What water levels do you recommend at doing your water changes?

[uscstaylor]

hey guys,
I have had my saltwater tank cycled and running now for about 4 months now and I do my water changes every 7 days religiously. I have noticed that my ammo is between the 0-.25 area and my nitrates are between 0-5.0 area by my the 5th day. So my question is at what levels is it still ok before water changes or how long can the fish go at the lowest levels in your tank. I hear that some guys are changing the their water around 10 days to 2 weeks. Any help in this would be great... Thanks so much in advance.

 

[Kworker]

There really is no perfect answer, you have to base the maintenance according to how your tank reacts to such things. Every tank is different and there are different outcomes from same procedures. I've had luck with regular weekly water changes and sometimes skip with no I'll effects but I don't want to push it. It depends on stock list as well.

But as for parameters you should have ammonia at 0, any trace of it can damage our little finned friends. Depending on your brand of test pack, I found ammonia always has a tint of green even if it's the yellow for 0.

 

[trido]

My biggest question is why are you still getting any traceable ammonia at all after four months. Do you have enough live rock? Do you have enough mechanical filtration? Do you have too many fish? And do you overfeed?

In most healthy tanks Nitrates will build up but ammonia should pretty much be untraceable once the initial cycle is complete. I would never expect to see ammonia unless a fish has died and is rotting behind the rock work.

 

[uscstaylor]

Thanks guy for responses, as for my ammo I think it's like the other guy states, it looks like its yellowish with a hint of green. It's probably me just reading it incorrectly. Right now I have a 55 gallon tank with 60 pds of rock, 16 pds is live the rest is or was dry rock. As for my fish I have 2 Clowns and 1 Firefish.

 

[uscstaylor]

Didn't know that the levels stay at 0 except nitrates. That's great info thanks a lot. I thought that all the levels fluctuate. Boy you learn something new everyday! I am so glad I have this forum to come to. You guys are awesome......