when is it safe to do a water change?

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elan

Guest
i finished cycling my tank about two weeks ago, and all my levels are at 0 except for nitrate which is at 5.
Should I bother to do a water change? or leave it be?
 
YEAH!!
Thats always exciting!! How long did it take to cycle? Did you use any methods or just let it sit and run? When do you plan on adding fish?? Sorry for the questions...
But in short, my answer would be... Couldnt hurt.... Do a small water change.. I say this cuz if your #'s are good, really no reason to do a big change.... ( I would)
Hope this helps.. anyone wanna bash me?? Kiddin!
Thnaking you kindly, Kim:eek:
 
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elan

Guest
i have already started adding some fish and a few small corals.
Last week, i added
Added 7 bluegreen chromis
2 clowns
a plate coral (doing nicely and even ate some of the brine shirmp)
A torch coral, doing nicely and ate some brine shrimp too!
this week i added
i added 3 fire fish. All are doing well.
a colt coral (not doing so well, but i only added him yesterday and want to give it a few days before i make an assesment)
I know many think i am over stocking the tank, but its a 135 gallon, and all the specimines i am getting are very small so not to elevate the bio load.
Last time i checked my paramaters (i also got a few more test kits) i got the following.
3-AprDate
0(NH3/NH4)) Ammonia
0.3(NO2) Nitrite
5(NO3) Nitrate
0(PO4) phosphate
440(Ca) Calcium
110(KH) Carbonate
8.2pH
1.022Salinity
28Strontium
0iodine
81temp
From what i have read, my strontium is way too high. so i am planning on doing a water change to dilute that, and up my dosing of iodine after i make another test to make sure my first test correclty read 0.
But with water changes, and using RO/DI water, i am assuming i am going to dilute everything, so wouldnt all my levels go down, such as calcium and pH??? Do i have to compensate for these?
The only other thing, is i think i have a mantis shrimp of some sort and he is killing my scarlet crabs.. i may have to do some major moving around of my LR to get to that little bugger. and since i will have displaced alot of my LR, i am planning on adding more live sand. will this change my water conditions?
 

peppy

Member
Sorry to jump your post, but we are in identicle situation! I was just going to write the same exact thing! I have 100g and numbers are 0, nitrate 5. What test kit did you get that had everything else or was it all seperate? When you guys say small w / change are you talking about 10%? When doing a w/ change on larger tank do you turn everything off? Where do you mix the water and regulate correct wtr temp? What is the best RO/DI and about how apprx. $$? Distilled water like you get from front of grocery store? What about getting 10g saltwater from LFS? Sorry again for the jump but could'nt help myself?
 

fshhub

Active Member
nitrite is a little high, I would not add anything else, until that goes back to 0 and stays for about 2 weeks, If you tank had completely cycled, then this may h appen, if you add things too fast. Relax, enjoy, the hard part is over, you now have a lifetime to finish stocking, use soem of it. You and your tank and friends will appreciate that you did.
 
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elan

Guest
KimKissyFish, my tank took two months to cycle. The reason for this is after the first month, i ended up taking out all my CC and replacing it with a DSB. and i ended up adding live rock thought the first 6 weeks.
So in reality, i am not sure how long the tank took to cycle, then recycle, and finally finish it cycle. but it stood with the same water for 2 months.
Peppy, thats cool that we are in the same situation. I am going to get salt water from my LFS because i hope they have let it sit around for a week or so. Less of a headache on me with mixing salt and making sure its all absorbed in the water. I just hope they arnt skimping on quality water and quality salt. I am not sure on the price yet, but i will try it out for a little while, and if i find it makes my tank look prettier and less of an algae/diatom problem, i will probably look into investing in my own RO/DI water.
fshhub, yes, my tank has had completed its cycle, and i probably put too many things too quickly. I just hope it will all survive over the next few weeks. I do have to do some rearanging to get that crab/shrimp/lobster (whaterver that thing is) out of my tank, so i hope stirring it around alot isnt going to hurt the cycling. I also plan on adding another 20# of LS while some of the rock is moved out of the way. I figure my first batch of LS didnt make it 100%, but since my tank is now fully cycled, any LS will have a better chance of making it.
 

fshhub

Active Member
the ls is fine
as for rearranging, move slowly, bc you will stir up detritus, so try to kep that at a minimal
 
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