high nirates/ water changes

[ken the newbe]

i have a 45 gal reef with 50 lb l/r and 20lb l/s
canister filter and a protien skimmer
my nitrates are very high near 50 and i started to do water changes to get it down. how often can i change 10gal of water
is there anything else i can do to help it
the tank is about 1 year old but i just got a shipment of coral and inverts last week. could this cause the nitrates to shoot up

 

[reefkprz]

you can do a waterchange every 5 minutes as long as its performed correctly.
cleaning your cannister filter should be priority if your having nitrate problems with a cannister filter. they are prone to nitrate problems due to difficulty in maintinence.
a water change will reduce existing nitrates but if you dont eliminate the source they will come back.

 

[afboundguy]

If you have a good quality skimmer you could ditch the canister filter. I just use LR and a skimmer and have crystal clear H20.
Also if you have a sump consider getting a refugium with LR rubble LS and cheato. If you don't have a sump you could get a HOB fuge. I made my own in tank fuge with a med size speciman container and drilled a couple holes in it and stuck a powerhead in it for flow. I used to have nitrates at around 10 and now they're at 0

 

[ken the newbe]

thats one of my problems. i have a seaclone 100 skimmer which i hate. looking for a better one but i only have 4.00 in behind tank. i just cleaned the filter now so i hope that will help. i am going to continue my water changes and keep on eye on it. thanks for the info