag.  Test every week major elements on Sundays and keep them in check.  I also dose red sea minor elements according to calcium usage.No SPS or delicate fish.  I also haven't sent out for a lab test. I should do that one of these days...  Good luck.
 
Water changes are only required as a way to remove waste from your system. Light bioloads, not overfeeding and a good filtration system can reduce or eliminate the need to do water changes. I ran a natural filtration system for 4 years and never did a water change. When I wanted to get into hard corals that changed and I went with a RODI system and mixed my own saltwater for water changes. There are many options to connect a RODI under a sink and hoses to run to the sink for water removal. Home filtration is normally not clean enough to use, but have your water tested first to be safe.
 
I don't do water changes, my tank is SPS dominant. I have 1 yellow tang, 2 anthias, 7 clowns and 1 flasher wrasse. 140 gallons total system volume.I run the ATI Pro-essentials system which is a Triton Method variant. If you Google Triton Method or ATI pro-essentials you'll find the information or let me know if you have any questions.  
 
I would recommend performing some water changes, at a minimum monthly.   Even as little as 5-10%.   If you care about corals, important trace elements and minerals are being depleted over time, which water changes with new salt mix help replenish.  
 
I'm assuming you want to keep some sort of stony coral (LPS or SPS)1) Water changes do more than bring things out, they bring lots of small things in too.  If you can find other ways of doing this then you don't need to do them.2) Water changes cover a lot of sins and things that were overlooked.  On a long term average the tanks I change water in have less hard to resolve issues than the ones I don't change water in.3) I don't change water in my personal tanks, more due to size than anything else.  My tank at home has around 600 gallons water volume, so a 50% water change is a roughly $300 affair.  You can buy a lot of gizmos at that rate.  It's also worth noting what while I "don't change water" in reality I end up taking out 5-20 gallons per month in skimmate, water leaving with frags, etc.  That may not seem like much, but can equate to 1/3 of the tank volume on an annual basis.  I also dose several pounds of 2 part per month (soda ash, CaCl), nitrate, iodine, manually adjust Mg, and should really start dosing K so I don't have to manually adjust so often.  I made it several years on just the 2 part and fish food.4) If it were me I would get a nice refugium going, put on a dosing pump (BRS if you have an Apex, generic 3 head if you don't, DOS if you want the fancy toys) add in a decent skimmer (doesn't need to be German to be nice), and test alk on a daily basis for a while, then weekly after that.  For the first year I would do 10% water changes on a 2-4 week basis just to cover for things you miss.  At this point if all went well your sps frags will have turned in to baseball sized mini colonies.  If not, consider what you might be missing.  If things are going well trade your water changes for a few more test kits, and if not keep changing the water.
 
How are you removing nitrates and phosphates?
I have been using vodka dosing on my 160. I am at 10ML a day, but my nitrates stay between 25 to 50. I was doing 15ML a day and that kept my nitrates around 15. I have heard mixed things about vodka Dosing. 
I have and want a fish heavy system with softies and LPS. I have some Zoes and some LPS but not a lot yet. 
Also, I do not at this point do water changes, but with skimmate and evaporation, adding about 1 to 2 gallons a day of RODI
Second question is what is your good and bad of vodka dosing? 
 
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