good maintenance?

[woogy]

I have been changing my water recently just every month about 30%. This has done nothing for my nitrates...actually made it worse going from 10-20 to 20-40. So I am going to try every 2 weeks changing about 30%. I used to change every week about 5 gallons. I always clean the HOB filter which houses carbon and rinse the bag. Also I clean the powerheads and the lighting cover. I clean the skimmer once a month. I take it completely apart and clean everything. Tell me if this is good maintanence.

Also should I just ditch the HOB filter???...could this be doing more harm than good. There is also a bunch of crap all over the carbon bag when I rinse it out. I change this once a month but I am changing it with this water change to see if it affects anything.

 

[ser_renely]

why not do a larger water change? There is an article here about water changes and size, a good read. suggest you search for it

 

[crvz]

you're finding out exactly why people don't recommend using bioballs, cannister filters, etc. That junk that collects on the filter is rotting in the tank, basically fueling your nitrates. If you don't clean it more frequently (once a week at least), you'll continue to have problems.

Though I'm not saying that's the only issue. What kind of water do you use (RO?), and what/how often do you feed? Any other kind of filtration on the tank?

 

[alpha0r]

How much live rock do you have, how deep is your sand bed, and do you have a fuge?