War with Nitrates. Frequent water changes, what are the consequences?

[BOO999]

Hi all,

3 months ago bought a 30 gal tank from ebay, got it fully established with live rock only, 2 clown fishes and 1 damsel (gave damsel to LFS after few weeks as it wasn't friendly towards my clowns). Ok, the guy seemed to be very experienced, he told me he was in the hobby for 17 years - didn't see why I shouldn't trust him. a week later when got my test kits, found that nitrates were at max of my test kit (160). that's when i started reading, reading and once again - reading forums solution took was water changes + "NO3-PO4-X Red Sea Nitrate and Phosphate remover" + filter Fluval Clearmax filter media to absorb Nitrates.

My results:
After 3x 25% water changes my Nitrates were still reading 160 :thumbdown bought another test kit - same results. I guess live rock was just soaked in Nitrates - didn't give up. by the way, I buy water from my LFS with many awards and recommendations, shouldn't be any problems with their water I wanted to believe
I read it's not recommended to siphon sand (I have crushed corals) in marine environment, but I somehow felt it was way too mucky.. cleaned it bit by bit every second day (not to get rid of all beneficial bacteria at the same time).
Didn't give up and after 15th water change my Nitrates went down to 80!!!! another 6 water changes + additives as mentioned above and I have Nitrate reading of 20 only! I guess I'm winning the war against Nitrates, but what can the consequences be of so many frequent water changes? Doesn't that affect bacteria or anything? will later the tank cope with no water changes? over the last 3 months this was like a part time job, approx 1.5 hours every day + up to 8 hours every weekend and it payed off :celeb1:

other water readings:
Nitrite - 0
Phosphate was 1.5, now about 0.5
Ph -8.0
Amonia - 0
Calcium - approx 500
KH - 11dKH

Live stock:
Cleaner shrimp
2x very small clown fish
scooter blenny
red starfish
green anemone
bubble tip anemone (3 week in the tank and don't seem to be a problem)
6 turbo snails
2 sand sifter snails

some corals (xenia, mushroom, cabbage, finger, hammer head, few different leathers and probably smth else)

This might be wrong to put in the same post, but someone might know whether my clowns will get back together or not. They were sooooo friendly to each other, played all day long, but when I got bubble tip anemone only one settled in the first night and became very territorial - nobody can get anywhere near it, even his old love female clown, they even fight, seriously fight :s any ideas?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Water changes won't hurt tank bacteria, which are mostly bound to surfaces like rocks, but water changes are usually not the best way to deal with nitrate. Things like organic carbon dosing, skimmers, denitrifiers and macroalgae are more effective long term.

This has more:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners,
Part 4: What Chemicals May Detrimentally Accumulate
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php

and

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

 

[BOO999]

Thanks for a quick answer and great links, Randy Holmes-Farley!

forgot to mention that I use Prizm Deluxe skimmer which seems to be working fine (was a pain to fine tune though...)

I was already looking to get organic carbon and macro algae, but a week later Nitrates started dropping - I assumed I was going the right way will probably get some macro algae this weekend. thanks once again!

 

[DownwardDawg]

I did the same thing and won the battle. I think my nitrates were over 200. Constant large water changes until I got them down to about where you are now. Slow down on the changes now and concentrate on other things. Change carbon frequently. Change your filter media a bunch if your using any. Cut down on feeding amounts. Keep a close eye on your water temp. I found that I was getting some serious afternoon temp swings so I installed a fan blowing on the water surface during lighting hours. This resulted in more stable temps and also a higher evaporation rate so I'm adding more fresh water daily. I beat them finally. My nitrates are 0 everytime I test now.

 

[DownwardDawg]

Oh yeah. I had grape caulerpa growing out of control in my 20 gal tank. After all the work I did, the caulerpa is completely gone! Colt coral seems to like nitrates too! Lol.

 

[BOO999]

I use Fluval Clearmax filter media for Nitrates, it says replace every 6-8 weeks, I do that every 3-4 weeks to be on safe side..
Temperature was ok untill I installed new lighting system, temperatures went from 24 degrees C at night to 26.5 when light were on. Temporary solution for now is leave the tank lid and my window open 24/7 (current temperature is 24.8 +/-0.5 degrees C). I'm working on a micro-controller project which hopefully will help controlling temperatures, lightning, water current and everything else, that's why don't want to invest in other types of cooling systems just yet. besides, evaporation with open lid is enormous lol

 

[rosemoondust]

You might want to look into a nitrate reactor. They just started selling them for smaller tanks. As for your clowns they will fight with each other forcing one to become male. Clowns can change their sexes at will. The dominate more aggressive clown will become female and will grow almost twice the size of the male. You might be seeing baby clowns soon . You can siphon the sand, but lightly. You are just skimming across the top of the sand to remove poop and stuff like that. Don't dig into the sand, because that will disturb the bacteria and other living organisms.

 

[BOO999]

if Nitrates will go out of control again - will definitely look into Nitrate reactors, but at the moment I see a positive progress so will probably hold back from getting one - it would have to be a big project because I don't use sump and would not like to see an ugly reactor in a tank (sump + new filter is not that necessary at the moment)
i heard of clowns changing sex when I though that one of them is dying because it was shaking as crazy and swimming on its' side. a bit of research left me laughing of me being newbie and silly LOL. One of them is already noticeably bigger but hate to see them fight

i cleaned the sand quite well, went nearly down to the bottom of the tank (i have about 3in crushed coral bed), you can't even imagine how mucky the water was! it was ok when I did it first time, got too much excited with my results and after another few times I guess I took all beneficial bacteria out and the result was hairy algea on the sand - LIVE AND LEARN lol

 

[rosemoondust]

Next tank I would highly suggest a subtank ^^. For hair algae the best eaters are Mexican turbo snails and sea urchins. For your size of tank get only 1 Mexican turbo snail. They will never stop eating and your size of tank will probably only support one. Welcome to the saltwater hobby -.^