Newbie water change question....

[Shawn O]

Wanting to know what you all think is too frequent water changes. Trying to get ahead of my nitrates. Is changing out 9 gals per day (on a 55) for a total of two weeks, too much & too soon? The tank is roughly 45 actual gallons after rock and sand volume is discounted.

[mcgyvr]

I don't believe there is a "too frequent" when attempting to knock down nitrates..

[Shawn O]

Kinda figured. Wifey says I'll kill the fish if I change that much water that fast. Told her it wouldn't but wanted a second opinion before doing it.

[reef thief]

You can change it that often but I'd cut it in half just to save the salt. Every other day might be just as efficient.

[Shawn O]

Nah, salt is cheap compared to lost livestock. I might just do every other day just because i'm lazy and it's a PITA. I just want to get my water quality down out of dangerous levels. 60ppm No3 was fine as a fowler but since I've been adding coral and anemones I need to get it safe asap.

[jlmawp]

I know this isn't really in the scope of the thread, but what else have you done to try and reduce your nitrates?

[nereefpat]

No problem with daily changes.

You can do bigger water changes, as long as the temp and salinity are the same, and alk is within a point or so. This will knock down the nitrates faster.

[Shawn O]

Originally Posted by jlmawp

I know this isn't really in the scope of the thread, but what else have you done to try and reduce your nitrates?

Replaced all my sand, ran purigen and charcoal, changed out my filter floss every other day.... A heavy bioload and overfeeding was the problem. Cutting down on feeding will not bring down my nitrates as I can't feed that little and not starve the animals. After xmas I'm going to set up a sulfer reactor but want to get them down by end of this month.

[Walla2GSP]

Have you tried just throwing a carbon source like vinegar, vodka, or sugar in there? I know everyone says you can't do any harm by doing water changes to get nitrate down, but you are removing the nitrate converting bacteria at the same rate you are removing the nitrate so doing water changes at this point seems like a never ending cycle. I personally would rather invest my time into getting the tank back to normal bacterial balance and not so much time changing water. I tend to agree with your wife that stability is important, and have adjusted my systems to cut down on water changes.

[jlmawp]

Originally Posted by Shawn O

Replaced all my sand, ran purigen and charcoal, changed out my filter floss every other day.... A heavy bioload and overfeeding was the problem. Cutting down on feeding will not bring down my nitrates as I can't feed that little and not starve the animals. After xmas I'm going to set up a sulfer reactor but want to get them down by end of this month.

Awesome. all good things.

Do you siphon your sand as well? Blow off the rocks with a turkey baster before that? This is part of my normal cleaning routine, and it's made a world of difference.