water change?? frusturating issues.

[pearsont74]

i have a 80gal + about 20 gals between my sump and skimmer.
what is a good amount for a water change...
I thought my cyclin was done but I guess not cause Im stil having issues. my PH is close to 8.1 but my nitrites are high and my ammoion is high.
I have alot of brown algae growing and started to see purple looking algae...is that a good sign? Also my LR has alot of little shrimp looking things(PODS??)
unfortantely I seemed to have lost my turbo snails i just bought, thought those guy where very hardy but guess not
my skimmer is finally goin and seems to be doing what it is suppsoed to and I added some dead LR frags to my sump, I plan to get a few pounds of cheap LR at the LFS to add to my sump LR rubble to seed the rest.
I was planning on goin to get water from the LFS for .39 per gal and get about 5 gals. should i get more and do about a 10 gal water change?

 

[revhtree]

Is this a new tank? Sounds like you are right in the middle of cycling your tank with the nitrite readings and the diatoms showing up. The fish will suffer in there unless you get the ammonia and nitrites down. I suggest a 50% water change and maybe some 20% water changes daily until you get the water levels in check. Make sure you take your time with livestock.

How much LR do you have?

 

[pearsont74]

50% wow...thats alot I think Ill do about 10 -15 gals to start....
I got rid og my damsels but all my inverts adn extras that came with my LTR seems to be doing ok...except for the white film/web stuff thats on some of my rock.
I have about 80lb and 10lb of rock in mt sump....will go and add to both of those soon.
the thing that makes me mad is the turbos....do they maybe go into a hibernate until the water gets better or are they dead...done...i moved them all to the corner last nite and none of them have moved, should i take them out?

 

[ellisz]

If you are mid way through your cycle, I would not want any inverts in there. Damsels are known to survive a cycle but inverts will not.

Do you have shrimp and clams in this tank?

 

[pearsont74]

the ones that came with the LR...adn so far they are doing ok...and crabs
kinda hard to get and the other issues is what do i do with them? i cant keep them in a QT tank for 2 weeks can I?

 

[ellisz]

If they came on the LR, then I would leave them. The dilemma with cycling with LR that has live stuff on it is that if you see a big ammonia/Nitrite spike, you will most likely kill most if not all crabs/snails. You can do water changes to help this but that will prolong the cycle. Can you say catch22

I would just wait for the cycle to end and see what makes it. If you have FL rock and clams that sometimes come on them, they will have to ride it out. I had a batch of LR that saw a huge ammonia spike due to some clams dieing in shipping. It stank up my whole house and I had to do water changes every day. Some of the clams actually survived. Most will only last a yr or so anyway from what I have read. I have 1 that is still alive after 2 years. I started with about 10-12.

HTH

 

[pearsont74]

thanks for the advise...its just frustrating you know....good thing Im saving until after my cycle to get good high quality rock but this rock had a nice amount of orange coraline

 

[revhtree]

I agree since the damsels are gone just let the tank finish the cycle process!!

 

[pearsont74]

should i do a small water change now or wait a few days or so....will it prolong my cycling?

 

[revhtree]

I would do a small one when you see your NitrAtes go up.

 

[pearsont74]

like 5 gals?