Miss Wiggle And Big Ian's First Marine Tank!

[SkiFletch]

Agreed. I'd go into a holding pattern for a bit on nitrates. You're doing everything right, so patience is a virtue . If after a few days they climb beyond your current readings, then I'd get really concerned, but since no corals or inverts are as yet showing distress, I'd keep going on your current course.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK Thanks for the reassurance, we'll just keep doing what we're doing and have to hope they start to come down. We were discussing the possibility of some drastic action if it's still not coming down by the weekend...... a 100% water change. It's something I've done with a problematic FW tank before but obviously not something to be rushed into. What would the implications of doing it on a SW tank be? Is it just out and out a bad idea?

 

[Mr Miagi]

Some people do 100% water changes. (I think Chac did talk about the idea, not sure if he himself does it though). You basically need to get the SG and Temps to the exact same level as the tank water, and thats it.

I believe its more of a "once per year" kinda thing though, not something to be done fortnightly.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Some people do 100% water changes. (I think Chac did talk about the idea, not sure if he himself does it though). You basically need to get the SG and Temps to the exact same level as the tank water, and thats it.

I believe its more of a "once per year" kinda thing though, not something to be done fortnightly.

yeah definately, wasn't something we were planning on repeating, we just thought if we have another week of small changes and the readings just won't budge then we're gonna have to consider some pretty drastic action. hopefully it won't come to that though.

 

[kniesh]

I remember reading somewhere once (I may be wrong I often am) that when a tank gets to a certain state and is not properly looked after for a long period of time, which seems to be the case with the previous owner. If fish survive in these bad conditions and become aclimated to the conditions it is dangerous to suddenly change it back very quickly. I know it has to be changed (obviously) but ideally should it be a slow process for the fishes sake?

Sorry if I'm wrong I just remember a story about someones fish being very poorly cared for in an office tank and when they took them home to a healthy tank they died.

 

[Mr Miagi]

No, your right. Its very truthful. Sudden shocks in water quality can be very detrimental to fish, both marine, tropical and cold water. I think the previous owner of this tank did keep things at less than optimum, but any improvement made in this case will be a positive for the clownfish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah absolutely, i've heard that for all sorts of tanks, you do need to improve things gradually.... we'd just like some improvement, if it's slow then that's OK, so long as we know it's working..... just the complete lack of any change that's worrying us a bit!

 

[barker_23]

As mentioned above, how is the Tang doing in the LFS?

As he came from the same tank and going into different waters?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

As mentioned above, how is the Tang doing in the LFS?

As he came from the same tank and going into different waters?

he was fine a day or two ago when we went in, they let us visit our fish we've given them there he's in the back room in the live rock tank so he's got loads of room and seems to be doing really well.

 

[SkiFletch]

Good to hear about the tang. To be truthful, I bet the clownfish wouldnt be bothered by a 100% water change as long as you matched up temps and specific gravity. They're very hardy fish and can survive a lot of stresses way worse than a 100% water change with slightly different calc/alk/mg balance. Really the only thing in your tank I'd worry about are the inverts and the candycane coral. The mushrooms and zoos are VERY hardy as well. My zoos survived being turned upsideown in the sand for 4 days as a result of a rock collapse...

Just to ask the question, have you tested your mixed saltwater that you use for water changes before it goes in the tank for nitrates? RARELY salt mixes can be created that lead to nitrates in the water, but usually not.

 

[steelhealr]

Tanks that haven't been managed well, as mentioned above, can have a lot of slowly dying material which, now matter how hard to you try, will continue to produce the nitrates until which time is it's all broken down. So far, you've done all you can do EXCEPT for the nitrate-remover par excellence: A REFUGIUM. As soon as I got my chaeto growing, my nitrates plummeted and stayed at zero. The MOST effective methods of nitrate reduction are:
1) adding a refugium
2) consistent weekly water changes
3) NOT overfeeding and limiting the worst contaminators (eg, squid, krill)
4) using a protein skimmer on tanks greater than 30G
5) eliminating nitrates traps such as ceramic beads, bioballs, etc

More complicated ways:
1) deep sand bed on large tanks (small tanks don't have the footprint and DSB's are useless)
2) RDSB, remote deep sand bed.

SH

 

[BigIan]

thanks steel hair... i`ve been trying to convince her we need a refugium, ( i want a mandarin goby) but its going to be a bit too much expence this month for us as its my sisters wedding soon. (need beer money LOTS OF IT) and the way i want to set up a refugium is going to be quite expencive.. (custom made steel box section frame)

i was thinking of adding a 37 gallon tank as a refgium. (if and when we add one) and deviding it in half, using the first half to house the skimmer, heater and any other forms of filtration i feel i need, then the second to house the refugium with an over flow feed back down to the tank (this would make the sump/refugium BIGGER than the original tank so will add a huge body of water and stableise the water a great deal


the tank has a hang on the back sump that houses the skimmer so i can`t get rid of it, it also houses lots of bio balls, i was thinking of removing them and replaceing them with LR rubble. (or at least the smallest pieces we can find) wich should be better i`m thinking???

 

[BigIan]

YIPPIEE!!!!!

A VERY MINOR REDUCUCTION IN NITRATE!!!!!

dd a water change and tested the nitrate compaird it with one done before the water chnage and its a slightly lighter shade of red!!

yippie!!!!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Good to hear. Keep up the good work and they'll come down slowly

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah I was so relieved when we took that reading, it's still way too high but as long as it's coming down I don't mind. we were both just so chuffed last night, makes it all worth while!

been great experience in marine water changes though, getting them done loads quicker, they were taking us nearly the whole evening at first.... so doing them daily we just seemed to spend all our time doing them. we can relax a little now! we're gonna have a day off from water changes today though. we accidentaly did quite a big one yesterday and obviously all the changes can be detrimental to the livestock so we thought we'd just give it a day's recovery then start again tomorrow.