Water Changes....

[ZLTFUL]

Hey all,

It's your friendly neighborhood newbie again!!!

OK. So with the Ammonia still hanging at an API test kit indicated 1.0ppm, we have decided to do a little tank house cleaning.

So what I need from my favorite folks at the GIRS is a step by step instructional how to on doing a water change. We have 5 gallons of RO water and we have our requisite bucket 'o' Instant Ocean. From here, aside from directions on labels, I am totally clueless. SO if someone wants to point me to the right post or give me a step by step how to, that would be AWESOME!!!

On a positive couple of side notes,
1. The Maroon Clown(We call him Squirrel) is doing well. He is very active and is almost agressive when feeding time rolls around so I take that as a good sign.
2. We have a pretty nice and brightly colored coralline algae bloom forming on our live rock. I take that as a very good sign. And I am positive it is coralline as we already know what cyanobacteria looks like.

On a negative note, there is a small patch of what looks to be hair algae to me. But it is not getting any bigger at all.
We also have a kind of brownish stuff forming on the sand bed...I have no idea what this is nor do I know if it could be good or bad. So any advice here would be great too...

So throw the advice and your newest inept pupil will listen and act!

Thanks folks!

Ryan

 

[KnoxvilleIa]

opinion

opinion

Don't go just by what i say
but I would not do a water change. you are wanting to start the ANN cycle amonia to nitrite to nitrate.
if you cut the amonia down before the bacteria forms to convert it
you will have major problems.
If you introduce a fragile fish and excede the bacterias capisity
to convert amonia then you will get a spike and may suffer fish loss.

Let the cycle run till all amonia and nitrite are 0
nitrate can be reduced by a water change as that bacteria seems the hardist to get going as a lot of people have nitrate problems.

I did not add fish for 4 weeks.
inverts after 6 weeks
and corals for 3 months

 

[jbrunken]

I'd say you are borderline on whether a water change would hurt or help. If you change it now, it may prolong your cycle, but it would give your clown a better chance of making it through the harsh water conditions. If you wait, you may be able to add more stuff sooner, but your clown is going to at high risk.

If I was you, I would go out and get some Biozyme for Saltwater.

Most of the shops here in C.R. carry it and I've had very good luck with it both for starting up a tank and cooking dried liverock. It basically jumpstarts the bacteria population in your tank so the cycle happens faster and is less dramatic.

As for how long you should actually wait to put stuff in your tank, I think it really varies from tank to tank. If you have a good amount of FULLY CURED QUALITY live rock, and/or some decent live sand from an establised tank, then it is possible that your cycle may be very minimal and you could be ready to (SLOWLY) add new fish after only a week or two.

On the other hand, if you started out with dry sand and/or live rock with a lot of die-off on it, you could be in for a big cycle and a long wait.

Here's what you should be looking for:

Initially Ammonia will spike (as you are seeing now). At some point after the ammonia spikes (hopefully soon) you should see it start to come down and simultaneously your nitrite level will start to spike. Shortly there after, your ammonia should continue to drop (or be near zero) and your nitrite should begin to drop, however your will now see a spike in nitrate.

Once your Ammonia and Nitrite level are both zero (AFTER you have seen both spike for sure) then your cycle is complete and you can slowly start adding new fish.

Nitrate is the end result of the cycle and will slowly rise unless it's exported out of the system. Unless you use chemicals (probably not a great idea) there is only 2 real ways that nitrate gets exported: 1) Doing water changes will help keep your nitrates low. 2) Algea will feed on the nitrates and lower the nitrate level.

This is where you start to see algea growing in your tank unless you have a good refugium where you can grow Macroalgea and starve the less desireable algea which keeps it from growing in your display tank.

So... How to do water changes.

It's very simple.

Add some salt to the RO/DI you are using for the water change and make sure that the salinity/specific gravity is fairly close to the value in your display tank. If you have a hydrometer, use that, if you have a refractometer that's even better (you can get refractometers very cheap off of ebay).

Next, add a small aquarium heater and a small powerhead to the container you mixed the water in. (If you don't have a small powerhead to use, just stir it ocassionally with something clean that doesn't have any detergents or other chemicals on it).

Let this water sit overnight and periodically adjust check it and try to adjust the heater so that the tempature of the new water is as close as possible to your old water. You may also want to check the sality periodically to make sure that it's not changing too much.

At this point, your water is ready to go. If you are doing a 5 gallon water change, siphon out 5 gallons of water from your display tank into a clean 5 gallon bucket (clean meaning it has never had chemicals, detergent, etc in it). Then pour (or pump) your 5 gallons of new saltwater into your tank. If by chance, your water level is a bit low after adding the new water, just top it off with the old water you just removed from the tank (this is why you want to put it in a clean container).

For doing water changes in my 125, I use 2 32Gal trash cans that I bought specifically for water changes (they are never used for anything else). I bought a maxijet powerhead that I used to circulate the water while I'm bringing it up to the right temp and I also use it (with about 6' of clear tubing) to pump out old water from my tank and pump the new water back into the tank.

Last but not least, you asked about that brown stuff on your substrate. That is most likely a diatom bloom which is normal for new tanks. After your tank has cycled you may want to add some sand sifters to (snails, starfish, gobies, etc) to your tank to help keep your sandbed pretty. Be sure to do some research and figure out what type of sand sifters are right for your tank.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps...

-JB

 

[jbrunken]

One other thing I forgot to mention: I dont' know if you have a protien skimmer or not, but if you don't have one, you need to get one ASAP.

DO NOT skimp on this. Get a good one and get the biggest one you have room for on/under your tank.

Protien skimmers remove excess nutrients and fish waste from the water before they can be broken down into Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate.

-JB

 

[Jojoyojimbi]

i'm not sure about the saltwater variaties but all of those 'cycle' and bacteria products for freshwater suck, there's nothing at all as good as some good filter squeezings from a sponge filter but i don't think many people are running sponges in their saltwater tanks

personally i'd be skeptical of any 'bacteria' containing product

 

[jbrunken]

Well, I'm just talking from my experience and from my experience it's $2.50 well spent.

-JB

 

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