My 280g Custom upgrade.....

Maybe a better idea is setup the apex and pumps for a change, but have it such that you manually kick it off and witness it finish? Just a thought.
 
Maybe a better idea is setup the apex and pumps for a change, but have it such that you manually kick it off and witness it finish? Just a thought.

Yeah I think its something that I would do only if I was home to oversee it doing everything. Right now I enjoy doing the water changes....its part of my quiet time :thumbsup:
 
Another 200g water change

Another 200g water change

I completed another 200g water change tonight. I waited 2 hours before testing and so far the nitrates are at 40ppm....its getting there!!!! :beer:
 
Steve,

why did you do so much water change? I don't get it. 200G at a time?

I want to export the n03 and large wc will achieve that quicker. since I don't have any live stock in there I can do this without worrying about causing harm. if I did 25% wc it would take a long time to get the no3 levels down.

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Steve,
I am just catching up and see you are still battling nitrates. Those are huge water changes and it should be dropping by more. Hopefully you will find the source otherwise they will be back in no time.
 
Im pretty satisfied with the drops. figure Im doing 50% wc each time sebd the nitrates are dropping 50%. I definitely over did it with the ammonia to start the cycle. I checked the levels again tonight and holding at 40 ppm. Im doing one more big change tomorrow night.

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Steve,
I am just catching up and see you are still battling nitrates. Those are huge water changes and it should be dropping by more. Hopefully you will find the source otherwise they will be back in no time.

I don't quite agree with this statement. If you have system volume of 400 gallons and do a 200 gallon water change, that percentage is a direct correlation to the amount of nitrate you'll see drop. 50% in that case and if it was previously at 80, it will drop to 40. The ammonia in the fishless cycle caused the nitrate spike so I'd not say that it will come back.
 
cycle

cycle

Steve,

I don't think that will help doing to much water change, if there is no life stock or live rocks in the system and keep changing water, I don't think this is good for the cycle and you are wasting your money.

Just my opion,
 
There's about 100 lbs of live rock plus the 150 lbs that was curing for 2 months and 40 lbs of live sand plus 150 lbs of regular that Im sure has life to it in the system already. I've already had the ammonia and nitrite spikes and return to zero. there's several articles about using large water changes to reduce nitrates. I'll post them a little later.

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yeah 2 minutes on the API Nitrate kit, I may have to try that. I have had great success doing a 30 second shake, but I shake the living snot out of it for those 30 seconds, which is probably why. I mean shake it like a beer can for a practical joke shake.
 
Another myth to bust changing water in a cycle (Although Steve is weeks after his cycle since all the ammonia and nitrite were converted to trates weeks ago). Other than large water changes, how else does everyone expect for trates to go down?!

From MD article on 10 Aquarium Myths:

8. Don't do water changes while cycling a tank.

This myth says that performing water changes actually extends the time it takes to cycle an aquarium. Water changes are beneficial when cycling an aquarium as they dilute ammonia and nitrite. Reducing the amount of ammonia or nitrites won't slow the cycle down. It is said that removing water also removes beneficial bacteria. Most of the bacteria in an aquarium will reside on the substrate (rocks, sand and gravel), so removing water will not affect the bacterial load.
 
I've been away since Friday morning and was able to complete a 150g wc on Thursday night. n03 prior to the change was 40ppm and I just tested it for the first time since the later wc.....10ppm :D

I will test all levels later in tonight, do one more wc for 65g and then start to plan out tge transition of corals and fish from the 80 into the 315.
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