maximum safe water change
- Thread starter pohtr
- Start date
hortonj
New Member
Normally a 25% water change is done every month. Due to your Chem unbalance you should be able to do a 40% water change and keep testing everyday for stability. What kind of Chem unbalance are you having with tank and how big is your tank? What type of filteration system do you have?
pohtr
Member
I've been doing the 25% aprox monthly but I need to max it out.
I'm not sure of the chem balance problems but my parameters are on the other thread, "I don't want my bubble coral to die" in the diseases forum. I just know that something's not right and water changes should be a good thing if I don't over do it. I have a pic posted on that other thread too.
Thank you so much for answering, I'm having a hard time solving this problem.
I'm not sure of the chem balance problems but my parameters are on the other thread, "I don't want my bubble coral to die" in the diseases forum. I just know that something's not right and water changes should be a good thing if I don't over do it. I have a pic posted on that other thread too.
Thank you so much for answering, I'm having a hard time solving this problem.
maxalmon
Active Member
I see from your other post that you have a lot of hair algae in your tank, you need to get to the root of the that problem. Doing a massive water change will help, but the problem will return unless you figure out whats causing the hair algae.
How often are you feeding?
How long are you running your lights and what type of lights?
What equipment are you using? skimmer, flow etc
Just to be safe, I'd run some phosban and carbon
How often are you feeding?
How long are you running your lights and what type of lights?
What equipment are you using? skimmer, flow etc
Just to be safe, I'd run some phosban and carbon
cowfishrule
Active Member
a 5g water change every day coulndt hurt.
its big enough to make a difference, but small enough not to throw everything outta whack.
its big enough to make a difference, but small enough not to throw everything outta whack.
pohtr
Member
I'm feeding about a half a cube/day or less and a pinch of flakes every few days for a snack. Rarely do any pieces hit the bottom.
I have a nautilis protein skimmer and its working fine, very stinky stuff to be removed every week or two!
90 gal with 3 PH
lights are 4x65 PC and they're set at about 10 hours
I have a nautilis protein skimmer and its working fine, very stinky stuff to be removed every week or two!
90 gal with 3 PH
lights are 4x65 PC and they're set at about 10 hours
pohtr
Member
phosphates just tested at 0. The drained water (in a white bucket) had a yellow/green tint to it. Is that normal?
total GPH is at 900 plus an askol I can't get info on. This is a 90 g.
Run phosban & carbon??? What does "run" mean? I have some carbon I can put in a bag down in the sump where the water hits the fuge. Don't really have a good place for a carbon filter.
I have some Purigen, should I use that?
Am I hijacking my own thread?
Back to the original question: If I do 25% changes (size of barrel) then how often is the most often I can do them safely?
Thank you everyone for your help.
total GPH is at 900 plus an askol I can't get info on. This is a 90 g.
Run phosban & carbon??? What does "run" mean? I have some carbon I can put in a bag down in the sump where the water hits the fuge. Don't really have a good place for a carbon filter.
I have some Purigen, should I use that?
Am I hijacking my own thread?
Back to the original question: If I do 25% changes (size of barrel) then how often is the most often I can do them safely?
Thank you everyone for your help.
cjworkman
Member
Originally Posted by pohtr
phosphates just tested at 0. The drained water (in a white bucket) had a yellow/green tint to it. Is that normal?
total GPH is at 900 plus an askol I can't get info on. This is a 90 g.
Run phosban & carbon??? What does "run" mean? I have some carbon I can put in a bag down in the sump where the water hits the fuge. Don't really have a good place for a carbon filter.
I have some Purigen, should I use that?
Am I hijacking my own thread?
Back to the original question: If I do 25% changes (size of barrel) then how often is the most often I can do them safely?
Thank you everyone for your help.
Hair Algae survies on three things,... Nitrates, Phosphates, and Light. If Phosphates are zero, you may have a nitrate problem and I suspect that the flake food is probably the source of the problem. Drop the flake food and stick to frozen foods.
Check your nitrates, the flake food may not be the source of the nitrates if you have them, just general overfeeding.. a sand bed between 1.5-3 inches (you need to have under 1.5 inches or over 3 inches of sand to control nitrates)
2 common mistakes also can cause Nitrate problems.. Do NOT put anything in your skimmer. Things like carbon, Chemi-pure (which i highly recommend), Phos-ban, etc. Should be run in a seperate Canister filter. Putting a bag of carbon in the protein skimmer will cause it to not function properly and the tank will fill up with nitrates. A second common mistake is not cleaning out your pump to the skimmmer. It needs to be taken apart and all the gears cleaned once a month to keep the flow through the skimmer high enough to function properly. Especially when you have a lot of algae already, it should probably be cleaned once a week. Skimmer too. Once you get rid of the algae you can cut it down to once a month for each.
