Water Changes and Nitrates

[chunchma]

I understand that regular water changes help keep nitrates down. When people say reqular water changes do they mean weekly, bi-weekly?

 

[dansd]

I think most people would recommend small weekly water changes. This will help prevent drastic changes but at the same time allowing for export of Nitrates and import of trace elements etc.

My tank's total volume is about 60 gallons. I mix up a 5 gallon batch of water (RO/DI) at least a day in advance of my water change. I use a clean 5-gallon bucket. I put in a air stone and heater to mix things up and to get it to the right temperature.

I usually like to stir up the water a bit before the change so I can export more garbage. A turkey baster works well for stirring things up and blowing stuff off the live rock.

Happy Reefing...

 

[Jolieve]

Actually that depends on the system volume, and the needs of the system. If you are already having nitrate problems, aggressive water changes are in order to keep the nitrate levels down until the bacterial population that eats nitrates gets established.

During my early newbie days (I still consider myself a newbie) in the hobby, I did weekly 10 gallon water changes to dillute phosphates and outpace the growth of hair algae. These days, I do 20 gallon water changes every two or three weeks, to help raise my calcium levels in the tank.

There are many reasons for frequence of water changes. Experiment. Work with weekly, bi-weekly or tri-weekly changes and see what works best for you and keeps your animals happist.

 

[finnipper]

I am very new to saltwater(3months) 29gal fowlr, fluval 204. ammonia=0 nitrites=0 nitrates=20 calcium=500 alk 7dkh ph 7.8. this have been stable for about 2 ms. I have 2 chromis, 2 ocellaris, 1 firefish, 1 purple pseudochromis, and 1 hawkfish(which is being given away in a couple of days). Because of weather tank temp fluctuates between 77.5 & 82.(no chiller or air conditioning). Today when I got up the fish seemed fine, swimming, eating, etc. after about 2 hours all fish are breathing very heavily. I added an air stone for additional water movement at the top. Are they just stressed due to temp changes? should I be worried :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

finnipper,
It may be that...... or more likely that you have a co2 build up. Take some tank water, measure your pH add the air stone for a few hours, retest the pH, if the pH goes up then you'll need to boost the oxygen in your tank. You can do this by pointing a ph so that it "disturbs" the surface of the water. The airstone in the tank is helpful but very very messy with saltcreep. A fan, box or other, directed toward the tank water surface will help with the heat issue. If your lights are on timers, then just hook the fan up to them, so that it comes on when the lights do.

I would also recommend that you do some frequent water changes to get those nitrates down.

Oh and after you get rid of the hawkfish, I wouldn't add any more fish. Your pretty much at your fish limit on the 29.

Good luck

 

[mike90]

I'm a newbie who hasnt done a water change yet. I'm on in my third week of cycling. When water changes are done and if you are adding fresh RO water, how do you bring your salinity level back to normal after the fresh RO is added? Or should I be using saltwater already made from the LFS? Because when you take out about 10 gallons, your salinity is going to go down right? Do you just add more salt after you add your fresh RO??

 

[Jolieve]

If you take out 10 gallons of saltwater, and add back 10 gallons of saltwater of the same salinity, the salinity in your tank will not change.

Water changes in marine tanks are done with saltwater. When you have evaporation and bring your water level back up, you top off using freshwater because salt does not evaporate, water does.

Hope this clarifies,
J.

 

[mike90]

ok. thanks!

 

[lissame]

Yeah, I didn't know about the adding fresh water in between water changes and kept adding saltwater. I couldn't figure out why my sg kept going up. I know better now, but it was a rough two or three weeks on my poor fish.

 

[dark_stranger]

Yeah, I didn't know about the adding fresh water in between water changes and kept adding saltwater. I couldn't figure out why my sg kept going up. I know better now, but it was a rough two or three weeks on my poor fish.

Also remember, that you need to check the PH for top-off/up water to match it with your tank. I made this mistake and could never figure out why pc kept dropping.

 

[mark78]

I highly recommend doing a 15-25% water change on a weekly basis.

1) you will probably not need additives (except calcium)
2) your corals will look amazing

Not many people do this, heck I don't even do it...but I did for one of my customers for awhile and the improvement on how the corals looked was amazing.

 

[dark_stranger]

I do a 5 gallon (10%) water change every weekend, aswell as cleaning out the canister filter & skimmer. I know its a heavy maintenance routine, but I am use to doing it now & as you say, the whole tank benifits.