Someone help!!

[Silvabul10]

I have a couple of question. I have a 55 gallon tank with 30 pounds live sand and about 80 pounds of live rock. The tank has been running for about 6 months in my house and 2 years in another. How often and how much water should I be changing. Second, do I ever do anything with the bio balls or just leave them alone. Third, my stonefish's eyes have been very cloudy, what could that be caused by. The ph is at 8.1 the nitrites are at 0 but the nitrates are sky high (100).

 

[malkore]

nitrates are way too high. 50 is the 'danger' zone in my opinion on a fish only tank...if you have a reef setup, you want nitrates no higher than 10ppm, but 0 is ideal.

You should probably be draining 25% of the water every 2 weeks, or 10-15% per week.

 

[dralarms]

bio balls

That's the problem. Ditch em, or wash 1/3 every 2 weeks when you do water changes.

 

[lando]

Really need to get those nitrates down. I have a feeling the cloudy eyes of your fish could be from nitrate burn. Once the nitrates are down it should go away. Do a large water change using RO/DI water. You could also add some more cured LR. Good luck an let us know how it goes...Lando

 

[lando]

Sorry I missed this...WELCOME TO AA!!! Glad you found us.