To water change or not to water change. that is the question

[Andari]

Ok so I'm reading different articles on curing live rock and finding conflicting info. I see some that say to do 50% water changes every other day. And some that say to let it ride until it completes it's cycle.
Can I get some experienced opinions here?

Andari

[roka64]

Are you talking curing/cycling your main tank or in a separate bucket?

[Andari]

Main tank. There is nothing in it at this point but rock and sand. I even spent hours today straining the Crushed coral out from under the sand because I read here it isn't good to have in there. But ya curing the rock in my tank.

[roka64]

Ack! I know what you mean about straining the CC from the sand. I did it myself, after I had everything set up, including fish. It's not that CC is bad, it is mainly a personal preference. I didn't like it. You can just cycle your tank with the rock....is it cured or uncured?

[Andari]

From the looks of it I'd say uncured. It was pretty nasty when I opened the box.
Lost of stuck on mud and such. I ordered it online. From liveaquaria.com.
Only got one semi large piece the rest were pretty small.

And I know I'm going to want sand sifters. Didn't realize the coral would be a prob until it was to late. I know I didn't get it All but I got as much as I could.

[melosu58]

I say just cure it as you cycle your tank. Dont do any PWC till the cycle is done. If you do you will slow the cycle down and have to wait longer. You probably wont need to add a shrimp if your LR was that bad. But you`ll be OK. Just do a 30-50% PWC when the cycle is over.

[Andari]

Well I scrubbed as much of the dead stuff off as I could w/o hurting any of the plants that made it.

[Innovator]

It wouldn't be a bad idea to siphon off any decaying matter (sponges, etc) that will cause further fouling of the water.

[Andari]

I will as soon as I can turn my filter back on. Tank got really cloudy from trying to get all the crushed coral out so now I'm just waiting so I can see to arrange the rocks and get any of the funk I may have missed out. That was a messy job that I really don't want to ever do again. No mentioned that it STANK like crazy. I mean.. eww. But at least it was still moist when it got here so that's gotta be fairly good.

[reefer88]

Almost definitive answer that any site will tell you is:

1 water change per week of about 10% to 20%. Here's how:

A. Siphon water out of tank
B. Mix with new saltwater to create half old, half new water
C. Pump water back in to tank
D. Repeat steps A through C
E. You're done

This is the safest way and most undisturbing way to do water changes =)

http://www.fishstart.com/?q=saltwater+water+changes

[tecwzrd]

You only want to do weekly water changes once your cycle is complete. As already said doing it during the cycle will prolong it.

If your nh3 rises above 5ppm then you might want to a 10%-15% pwc to keep the level slightly lower to give the "life" on your rock a better chance but IMO as long as it doesn't get above that then there is no need to do a pwc until your nh3/no2 read 0.

How many lbs of lr did you get for your 75 gal tank?

[the grim reefer]

I cycled my tank with uncured LR and it worked slick...when my nitrItes were at 0 my nitrAtes were at about 8 and I started to do about 10% PWC to get some more of the decay off the rocks and it worked slick..(thanks to the help from the people on here) I had my skimmer going 24/7 and I had absolutely no odor at all from the tank. Its in my living room and no one could tell..If and when I start another tank that is the only way I will do it..

Good luck and these people on this forum are simply the best!

Grim

[Andari]

Ok I don't have a SKimmer on mine. I was told I wouldn't need it for a few months at the LFS should I go ahead and buy and install one now??

[tecwzrd]

Skimmers remove excess waste from the water but if keeping a light bio-load then it can wait till later. Better to save and wait to buy a quality skimmer then to buy a basic one now.

If money isn't a issue then I'd go ahead and get a nice one now.

[Andari]

I'll pick on up when I get a bioload other then my rock. Should be able to afford a good one by then.