Stagnant water

[SPELLBOUND]

Hi brand new here, not got a set up yet, but very interested. First question is if I never need to do a water change apart from top ups. Won't the water go stagnant without a filter. Ty

[SailorFromRI]

I'm pretty new here too but I have literally read every post on this forum lol. The less you do the better. There is a guy here that hasn't even fed the shrimp anything in over 5 years. I have had all kinds of tanks including a 300+ gallon reef setup with a dedicated fish room. It goes against everything I know but these little guys are "set it and forget it". Just make sure u cycle the tank for several weeks and you will be good to go. Follow the instructions on this site and fight your urges to mess with the tank

[i<3Opae]

It's because of the brackish water. Not a lot of things grow/survive in this salinity. Once tank is cycled, it's a true ecosystem on its own. Water in opae ula tanks should be pristine clear and non-smelly.

[SPELLBOUND]

Thank you for your replies .

[Arnold]

My tank its been running 4 months now, no filter no air no water changes, the water quality its okey and even smells good just like fresh ocean water

[Varanus]

In more detail, stagnant water isn't necessarily a bad thing for animals adapted to live in it. We tend to think stagnant = filthy, but all it really means is that there is no flowing movement in the water, not that the water is actually polluted. In fact many plants and animals prefer this sort of environment. The association with disease comes from how many bacteria and parasites prefer or grow better in stagnant rather than flowing water, as well as how disease carriers like mosquitoes breed in still water, and that if still water is polluted by things like human feces, chemicals, etc. then the contamination remains for much longer than it would in flowing water. Obviously a lot of these factors don't apply to the water in a Supershrimp setup.

[mike.d]

I think of my tank like a balanced and contained ecosystem. The shrimp create the right amount of waste to feed the algae and then eat enough of the algae that it never gets out of control. (I say that but I did have to add snails to keep the glass clean.)

In a standard fish tank, you need filtration to keep algae and bacteria from over producing in the tank and making it look bad and creating disease.