water changes

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phillips

Guest
i am new in this hobby and i am having problems keeping corals alive? just looking for some good info, from feeding to water change times, how long to leave my lights on? also i have some green hair like algea growing in the tank how do i get rid of it.
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Feeding all depends on what you have in the tank. What fish and corals do you have in there?
What kind of lights do you have? That will help determine a scedule.
The hair algae could be a phosphate/nitrate problem? Do you know your nitrates? Do you use tap or RO water?
You should do partial water changes once a week. Here is my method for doing water changes:
I have 2 trash cans. A good water bucket, and a bad water bucket. The two are never mixed. I have "good" on one, and "bad" on the other. Since I do 40 gallon water changes, I use a 45 gallon trash can.
Fill up a trash can with water. Pour the salt in. Guess-timate it the first time. Put a heater in, and heat it to the exact temperature of the tank. For the first 24 hours, put a powerhead on the bottom of the bucket/trash can to mix the water with the salt. Salt will fall to the bottom, so this is where you want your powerhead. After 24 hours has passed, bring the powerhead closer to the top to increase the oxygen. Dissolving salt with water uses the oxygen up in the water, so you need to replace this. You could use an airstone, but I just use a venturi powerhead because it sucks air in (I run 2 poweheads, one at the top, and one at the bottom, since I have such a huge trash can - you only need one). After the first 24 hours has passed, check the salinity and pH and adjust accordingly. If it is too high, add regular water. If it is too slow, add more salt. If your pH is different from your tank, check your alkalinity. Many times, you need to buffer alkalinity because there are some salts that you give a low alk level.
Once the salinity, pH, kH, and temp are EXACT to your tank, you are ready to do a water change.
When I do a water change, I never dump water into the tank. I have a 5 gallon bucket that I use to take water from my trash can. I put the five gallon bucket on the floor and pump water from the 5 gallon bucket to my sump using a small powerhead and some tubing. This way, the fish are not getting stressed out by you adding a lot of water to the top of the tank. They do not even realize that you are adding water to the tank because it is calm, plus all the water levels are identical to that of the tank. (Plus, this way is a lot less messy).
 

silentm

Member
Im new too and i havent played with corals yet,but i do bout 15% water change each week(75g),try to use ro water.i run my lights but 12hrs a day.also i had alot of algea(tank was fully green)i bought one of swf reef packs and its crystal clear.
 
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phillips

Guest
ok i will try to explain my tank it is a 125 gallon tank with about 80 pounds of live rock, crushed coral substrate. i have a yellow tang a royal groma a small lion fish a maroon perc, an urchin,a serpent star, about 30 different hemit crabs and a few snails. i forgot the name of the only coral i have left but it looks just like a tree and it blossoms drown everyday. i have a e.t.s.s. protien skimmer with a mag 7 running it and a mag 7 running to the tank. i have an ice cap 440 ballast and two 6 foot bulbs one 50/50 one atinic. i test ph 8.4 ammonia 0 nitrate 0 and nitrite 0 and salinity witch runs at 1.022 to1.023 my water is really clear and my fish do great i just have a hard time with corals and the algea
 
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phillips

Guest
i also do have a ro/di filter that runs to my sump and runs on a float so the water level always stayes the same
 
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