weekly waterchanges and water stablilty

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john0087

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 26, 2005
Messages
209
Location
So California
Hey all,

I am trying to make a better effort to stabilize my tank as I build my reef. Currently the only coral I have is a green open brain, which is doing quite well, but I do have question about water changes.

Right now, I change about 2.5 gal/week using oceanwater from my LFS. This is about 7% (37gal tank). My concern is when I do the change, no matter how careful I am, tank temp drops from 80 to +/-74. Also, I am extremely careful about pouring the water, but is always clouds up the water.

I was thinking about starting to do 1gal water changes weekly which would be about 3%. Would this be too little of a water change?
Water params this morning be for the change were

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-less than 10ppm
Phosphate-less than .5ppm
Kdh-10
calcium-+500ppm (quite high I think. I do not supplement)

Thanks
 
If the water temp drops when you do your water change thats implying your not preheating the water your adding. Get a small heater and heat up the water to get it to tank temp before adding it to the tank. That will stop the temperature change.

As far as adding water the easiest thing for you since its such a small amount. Get some 1/4" clear plastic tubing. Simular to the stuff that the gravel vac's have. Then put one end in your bucket or jug or what ever you have the new water in. Put this on top of your tank and syphon the water into the tank. This will take a little longer but it wont stur up any of the sand in the tank.
 
ok, I will try warming the water next time.

What about %change. Does 1 gal (3%) seem like enough, or should I stick with 2.5gal(7%).

FYI, phosphate and nitrate are usually near 0, but 48hrs before I change water, I spot feed the coral with microvert, so I am assuming that this raised the readings a little bit.

Thanks
 
I would do biweekly 5 gal changes myself. The invert food can do what you find. You can try feeding a little less of this food and see if that helps your levels.
 
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