Water change?

[abbeyspal]

I just finished checking my water paramaters and have a question as to what my next step should be. I have a 60 gallon tank with 3-4 inches live sand and about 60-65 lbs of un-cured live rock. Initially my ammonia was off the chart for my test kit. It has since come down to about .25 ppm. However the nitrate's are about 15 ppm and the nitrites are around 5.0 ppm 8O. My question is should i do just a 10% water change or should i do more like a 50%? Any words of wisdom would be greatley appreciated. BTW there is a small crb hitchhiker that seems to be doing fine. I think he is an emerald crab.

 

[PeeJ]

I do less frequent larger water changes vs smaller ones more often.

 

[Johnsteph10]

Agreed -- it's better to do something like 10% vs. 50%. Even though you are still in the process of cycling your tank, you have a number of critters in there that need a fairly constant env.
Remember -- you're not only removing waste with water changes, but you're also diluting the waste that's in there. Good luck!

John

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have a skimmer running on it?

 

[abbeyspal]

I do have a skimmer and it is working pretty hard lots of muck to taker out. I would call the stuff a liquid that is dark green with lots of slime in it.