Water change: Saltwater Aquarium

[Vet246]

I'm carrying for my hubby's tank while he is in Korea. I tested my levels this AM and nitrate is 80. I was told to do a 50% water change. I'm making RO right now and I bought salt today. Does anyone have any good advice so I do not loose anything and lessen all trauma to corals/fish. I have a 75 gallon tank. After the water change I was told to dose it with red sea nitrate/phosphate reducer. Then do another water change in a day or two.

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[Travis Dragan]

If you can call your husband and ask him how he thinks you should procede, getting advice from any one that he doesnt agree with may not make him happy, many reefers have a certain way they like to do things and certain things they have read or heard. That being said the nitrate level seems really high, i would do more like a 10-15% water change per day for about 5 days so you dont shock the system. then after that test for nitrates, if they have not come down there is another issue, but if they did move down determine then if you want to treat or just move to a larger weekly water change schedule.

 

[mike007]

If you talking amout Redsea nopox you have to follow directions and dose every day. It is a long process before it takes effect. Not a quick fix. Water changes are great but you have to find out the source of the nitrate. Most of the time it is caused by overfeeding.

 

[nivram]

An nyoung ha seh yo

Is that the salt he normally uses? The reason for the question is you don't want the alkalinity to fluctuate too much.

If he has the test kits. Also test the alkalinity, calcium and magnesium of both the tank water and new water.

Let the new water mix until its crystal clear.

 

[Vet246]

Thank you for all the feedback. Unfortunately, I can't get a hold of him. It is a different salt. I bought a higher end quality of salt then what he was using. He does have all the test kits. Other than nitrates being high the alkalinity was a little low and I added done buffer this AM.

 

[Vet246]

I'm guessing the problem was overfeeding. They were getting 1/3 formula 1 cube, 1/3 formula 2 cube, and live brine shrimp in AM and mysis and live brine shrimp in PM. I have 2 clowns, 2 leo wrasse, 1 dragon goby, 1 scooter dragonet, foxface, copperband butterfly, scarlet shrimp, sally lightfoot, and snails

 

[nivram]

I'm guessing the problem was overfeeding. They were getting 1/3 formula 1 cube, 1/3 formula 2 cube, and live brine shrimp in AM and mysis and live brine shrimp in PM. I have 2 clowns, 2 leo wrasse, 1 dragon goby, 1 scooter dragonet, foxface, copperband butterfly, scarlet shrimp, sally lightfoot, and snails

That sounds like a lot of food. Water changes will help drop the nitrates.

 

[Vet246]

I did the water change and dropped feeding a lot. I'm a little worried about my leo wrasse. Retested levels this AM and nitrates are down to 40. Should I do another water change? Can I pull out just water this time and not worry about sifting the sand? Or should I just dose it with nitrate/phosphate reducer by red sea?

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[nivram]

Without knowing how long the tank has been up and whether he uses a deep sand bed, I can't recommend siphoning the sand.

Unless this is routine, I believe most would suggest leaving the sand bed alone.

I would do a could more water changes until you get the nitrates down.

 

[Vet246]

It is about 2-3 inches...He usually does and that is what I did yesterday. Is messing with the sand causing nitrates to go up?

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[Eric B]

I would not mess with the sand and just do water changes and only feed 1 cube of one type of food once a day if you must feed daily (I feed a 240 gallon tank with a larger amount of fish less every other day). Anytime you feed the tank you never want uneaten food floating throughout the tank for more than a minute or so. If you have food not being eaten in that time frame you are over feeding which is the main cause of your nitrate issue.

 

[zemuss]

I found the thread. I wouldn't dose anything which would reduce nitrates when a simple water change will do the same. Also, I wouldn't dose any buffer for ALK until I knew where my ALK went with the new salt. Why? Well because if my ALk was low say 7.4 ish before the water change and bumped up because I dosed then again because I did a water change that could be an issue with my corals.

However, if I did a water change and ALK fluctuated .6 that would be better. (hope that makes sense.)

Also what was the feeding schedule before?

"Z"

 

[3Twinklets]

Good advice from everyone. When I have an issue, I usually change 20% of the water daily. Over feeding is a common issue. You want to make sure that little guy waaay in the back received his share Lol!
Some wrasses are easily frightened and can die from stress. Leaving the sand bed alone is a good idea. I am a believer that there are many good things in the sand bed.

 

[nivram]

It is about 2-3 inches...He usually does and that is what I did yesterday. Is messing with the sand causing nitrates to go up?

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If that is part of your hubby's regular routine. And he does this often. Then you should be fine.

In a nut shell it's a general rule that you do not want to disturb an established sand bed for fear it will release nutrients and other harmful things back into the water column. Among many other problems, this can also cause your nitrates to go up.

 

[zemuss]

Vet,
Can you provide an update?

 

[beaslbob]

I prefer to use macro algae to balance out and stabilize the aquarium

But that's just me and my

.02

I hope everything is fine.

 

[Vet246]

Well after some tears I did one water change for a total of 20 gallons. Nitrates came down to 40. Then I did another one the next day for 20 gallons which is where the tears came in...I got water on the power strip and I had to call people for help because I could not get it back on. Which dropped nitrates to 15-20...I retested this AM and I'm back to 20-40. What next?

 

[Vet246]

I did stir the sand bed the first prior to posing the question...the 2nd time I did not. I was thinking of buying some more micro algae today. I have cut feeding way back to 1/3 cube in the AM with some black worms for the wrasses and 1/3 cube at night.

 

[Eric B]

I would just keep doing water changes and stay on the current feeding that you are currently doing and nitrates will come down. Just my opinion but I would leave the sand bed alone until your husband gets back to handle that part!

 

[Vet246]

I did another water change on Thursday for an additional 10 gallons. I tested all my levels today and the only thing that seems off is my magnesium 1112.5 and my nitrates 10-20. I got red sea to dose for the magnesium but it sounds like I need to add 280+ ml...does that sound right? Also I got a CAD Lights Aquarium BIO-reactor with Thrive C 250 ml Bio-Stimulant Crush. Will that solve my Nitrate issues?