Which strategy to use to bounce back?

[SallyWho]

I will freely and shamefully admit that I slacked off and let my tank go. I'd like to whip it back into shape, and the answer to a few of my problems is obviously water changes. Which do you think would be most beneficial? Several small changes a week for a several weeks, or 2-3 larger changes a week to really get that old water swapped out? The tank is 120g with a 40b sump. I have a pipe thingy that I use to siphon water out and I can either siphon out 20g or 10g at a time. I haven't done any testing yet, but I can look around at the cyano, the pathetic unhappy SPS, and the proliferation of pests (probably because I overfeed to keep an aggression issue under control) to know that my water is diiiiiiiirrrrrrty. I don't want to shock the tank by too much turnover, but I don't want to wait until Christmas for the cyano to go away either. What would you do?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I will freely and shamefully admit that I slacked off and let my tank go. I'd like to whip it back into shape, and the answer to a few of my problems is obviously water changes. Which do you think would be most beneficial? Several small changes a week for a several weeks, or 2-3 larger changes a week to really get that old water swapped out? The tank is 120g with a 40b sump. I have a pipe thingy that I use to siphon water out and I can either siphon out 20g or 10g at a time. I haven't done any testing yet, but I can look around at the cyano, the pathetic unhappy SPS, and the proliferation of pests (probably because I overfeed to keep an aggression issue under control) to know that my water is diiiiiiiirrrrrrty. I don't want to shock the tank by too much turnover, but I don't want to wait until Christmas for the cyano to go away either. What would you do?

First, I would test my water parameters to have a baseline (LFSs will test if you can't do all, but might have to call around and might have to pay a little $ for some tests)

Then do water change 10-20%

Then test again (see above).

Then determine what needs work/dosed/whatever... refer to below chart. DO NOT GO FAST - adjusting water should happen over time or that can also harm/kill corals.... It didn't get out of control overnight, and don't try to fix it overnight.

"start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." - Arthur Ashe, tennis player

 

[SallyWho]

I posted this and then walked off to do a 20g water change. Guess I'll dust off my tests kits tomorrow morning when I get off work!

 

[PeterC99]

What do you currently do to control phosphates and nitrates?

 

[SallyWho]

What do you currently do to control phosphates and nitrates?

I run filter socks, a skimmer, and have chaeto in the sump. I have historically also done regular water changes, but I've been slacking the last several months on that.

 

[brandon429]

lets do one of these on it:

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

it takes one day to turn it around, not a series of days.

 

[SallyWho]

After doing a water change yesterday (~20g on a ~150g system), I did some testing today.

SG 1.026
Amm 0
Nitrites 0.05
Nitrates 20
Phos 0.41
Alk 7.0

Granted, I'm interpreting these results with caution- many of my reagents are expired. But if these are correct, then I think continued water changes will help. The water changes will get rid of those nitrites and bring down the nitrates and phos, and the fresh saltwater will replenish the Alk a bit.