First large tank water change issue

[enthb]

I have a 125 that has been cycling for about 3 months and is almost finished. I have previously cycled 2 quarantine tanks and the currently both have fish in them waiting for the display tank to finish. I had no idea it would take this long. Anyway after completing the cycle of the smaller tanks I did a large water change to lower nitrates and added fish. When the nitrites and ammonia were at zero I tested nitrates too and they were at the highest level on the api test kit. The problem is I would have to change the majority of the water to get the nitrates to a manageable number. I have an RODI setup but it will only do 75 gallons per day and only have 1 brute can to store water in. What is the best way to change the water or lower the nitrates with a manageable amount of water. I know if I do only 25-30 gallons at a time it will take forever to get then nitrates down, but if i do a large all at once the tank would have to set at least 2 days for me to make enough water before I could get it going again. I never really thought about this until now. What do people with even larger tanks do when they have built up a ton of nitrates during a cycle? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[AZMSGT]

High Nitrates will come down in time if you let it sit, that's the last part of the cycling process. You want everything to go up then back down. Did you add any bacteria to your cycling process to help? Bio Spira, Microbacter, Dr Tims one and only to name a few.

What did you use to cycle the tank? 3 months is long.

 

[W1ngz]

Many with really large tanks have large water storage tanks for this kind of thing.

Is there a reason you cant just get another brute?

 

[jsvand5]

I’d just do a 45 gal WC and see where you are at. Depending on how large your sump is, your 125 probably only has around 100-110g of water in it when you take into account the displacement from the rock and the fact that they don’t truly hold 125g even without rock and sand in it.

 

[enthb]

High Nitrates will come down in time if you let it sit, that's the last part of the cycling process. You want everything to go up then back down. Did you add any bacteria to your cycling process to help? Bio Spira, Microbacter, Dr Tims one and only to name a few.

What did you use to cycle the tank? 3 months is long.

I used Bio spira to help cycle on this tank. Used turbo start 900 on my QT tanks and they took almost that long too. I don't get why. Started with RODI, ran about 80 degrees, had ceramic media with a sponge and HOB filter. Added ammonia to 2ppm and when it dropped to zero or close re dosed to 2 again. I see all these people getting 2 week cycles but havent come close to that. Its been 3 months for the 125 and 2 ppm Ammonia and nitrites are processing to nitrates in about 36 hours right now so i figure its almost through.

I was under the impression that nitrates would only drop through water changes or other means like dosing certain things or bio pellets or scrubbers.

I could get another brute but my thinking was if I do 2 of those with nitrates being over 160 then it would still be crazy high afterward. I dont mind doing that just wanted to see what the best course of action was from more experienced people.

Also my sump is a 55 gallon diy

 

[lapin]

...........
I could get another brute but my thinking was if I do 2 of those with nitrates being over 160 then it would still be crazy high afterward. I dont mind doing that just wanted to see what the best course of action was from more experienced people.

Get 2 or borrow from a local reefer. The do stack nicely, so storage for 2 is not really more space than one. In your case bringing it down will take some time but ya gots to do what ya gots to do. Some people cycling rock in brutes to avoid the large tank water change issue.

 

[DEWreefing]

You could use a couple table spoons of sugar to help bacteria eat up the nitrates or add a small bottle of Dr. Tim's one and only then do a water change in 3 days. All so it would help to know what filtration you have as well.