Should I do a water change

;D Sorry I have to tell you the whole story..

Now, I think I have my alage under control. I think I was feeding a lot so Nitrate shot up (~50) and as well as the growth of alage. Beside, it's in the last phase of cycle where alage growth appear.

So, I ran some filter media to pull out Nitrate. I slow down the feeding, and ran my light (MH) for a lot less hours. I can see a big reduction in alage due to die off as well as cleaner crews taking care of it.

Do you think it's a good time to do a good amount of water change, like 20gal? I have ~75-80gal with sump and fug. All my parameters are in check right now. Haven't check the Nitrate, but last time I checked it was lower. I have been doing like 10 gal every week for a couple of weeks.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

There seems to be a mixed oppinion on the water changes and the frequecy. I would say do the 20% every other week.

 

You hit the nail on the head there! I still have the original bucket of salt I bought almost 10 months ago to start the tank with, and it has a quarter bucket left. Everything in my tank is fine! I know many others that don't do water changes and everything is great with all. IMO I would do some 10-15 gallon changes till the nitrates go down to 5ppm or less then stop. That is what I did. I fixed the problem then did some changes. Just make sure you don't do wc's to band-aide the nitrate problem! Make sure it is fixed and staying low. With the price of salt you save a lot of dough too!

Now time for someone else to say WC's are essential;D!

 

Im not going to stay their necessary, some people don't do any water changes, they rely on supplements. In this case, where you are battling an algae outbreak, I would def. do some sort of a water change. Something in the range of 10-15% should be good, it will also allow you to suck out some of the dead and dying material.

 

It is not necessary to do a water change in most cases. If you are keeping the water parameters in order then you don't need to. I did one after the tank cycled and then another 3 weeks later and that is it. A good skimmer, a p04 reactor, and some mechanical filtering plus a little chemi-pure elite is all I need. As well as a AAT denitrate coil.

 

All I have is a TetraTec PF500 HOB filter with carbon and 85 lbs. live rock, tank is doin great!!

 

thanks for all your input. I no3 is low now, but not low enough, I will do some wc and keep monitoring.