Water Change

Ok, My tanks been up and running now for just over 8 weeks, all parameters have stayed the same for the last 2 or 3 weeks which are.

salinity-1.023
ph-8.2
ammonia-0
nitrite-0
nitrate-10
phsphorous-0.03ppm
temp-80

i have had in there now for the last 3 weeks also, midas blenny, yellow tailed damsel, neon damsel, chalk goby,banded shrimp, cleaner shrimp, hermits, turbos, spiny sea urchin, sifting snail.mushroom coral, all doing superb, no water change has been done yet, and not sure when to do one, when is it best to can i now or should i wait for the 3 months, just worried about water quality & additives within the water calcium etc, having said that i have loads of coraline algae growing all over???

 

Which week did you see any spikes in NH3/4, NO2 and NO3? Luna

 

If your worried about the chemical balance perhaps you could get your LFS to do some tests of you water to give you some idea of were your at with the tank

 

Are using live rock, sand , reforguim to export waste

HI,
MAny tanks are very delicate balance that starts to tilt as soon as we add fish, You may be using up KH this will change the PH down, and may cause problems.
If your seeing alot of coraline they will use mag, calcium, and some of the KH. water waste can raise Nitrogen and food adds phos. tap water can add silicate and heavy metals.
SO you need to test CA,mag, KH. and only add whats needed.
If you subscribe to the dilution theory then frequent partial will help keep balance as long as your clean up crew keeps up. I prefer shrimp and red hermits, the blues are nasty buggars.
LM Blenny can do a lot for algae.
Doug

 

in my opinion, do a small water change weekly. This aids in replenishing traces and other essential salts lost through skimming, carbon dosing, respiration, and absorption. It also will reduce nitrates, phosphates and other contaminants, placing less stress on your filtration.
These are only some of the key reasons for weekly water changes.

 

Best advice I know of re: water changes, from recognized reefing expert. Have long followed and had worked out well for me.

Many other opinions regarding...but this is one I have chosen to follow.



"Water Changes/Ex-changes"

By Anthony Calfo


:-/

"Solution to pollution is dilution..."

 

Lot of fish for such a new tank. Might want to let the tank grow a while before you add anymore fish. You need to be testing Mg, ALK, & Ca as stated before, they are an important part of the tank chemistry.

 

Wow that was a big skimmer omard,

I was thinking that this post was more for the first water change for a tank???

 

Cool! now the neon damsel all it does is eat and s... that adds up to the bio load, i also have one of those black velvet, and the neon is extremely territorial the black one ain't bad but grows up to bout 6" and looses it's color, next chance i get they be going out! I just got a fairy wrasser and the little b ster don't give him no peace or let him eat either
you might have better luck, cause mine was there before the wrasser fish

>))))*> >))))*>

 

The NH3/4, NO2 and NO3 spiked at about week 3/4 i put the blue tailed damsel in right from the start, this post is based on info for the 1st water change after cycle,i have 2 giant blue hermit crabs, 5 turbo snails, i did have a sea hare but not seen him for 3 weeks i'm thinking he is dead somewhere used to see him every day, 3 fish? The damsels are only 1 inch and the midas about 3, i do not think that is to much for the tank right now the parameters let me know this, but i do not intend on adding anything else for a while, Alk is 8, i do not have a mag or calcium test at the moment will have shortly,i plan on doing the weekly water change but just wanted a rough idea of when is good to do the first one,

Thanks so far...

Stingray...