tips how you stablize your water!

[brizzo]

53 gallons total, 40 pounds of rock, 20+ frags .... and Im guessing no dosing or chemicals added to stabilize alk/ca/mg ?

[darkreef]

I do water changes to keep my cal up , if I do forget to do a water change I dose cal but I have a hard time with test kits as my house lighting sucks in my apartment . So try to stay away.


Most reefers I talked to say more water changes and screw dosing .
Concepts advice was to use a better salt and a phos reactor .

I have picked up the salt and now waiting on the reactor in the mail .

Most of my frags have less then 5 heads .
And I only have three sps .. that are doing fine maybe should be more fuzzy.
.
Its only my zoas and leather that's being picky .
My zoas are still making new heads every other day .
But there long and half closed . When they are open there skirts look shribbled or not there

Il stop by tomorrow ! And my trigger is still adjusting .

I barely feed my tank , once every four days ? Spot feed mandarin and anomone and few palys .


My hammer coral split yesterday ! And my mushrooms look awesome
Same with my brain coral .

[darkreef]

What I mean by stable is my tank goes from clean and happy to ****ed off and dirty in a few days . What I think I need is .

A better skimmer mine is old and not pulling much out latley
A better return pump
More clean up crew
Phosban reactor

My tank is algae clean just a flim or copper looking stuff on sand and glass .
That comes back everyday . I clean it off everyday .

I also blow off my rocks everyday or other day .

[kien]

Originally Posted by darkreef

What I mean by stable is my tank goes from clean and happy to ****ed off and dirty in a few days . What I think I need is .

A better skimmer mine is old and not pulling much out latley
A better return pump
More clean up crew
Phosban reactor

My tank is algae clean just a flim or copper looking stuff on sand and glass .
That comes back everyday . I clean it off everyday .

I also blow off my rocks everyday or other day .

It sounds like you have excessive nutrient issues and you're well on your way to tackling the issue with the great advice provided. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[MarkoD]

Maybe stop doing water changes so often. I've gone 8 months before without a water change and everything was great.

On a 33 gallon system, a 5 gallon water change will cause swings

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Maybe stop doing water changes so often. I've gone 8 months before without a water change and everything was great.

On a 33 gallon system, a 5 gallon water change will cause swings

I do a 5 gal wc every 3 days on a 42g system. Works great. I would prefer it over a 20g every two weeks which would have higher swings

[darkreef]

8 months :0 without making a nitrite factory ?

My fresh I can go months on ... But I still do it once a week .

Great advice everyone !

I'm going to look into getting a better skimmer .
And wait for my reactor to get in .
I'm going to continue making frequent water changes
Until I can fix the problem
Also going to get my water checked tomorrow get some real readings
Thanks everyone

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by Proteus

I do a 5 gal wc every 3 days on a 42g system. Works great. I would prefer it over a 20g every two weeks which would have higher swings

But why so often? I'm sure you could do a 5 gallon once a week and it would be fine

I have auto water changes setup now and I still only do about 40 gallons every 2 weeks. But I introduce the new water over 3-4 days

[Simons]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Maybe stop doing water changes so often. I've gone 8 months before without a water change and everything was great.

On a 33 gallon system, a 5 gallon water change will cause swings

is that a 'real' time frame or just an indicator for..a long time..?

I have gone about 3 weeks with no water change on my freshwater and the same with my saltwater each time my nitrates start to climb. I guess I am so used to 0's on my test kits. On my saltwater tank I would say I 'over' filter (not that I really believe you can do that) I have a large skimmer and lots of live rock and I can see the water clarity changing after about 3 weeks and I run carbon and GFO...

[darkreef]

I agree . I couldnt wait more then a month with my fresh .
Can't wait to get gfo on the go ! I don't run carbon anymore though