50% Water change? Yes or No?

[ReefFreak@]

Wow you must have a big duncan.. any pictures? Also do you blast your live rock?

 

[Sweet7]

Ya Its pretty beastly, the thing is a pig! I could easily feed it the whole cube. I can get some pics when I get home from work. Its my favorite coral. I don't blast my live rock at all, should I?

 

[ReefFreak@]

alright sweet i would love to see that monster lps are so cool. Its a good idea to do so you will be amazed at the detritus you see coming off. 30 min before your weekly water change shut down all your flow powerheads and return. Get your handy dandy turkey baster and gently blast your coral let everything fall from your water column to the bottom then siphon out. That should help with your nitrate problem.

 

[ReefFreak@]

one other thing do you have a sand bed or bare bottom?

 

[Av8Bluewater]

I like Randys suggestion of carbon dosing. Also for GFO regeneration it's my understanding that the standard GFO is not good for regenerating. The grains are too small. You need the high capacity type. Since the grains are bigger they can withstand a few regeneration treatments. Soak in vinegar for a couple days to get off any calcium build up then use this product:
Roebic HD-CRY-DO-6 2-Pound Heavy Duty Crystal Drain Opener - Bathroom Sink And Tub Drain Strainers - Amazon.com
Which will release the phosphate.

 

[dsmhero]

I am in the midst of clearing up my tank of hair algae and cyano. I did find that large water changes were not enough. I went with a small amount of gfo and some chaeto as well and hope to find a nice balance while still keeping the gfo costs down. Best of both worlds? We'll see.

 

[Av8Bluewater]

Have you considered prodibio?
I moved from Prodibio to biopellets for cost and ease of use but I still keep prodibio on hand for occasional bacteria dose. It takes a month or two for biopellets vodka/vinegar to really start working. With prodibio it's like giving your tank a shot of healthy bacteria that will immediately go to town on those nitrates. When I first started using it I could tell in 3 days the water clarity was amazing.

 

[deznuttz4u]

So I have been having some issues with green hair algae and I'm pretty sure it's due to my Nitrates. I have not been able to keep them below 10ppm even with weekly 20% water changes. My Phosphates are 0 but Nitrates remain. I have a 29g Biocube that am currently running a Aquaticlife 115 skimmer, Purigen and Matrix Carbon (no bio balls) to aid in waste removal, a bag of Matrix Media and two large sponges. Water Parameters are all stable, minus the Nitrates of course. My idea to try and get my Nitrates down to nothing was to remove the sponges, since I have heard they could be the culprit and put in a media basket. I also was going to do a 50% water change but wasn't sure if that was a good idea. The actual water volume in my tank is between 16 and 17 gallons so I would change 2 jugs of nutri-seawater (which i use for all my water changes), so almost 9 gallons.

So with all that said, anyone have any objections? or should I give it a go? I'm definitely getting rid of the sponges for the basket today, should I just do my normal water change when I make that change? Any advise would be helpful. Thanks Guys.

I just had this issue in my biocube and here is how I solved it.

1) Get a Seahare - They destroy hair algae - Return it to the store when it is gone so it doesn't die
2) Instead of risking a 50% water change do a 5g change every other day. After 3 days you should be good.

Other options are to cut down feedings to every other day and shorten your light cycle for a bit.