Water change schedule on neglected reef

pmdagg · May 18, 2020

I have a 50G SCA Starfire PNP tank for over 5 years now and flourished until this last year when I took a field job that requires 90% away time from the house. In a year I have lost a lot of my LPS, all of my SPS, a few anemones and 2 fish. I still have a thriving tank, but its hanging on for dear life.

I've got a month at home due to COVID and did a 10G change (max displaced with sump is approximately 55G). I plan on doing more over this month but I'm time crunched. I also have a rash of bynopsis algae and need to chem kill it but I need a more stable environment beforehand.

Would it be wise to do 2 10G changes per week? My gut says no but hopefully yall have some advice to throw at me. Attached is a before pic my wife took in August and today's pic. Super disappointed and sad!

andrewey · May 18, 2020

Sorry for your loss- it's understandable when you're on the road so much! Looking at the picture, as long as your temp/salinity are matched and your incoming alkalinity of the fresh water is relatively similar, I don't see why you can't do two 10 gallon changes a week. Normally this might be a bit aggressive due to alkalinity shifts and mainly phosphate shocks, but I don't really see any corals/animals that would be really bothered. If you still had a lot of SPS, I would worry about them bleaching by dropping your phosphate too quickly, but most of the corals seem to be zoas, softies, and a few LPS, unless I am mistaken. In that case, my vote is to go with the water changes.

vetteguy53081 · May 18, 2020

Once a week is adequate with light siphoning. Focus on filters keeping them clean and clean/change filters right before trip. Test water of course Prior to being gone for extended time

pmdagg · May 18, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Once a week is adequate with light siphoning. Focus on filters keeping them clean and clean/change filters right before trip. Test water of course Prior to being gone for extended time

Ok thank you. Keeping my fingers crossed!

pmdagg · May 21, 2020

Well I thought I had some time home. I'm going to Michigan now for a week maybe more. I had mixed up 12 gallons and planned to change on Sunday. Instead I did it this evening. I also added a DC return pump, and an autoaqua AWC/ATO which only the ATO is working. I question its reliability because out of the box 2 pumps were none functional.

The one question that I have is about UV sterilizers. I used to run one off my RODI and pulled it due to a broken housing. In its place I doubled up on my DI elements. I've been reading a lot of spot on positive things about running one. Being that I have no time i ordered a Coralife turbo twist UV and my wife feels confident she can get it up without me.

Do yall think this is a gimic or something worth installing? I know what they do and putting 2 and 2 together it kind of makes sense to me.

I also forgot to mention that I am running purigen and chemi-pure through my sock filter. My wife put them in on the last week of February.