So my suggestions, Perform a 20-25% water change, which to answer the original question, to do more it should be done in stages. Remove 10%, replace 10%, wait a day, remove 10% replace 10%, wait a day, etc. I wouldn't do more than 25% at a time.
2) stop feeding the flake food (likely source of the problem)
3) test for nitrates, clean skimmer and pump (take apart and clean each piece of the gears)
4) buy a Canister filter as a supplement filter and run Chemi-Pure, replace the media once a month.
phosphates just tested at 0. The drained water (in a white bucket) had a yellow/green tint to it. Is that normal?
total GPH is at 900 plus an askol I can't get info on. This is a 90 g.
Run phosban & carbon??? What does "run" mean? I have some carbon I can put in a bag down in the sump where the water hits the fuge. Don't really have a good place for a carbon filter.
I have some Purigen, should I use that?
Am I hijacking my own thread?
Back to the original question: If I do 25% changes (size of barrel) then how often is the most often I can do them safely?
Thank you everyone for your help.
Hair Algae survies on three things,... Nitrates, Phosphates, and Light. If Phosphates are zero, you may have a nitrate problem and I suspect that the flake food is probably the source of the problem. Drop the flake food and stick to frozen foods.
Check your nitrates, the flake food may not be the source of the nitrates if you have them, just general overfeeding.. a sand bed between 1.5-3 inches (you need to have under 1.5 inches or over 3 inches of sand to control nitrates)
2 common mistakes also can cause Nitrate problems.. Do NOT put anything in your skimmer. Things like carbon, Chemi-pure (which i highly recommend), Phos-ban, etc. Should be run in a seperate Canister filter. Putting a bag of carbon in the protein skimmer will cause it to not function properly and the tank will fill up with nitrates. A second common mistake is not cleaning out your pump to the skimmmer. It needs to be taken apart and all the gears cleaned once a month to keep the flow through the skimmer high enough to function properly. Especially when you have a lot of algae already, it should probably be cleaned once a week. Skimmer too. Once you get rid of the algae you can cut it down to once a month for each.
So my suggestions, Perform a 20-25% water change, which to answer the original question, to do more it should be done in stages. Remove 10%, replace 10%, wait a day, remove 10% replace 10%, wait a day, etc. I wouldn't do more than 25% at a time.
2) stop feeding the flake food (likely source of the problem)
3) test for nitrates, clean skimmer and pump (take apart and clean each piece of the gears)
4) buy a Canister filter as a supplement filter and run Chemi-Pure, replace the media once a month.
ninjamini
Active Member
Do you have hair algae?
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.
Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.
1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.
2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.
3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.
4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.
5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.
6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.
7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.
Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.
*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.
Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.
Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.
1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.
2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.
3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.
4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.
5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.
6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.
7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.
Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.
*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.
Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.
pohtr
Member
Well, I used to have a nitrate problem but maybe it was the algae that took care of it. my trates are 0 now. I never thought about getting rid of ALL the algae, figured that LM Blenny & others needed something to eat, that a little of it would be normal. Definitely have too much at the moment. I usually take out the algae-ridden rocks and hose them down with a firm jet every now and then. Should I declare war?! If I win and have no more algae then will the nitrates come back?
I seriously doubt that I overfeed, they eat every bit of food I give them & I worry that the clean up crew will starve.
I've had the lighting on too much and have reduced it to 8hrs for now.
I don't have the carbon in the skimmer, it is in the fuge where the tank water drains in. Will price those canister filters..
Never thought about cleaning the skimmer pump. Would that mean all the other pumps should be cleaned as well? And would that be for the nitrates or for the algae?
I use only rodi filtered water and use a big barrel which is why 25% changes are convenient (I use the drain it and pump it method instead of the lug it and pour it method of water change) .
Thanks for all that help, I'm going to cut out of work for a bit and kill some algae.
I seriously doubt that I overfeed, they eat every bit of food I give them & I worry that the clean up crew will starve.
I've had the lighting on too much and have reduced it to 8hrs for now.
