I'm more confused than usual,,, Please help,,, Am I ready for my 1st water change?

[smellzlikefish]

Hello guys,,, my first cycle is nearly complete. I am happy about that.

I have a few questions that I can't find the answers to, or I would like other peoples opinion about.

Here is the history of my tank / levels.

My tank is a simple 260 gallon starter tank with a 100 gallon sump. ( first fish tank ever )

I am fortunate to have been able to collect my sand, rock, and water direct from the sea. ( I own a dive shop here in the Philippines ). I am not sure how many pounds of rock and sand I have but it's a lot.

questions about water changes?

Today is only the 20th day of my cycle.

My Ammonia has been zero for the past few days. ( It hovered at 0.25 for a few days before going to zero )

My nitrite has been stuck at 1 for the past 5 days. ( When my Ammonia started to drop, my nitrite rose off the charts but fell to one rapidly. Now it's been stuck at 1.

My nitrate is now reading off the charts 160 plus. ( 4 days ago it was only at 20 ).

If my nitrite was at zero, I would be more confident that my cycle is complete.

I have been very pro active blowing off and collecting any die off from the rocks since day one.

In the beginning there was a lot of die off, but my rocks look much better / cleaner now.

In the beginning my skimmer was going crazy, but now it's settled down.

I have also kept the lights off so far, but recently I have kept the lights on for a few hours a day.

Questions:

Should I wait until my nitrite is zero before doing a water change?,,, or will a water change now help the nitrite problem?

and,,,,

I have read different opinions about first water change. Some people suggest a 50% change. I've also read people suggest doing a 90% water change. I have also read doing a 50% water change, and then 1 week later doing another 50% water change. Please share your thoughts and opinions about this. I really do not know what to do?

Please remember this will be my first water change and my tank is slightly bigger than usual, plus everything was as healthy as it could of been before being put into the tank.

Misc question:

At this time I do not have a refugium set up because I am waiting until I light the tank. ( As soon as my cycle is complete, I will start the refugium

There has been about 150 pounds of rock in my sump since day one. ( No lights, no movement of water ). There is a lot of "crud" on the bottom of my sump. Should I scoop that stuff up and use it for my refugium?

Thanks so much for the time and the help. This site has been so helpful in the past.

Peace!!!!

Shawn

[yeloowtang]

i will let others with way more experience talk about the water change part
but will give you what i would do and did

first it's a good idea to siffon the junk in the sump.

then i would recommend having water flow at all time,if you have no flow at all things will die off because of a lack of gas exchange (no oxygen)
still water is not good...get the overflow and return pump going,unless i'm reading your post wrong but you want your sump and DT running together.
if you don't your DT will have cycle but everything in the sump will be dead and when you get them going you will cycle again..i say this because you mentioned you have no movenment of water in your sump !!!!!

as for the water change i would do the 10% every week and go from there
no need to do 50% unless you have problemes..

steff

[Sport507]

Originally Posted by yeloowtang

i will let others with way more experience talk about the water change part
but will give you what i would do and did

first it's a good idea to siffon the junk in the sump.

then i would recommend having water flow at all time,if you have no flow at all things will die off because of a lack of gas exchange (no oxygen)
still water is not good...get the overflow and return pump going,unless i'm reading your post wrong but you want your sump and DT running together.
if you don't your DT will have cycle but everything in the sump will be dead and when you get them going you will cycle again..i say this because you mentioned you have no movenment of water in your sump !!!!!

as for the water change i would do the 10% every week and go from there
no need to do 50% unless you have problemes..

steff

I think you done very well with the advice in your post. Pretty on the mark I would say.

I'm with you though a 50% water change on that simple 260 gal. starter tank might be a little over kill.

I would start running the lights like you will be 6 months from now.

[smellzlikefish]

Hello,,,

Thanks for the replies,,,

I just want to be clear,,, when I said no water movement in the sump,,, I meant no powerheads or anything like that.

The water in the sump is getting circulated through the tank. Meaning my sump is working in junction with the tank.

If I vacuum out all the stuff from the bottom of my sump, should I throw that away or is that good stuff to add to my refuguim in the future?

10% water change??? really??? That's it??? Even with my nitrates off the charts?

Sorry to ask, that is just different from what I have read so far.

Regarding the lights,,, I have been running them longer and longer,,, starting tomorrow I will run them 8+ hours daily.

Hopefully I can get some more info about the water change??

Just to be clear,, I am not put off by the work involved in doing water changes, the tank is 33 steps / paces from the sea,,, so no problem in water changes,,, I am more worried about having healthy water when I add my fish.

Thanks again

Shawn

[bertoni]

I would remove the debris in the sump (and the rest of the tank) and pitch it. Other than that, I'd just wait a bit, and maybe do some smaller water changes, like 15%. If the nitrate level doesn't drop on its own, you could consider various approaches to dealing with that. If the saltwater is cheap and easy to get, some larger changes might be fine in the future. Exposing live rock to air can cause more die-off, so I like to avoid that.