Water Change help please

[Reeftanks6]

I have a 90 gallon tank and I have soon gone to college and my tank has been a little bit left on the way side. I only have so much time to deal with it and since going to college my nitrates have climbed up very high and I have dont about 2 10 gallon water changes and a 5 gallon water change within the past month or so. I have really never done water changes before because i never had a problem with my levels going bad. I was wondering what is the best thing to get those nitrate levels down as soon as possible. The tank has been running for about 6 years so it is pretty stable. Anything helps. Thank you

 

[fishman1069]

I would try to do 20 gals a week until your trates come down

 

[Reeftanks6]

Okay thanks, i should let water sit before adding to tank correct?

 

[Allmost]

to bring the no3 down fast, you need to find the source that is giving off so much no3.

trying to correct it with water changes would never solve the problem and you will need to continue those water changes ! might be possble now, but when school starts again ....

let us know about the system and we might be able to offer you ways to remove the no3 source or ....

HTH,

 

[Reeftanks6]

Yeaa that makes sense... I did give the job to my mom about feeding. She may be feeding to much at the time other then that I am not to sure because i know the bio load is not big i currently have Four fish in there at the moment. May be the lighting schedule but thats on for at most from 4-10 or 4-11. So I am not sure exactly where the source of the No3 is.

 

[Reeftanks6]

Is it bad to do 5 gallon water changes every couple of days?

 

[Reeftanks6]

Any other options?

 

[whitemarlin]

lower the amount per feeding, and do the water changes, you could do 5 gal a day if you wanted and not have any problems, imo.

 

[JohnniG]

do bigger changes and locate the no3 problem.

 

[Eric45]

I'm guessing you have a deep sand bed. If so, get rid of it and you'll solve your nitrates problem fast.

 

[Reeftanks6]

Thanks for the replys. They are starting to go down now there around 30 ppm before they were in the near 120 range. I think it was dew to over feeding and a lack or water changes throughout the years. But the tank is a short sand bed so that couldn't be the problem.