How frequently to do water changes to lower my params?

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I have a 55 litre nano tank which I have neglected for around 10 weeks without a water change.

I did a 50% water change on Monday and just got done testing the water, unfortunately my Ammonia test kit expired so couldn't test for that, all tests were done using the Salifert test kits.

Nitrate: 25
Nitrite: 0.025
Phosphate: 0.25

What's the best way to go about doing more water changes at 50% to lower the parameters? I don't want to shock the system by doing them so frequently hence why I'm asking your experienced selves. Thanks.
 
in all reefs, and much easier in nano reefs, you can clean them as thorough and as deeply as you want--as frequently as you want, without fear of recycle or harm. they will also run in a hands off mode where nutrients and waste build up slowly over time, its less work in that method but a max capacity registers at some point and the forced-clean system wont ever reach a threshold.

at worst you'll be wasting energy if you just change water but leave nutrients stores in the tank that leak the params you hope to lower (any type of a sandbed that would cloud if you raised up some sand, then dropped it back down, is your nitrate source along with fish and feed bioload)


If we get deep into google scholar articles regarding the nature of bacteria including filtration bacteria (what keeps us from recycling) we see that cleaning a filter, removing the competing bacteria and their sludge, is how marine production and aquaculture facilities keep their filters working
we do not have to be hands-off to avoid filtration bacteria loss-- we have large industries for alt consultation and can copy their moves. keeping sludge out of an aquarium, or filter, by physical cleaning is how you keep the filter going strongest.

a plugged up filter, or an aquarium (same as a filter) still handles the bioload even though its efficiency could be less than half of a nonaccumulated tank (or filter)

the nitrifiers will adhere to surface areas as we clean regardless of our approach if using rational means

what washes off is floc, groups of competing heterotrophic bacteria the articles show, and the flow-through of the filter is restored as needed.

our aquariums are one big filter setup just like that.

though people practice hands off, permanent accumulation approaches, you wont find the oldest nano reefs being able to replicate that since they have no water dilution. the oldest nano reefs you can google simply clean their tank as needed, and some clean so often its weekly.

The key is finding threads (avail) that show how to clean without ever causing cycle. When you run an aquarium that doesn't store muddy waste in the sand or on the rocks, you are free to do whatever you want with it.

If you changed my own aquarium out 100% every morning for the next ten yrs, it would enjoy that because of the extra feeding it would allow. weekly is good enough for me though, I don't want the coral growing too fast (feed modulates that given normal lighting and other params, and btw your reported params are better than mine you have no concern so far)
 
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in nano reefs the pie is usually sliced this way

1 hands off mode and water changes must slowly increase in volume and frequency over time to maintain X nitrate and po4 reading, with sandbed/no sandbed the major decider of increased vol and freq with age

2 completely forced clean by take-apart/takedown cleanings where the sand is made like new, totally rinsed, rocks cleared of accumlations and algae if applic, then the whole tank is reassembled and not much water changing happens for a while to maintain X reading of N and P. the big cleaning is required a few mos later or years depending on bioloading and sandbed/no sandbed. no interim supports like ATS, carbon dosing is needed in this type of nano. its forcing a tank to run stable by refusing accumlations using physical work. very low cost approach. *this is the only method guaranteed to prevent old tank syndrome and confers an indefinite biological lifespan to the system. its harder to gain that condition in the other approaches since they store waste. few people are keeping nanos out to ten years in order to test any of the claims, but there are some.

3. somewhere in the middle where light siphoning of the sandbed prevents total rot, but its never cleaned to the core. reg water changes occur and the keeper employs holdover tricks like carbon dosing, ATS algae filtering, and other modes of N and P uptake so that all the work isn't concentrated on force cleaning the tank.


choose your mode, they're all the same out to about 4~ years in age then things start to converge into the busier tanks lasting the longest when nano reefs are involved.
 
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Appreciate the comprehensive replies brandon429.

Since my first post I've done a 30% water change yesterday and my water params as the original post are exactly the same. Not sure why or how that can be?

This is what my husbandry looked like when I was active.

55l tank
  • 50% weekly water change (I feel this is overkill to be honest)?
  • Change filter floss as needed
  • Clean skimmer cup as needed
  • Stir sand bed up prior to water change or filter floss change to keep sand nice and white
  • Clean glass as needed
  • Change carbon and phos ever 4 weeks
I want to do another 50% water change to hopefully get the levels down but is it too soon?
 
your params are ok I wouldn't be chasing them. if you have coral growth and low/controllable algae that's ideal, curious to see pics

Randy shows in his articles on nitrate that changing the water and leaving the source (sandbed/waste sinks and tank bioloading) results in quick rebounds such that the nitrate reading stays steady over time. it takes pre exports before breakdown into nitrate to really make a dent, that or dedicated uptake after the fact (carbon dosing/export, or ats plant systems/export)

if you have a sandbed that can cloud the tank, that's likely your biggest nitrate source barring sourcewater addition or bioloads outside the norm. Randy says nitrates and water changes are inefficient, not that water changes are bad. The solid rule about reef water changes is you can do as much as you want any time you want, daily, doesn't matter. what matters is if you run a tank that stores waste, then upon big refill that waste/rot is kicked up into a mini cycle event.

in that case, the waste did the harm not the water change. in nanos, we do water changes all day anytime, I used to do 100% 3x a week when I would feed my bowl to fatten up for article pictures. nowadays its 1x a month, less feed, im tired of them growing and want it at a slower metabolism...in larger tanks they dislike the work involved in water changes, but they're just as refreshing for a large tank if no waste clouding is involved.

we should run a rip clean on your system, we did one here:

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/383430-brown-cloudy-water/?page=1
 
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Only reason I'm trying to lower my params is so I can add new corals without stressing them since they're most likely in systems with better params than mine, especially SPS. I just read that thread you linked and my tank thankfully has never looked like that or had an issue of looking cloudy. I just upped my white light on my Kessil and in your thread you said you made yours more blue to tackle algae growth, is that right?

I also am fortunate not to have any issues with algae too. When I stir up my sand bed to clean it, it only releases very small white particles (dust I guess) that get caught by my filtration and the water is pretty much crystal clear again within a short moment. If I leave my sand bed like I did for 2+ months it does start to get brown and what not from the fish waste and whatever other processes are going on I guess.

I'll post a picture of my tank tomorrow for you hopefully.
 
those kessils are said to grow corals just fine in either setting, we choose the blue cuz it seems like it helps but plenty people run them at 10k setting too, pics look better w whites that's for sure. just a custom approach, at least you have some kessils to aim at them they're fine lights either way.
 
Managed to get a picture today. My red sea star that can be seen on the back wall seems to me disintegrating for some reason.

Water params as of today:

Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0.03
KH: 8.3
Calcium: 430
Magnesium: 1320
SG: 1.025

20170629_1747333.jpg
 
Managed to get a picture today. My red sea star that can be seen on the back wall seems to me disintegrating for some reason.

Water params as of today:

Nitrate: 10
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0.03
KH: 8.3
Calcium: 430
Magnesium: 1320
SG: 1.025

20170629_1747333.jpg

Stars can be weird... tank looks great as is. I'd hold parameters right where they are as they are basically ideal for a mixed reef.
 
Sb looks totally clean tank is sharp
 

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