Aquarium maintenance

[Beeba]

When I first started my aquarium I had a very bad habit of doing too much to it for fear of doing too little. I have a 72 gallon tank and I was doing a 10 gallon water change once per week. After going through several types of algae problems I realized I was over doing it. My tank seemed to be staying in NTS until I decided to let it be for awhile and just keep an eye on it. I have now gone four weeks without a water change and all of my testing is perfect. Nitrate, Nitrite, and Amonia are all 0. All other tests are good also.

The point of all this rambling is that I'm wondering when and how much I should change my water if all tests are good? The water is so crystal clear and all corals and fish seem very happy and healthy so I don't want to mess with them if I don't need to. I have a little green algae on the glass at the end of the day but no buildup on the rocks or sand. As far as fish go I only have one yellow tang, one true percula, two green choromis, and one small mandarin. I also have one sand sifting star and one feather duster.

All input is appreciated.

 

[Witfull]

mojo only changes as much as he spills on the floor. as for me, when i run the diatom filter, that takes a gallon out...lol i have cut way back....maybe 15-20g or so every few months on my 72g bow.

 

[mojoreef]

Hey you know this sounds like a great topic for our week discussion. Lets do something on the maintenance required for all system types, should be a good one.

Good plan Beeba

 

[Beeba]

Funny but I actually thought that same thing when I wrote it but I don't have enough sense about this hobby to begin giving advice so I just thought I'd leave it as a question for myself. I think there are probably a lot of people that are new to this hobby that worry about over doing it or under doing it.

Mojoreef: Do you think the 15 to 20 gallons every two months as Witfull does is good enough for my tank since I don't have a large abundance of fish?

 

[finner]

i know that this is a little off topic but could you guy give me a run down of the equipment that you use on your 72g tanks. i have a 72 bow and am going to set up a reef and am having a tough time deciding on what equipment to purchase. i would like to be able to keep all kinds of corals.

 

[Beeba]

I have some corals but not a lot yet. I just set my tank up right after Christmas. I run a wet/dry system with a built in skimmer which most say will eventually cause problems with nitrates but I don't seem to be having any yet and the guy at my LFS has a beautiful tank using the same type of wet/dry in a larger size. His tank is so beautiful that I figure I'll take a lot of his advice until I run into problems. I have three powerheads inside the tank for water movement and I use power compact lighting with built in moon lights on a timer. I would like to eventually get a canopy or have one made so I can ad some MH lighting and have more versatility in corals and clams.

I am sure Witfull can give you a little more advice on what to do to start the reef than I can.

 

[finner]

thanks for the info beeba. i live in a fairly small city so we only have one store that has reef supplies so i am trying to gather as much info as i can on my own to make sure i end up with the right equipment and not what the lfs wants to sell me. witfull if you could give me a hand with this it would be great.

 

[MWSALT]

I just finished my tank maintenance a few hours ago. I have been doing a 5% water change once a week, and a filter maintenance every other week. I have a 60gal oceanic with a Fluval canister filter bioballs and Kent reef carbon inside. Hangon Prizm skimmer with a surface skimmer on my filter's intake hose. My water remains crystal clear, but I think I am overdueing it on the maintenance? I have 45# of Kaelini LR, 2 true percs, 3 blackstripe damsels,1 yellow watchman goby, 1 manderin,1scooter blenny,1 coral-banded shrimp, 3 emerald crabs,1LTA, 6 turbo snails.Should I wait a little longer before doing maintenance? My water parameters always check out fine before maitenance. This discussion will help a lot of fairly new Reefers, Thanks Beeba for opening up this topic!

 

[Beeba]

Very smart idea. I also live in a small town and after I got my aquarium for Christmas my local LFS saw $$$ when I walked in to get the stuff to set it up. It was funny but they always said, "She is setting up a saltwater tank." in a way that I could tell they expected to make some money off me. That is why I ended up with the wet/dry setup. Although they got mad at me for buying it online instead of through them. I felt better knowing I didn't pay $300 like they wanted me to. I take their advice on a lot of things but I have learned to always look here in the forum and read before I buy. I have bought a few corals from them when I see one I can't live without but they are about 3x the cost of buying online. I just feel robbed when I go there sometimes.

 

[Witfull]

hmmm,,,,gonna make me think....

2-250wt MH 15K.
2-40wt actinics.
converted wet/dry sump with rock.
250wt heater-in overflow (for protection).
return pump-custom solutions 1/15 hp pump flowing across length of tank.
closed loop- little giant 3mdqx -sc pumped through a spraybar at bottom of tank.
hagen 802PH on opposite side of tank from sump return flowing across tank.
2 small PH blowing up into rock work.
berlin turbo skimmer running off a mag 7 pump.
via aqua 1/5 chiller run off a mag 7 pump.
2 fans in canopy one in sump cabinet.
diatom filter for maintainance
uv filter in case of emergency, can be plumbed inline to diatom filter.
salifert test kits
4 gallon kalk drip bucket for all top offs.
75 gpd RO/DI unit.

yadda yadda yadda....now my brain hurts!

 

[Beeba]

MWSalt: Do you have any problems with algae? I noticed when I was doing the weekly water changes that I was having an abundance of cyanobacteria, hair algae, and green algae on my glass. Now that I have left it alone for 4 weeks and kept my hands out of it I don't have to clean the glass as much and at the end of the day the rocks and sand are still algae free. My corals are growing and everything looks great. I think more water less often is the best way to go. Doing 25% or 30% every two months is probably good enough if you have lots of live rock. I also started blowing my live rock with my powerheads. The first time I freaked at how mucky my water got. My husband had been out of town for a week and when he walked in (only 30 minutes after I did it) he said, "what have you done now." Within a few hours the water was clear and everything seems much better.

 

[finner]

thanks for the help.

 

[Beeba]

Witfull: You recalled way more than I did. I would have to get out my journal of things I have bought to get that detailed. What differences do you notice after buying and using the daitom filter?

 

[jesshimom]

SO beeba when are u gonna take that wannabe off your signature? Sounds like you know what you're doing.... right?

Just giving ya a bad time

Colleen

 

[Witfull]

best thing you can buy. ive been using them for like 30 yrs. pulls out the smallest of particles.

 

[Beeba]

Jess: I'm still a wannabe compared to this crew. Although in my own home I'm the reef queen. I don't think I've ever had a hobby I enjoyed so much.

Witfull: Can I ask what model of diatom filter you use since you have the same tank as me?

 

[Witfull]

Vortex Diatom XL. its the OFR model...lol

 

[Richie]

What kind of water are you guys using for your water chnge because if you are using tap water then that could be the source of your problems. but if its ro/di then I dont really see why that would cause a lot of algae bloom.

 

[Ed Hahn]

Richie,
Have you ever restarted a tank with live rock, added all new water and not changed your lighting schedule? If you do not use the same water that has cycled from your tank previously and the same rock you can get a algae bloom. You can get die off of coraline algae which even with RO or RODI water create a algae bloom unless you are really lucky. I had a algae bloom after I restarted my tank because of decay and my RO water is tested periodically with TDS meter.