I don't have the carbon in the skimmer, it is in the fuge where the tank water drains in. Will price those canister filters..
Never thought about cleaning the skimmer pump. Would that mean all the other pumps should be cleaned as well? And would that be for the nitrates or for the algae?
I use only rodi filtered water and use a big barrel which is why 25% changes are convenient (I use the drain it and pump it method instead of the lug it and pour it method of water change) .
Thanks for all that help, I'm going to cut out of work for a bit and kill some algae.
cjworkman
Member
Originally Posted by pohtr
Well, I used to have a nitrate problem but maybe it was the algae that took care of it. my trates are 0 now. I never thought about getting rid of ALL the algae, figured that LM Blenny & others needed something to eat, that a little of it would be normal. Definitely have too much at the moment. I usually take out the algae-ridden rocks and hose them down with a firm jet every now and then. Should I declare war?! If I win and have no more algae then will the nitrates come back?
I seriously doubt that I overfeed, they eat every bit of food I give them & I worry that the clean up crew will starve.
I've had the lighting on too much and have reduced it to 8hrs for now.
I don't have the carbon in the skimmer, it is in the fuge where the tank water drains in. Will price those canister filters..
Never thought about cleaning the skimmer pump. Would that mean all the other pumps should be cleaned as well? And would that be for the nitrates or for the algae?
I use only rodi filtered water and use a big barrel which is why 25% changes are convenient (I use the drain it and pump it method instead of the lug it and pour it method of water change) .
Thanks for all that help, I'm going to cut out of work for a bit and kill some algae.
Yeah, most likely the algae is consuming the nitrates, so removing the algae wouldn't do any good as the nitrates would just build back up again.
So you should focus on fixing the nitrate production problem. Start by cleaning your pumps. Turn off the skimmer, clean it, remove the pump, take it apart and clean it out real good. If i had to guess there's probably a bunch of algae and gunk in there if you've never cleaned it and reducing it's performance.
cut out the flake food, that will help too. Also how's your sand bed? about how many inches of sand do you have?
Well, I used to have a nitrate problem but maybe it was the algae that took care of it. my trates are 0 now. I never thought about getting rid of ALL the algae, figured that LM Blenny & others needed something to eat, that a little of it would be normal. Definitely have too much at the moment. I usually take out the algae-ridden rocks and hose them down with a firm jet every now and then. Should I declare war?! If I win and have no more algae then will the nitrates come back?
I seriously doubt that I overfeed, they eat every bit of food I give them & I worry that the clean up crew will starve.
I've had the lighting on too much and have reduced it to 8hrs for now.
I don't have the carbon in the skimmer, it is in the fuge where the tank water drains in. Will price those canister filters..
Never thought about cleaning the skimmer pump. Would that mean all the other pumps should be cleaned as well? And would that be for the nitrates or for the algae?
I use only rodi filtered water and use a big barrel which is why 25% changes are convenient (I use the drain it and pump it method instead of the lug it and pour it method of water change) .
Thanks for all that help, I'm going to cut out of work for a bit and kill some algae.
Yeah, most likely the algae is consuming the nitrates, so removing the algae wouldn't do any good as the nitrates would just build back up again.
So you should focus on fixing the nitrate production problem. Start by cleaning your pumps. Turn off the skimmer, clean it, remove the pump, take it apart and clean it out real good. If i had to guess there's probably a bunch of algae and gunk in there if you've never cleaned it and reducing it's performance.
cut out the flake food, that will help too. Also how's your sand bed? about how many inches of sand do you have?
azaintcold
Member
I do 10% water changes weekly. Is this good or too much? everything seems very happy. I change out 20 gallons a week. (150 DT and 50 GAL sump/fuge)
pohtr
Member
My sand bed ranges from 0 to about 4-5 inches. Mr. Clarke Clown rearranged it for me. So I have a partial deep sand bed.
I will take that all down and clean as soon as possible but I'm a little afraid of screwing up the PS since it seemed like it never worked right for the longest time and it works well now. I will clean it anyway.
Are the flakes really that bad? My clown just LOVES them! Is it the flake that's bad or the tendency for people to overfeed them?
I will take that all down and clean as soon as possible but I'm a little afraid of screwing up the PS since it seemed like it never worked right for the longest time and it works well now. I will clean it anyway.
Are the flakes really that bad? My clown just LOVES them! Is it the flake that's bad or the tendency for people to overfeed them?