Getting a tank in Balance...minimizing maintenance

C

CarolynM

It always seems I'm fighting something or other in my 90 gallon tank. It's been set up for over a year now and still has not found its balance. Something is always out of whack. Currently I'm fighting cyano due to phosphates, before that it was hair algae, before that bubble algae...I get one thing cleaned up and another raises its head.

I'm beginning to wonder about others maintenance routines. Maybe mine is not regular enough? I do have big trouble with testing, I can never distinguish colors on the strips (am I a tad color blind or are the color variations minute on some of the tests?). Like nitrates I tested about 3 weeks ago (after coming back from vacation) and they were at between 25-50 (huge variance between 25 and 50 but I couldn't distinguish between the colors). I tested yesterday and got a reading of 2.5 - I hardly believe that. I've done about 30 gallons in water changes but to me its impossible the nitrates disappeared like that. And I can't blame the test kits...I have multiples of different variety and get the same variances.

I have a Tunze Osmolater for topoff and temperature controlled fans. I do about 15 gallons in water changes a month (on a 90 gallon tank). My PH stays pretty steady at 8.3. I do kalkwasser for calc/alk. I raised magnesium levels as they were low. I now have a RO/Di unit with TDS of zero.

I have 5 fish (none bigger than 3-4") and a cleanup crew, various corals (none thriving but most surviving). Corals are browned out (not a surprise).

My goal is to get a mature tank look - I want an Aussie biotype (a couple reef safe butterflies, staghorn or two, a couple maze corals and that's about it). Could I attain this kind of tank and still be able to leave it for 2 to 3 weeks at a time with minimal care or am I asking too much?

What should be the maintenance routine on a tank like this? What do you do daily, weekly, monthly?

Thanks all I am determined to be proud of this tank sometime - even if I have to go an entirely different direction with it (softies or something).
 
A 15 gallon water change per month isn't enough IMO.

I change 5-10 gallons per week in my 40 gallon tank. I generally change 5 gallons one week and 10 gallons the next for a total of around 30 gallons per month. Your tank is over twice the size of mine so if I were doing the same schedule on your tank it would be more like 60-70 gallons per month.

The phrase that has always stuck in my head is "dilution is the solution to pollution" and most of your outbreaks are likely due to pollution of one sort or another. If I were you I would ramp up the water changes to 10 gallons per week and see how that works out. I am betting that it will help tremendously.
 
i definately agree on the water changes, and if once a month is all you can do at least bump it up to maybe 25-30 gallons. everyother week is what i aim for, every week if i can but that rarely happens. also, what is your feeding schedule? if you overfeed you can have high numbers like you are and excess algae breakouts because of the nutrient levels in the water. finally, what kind of bioload do you have?
 
i would do 5 gallon water changes a week...i just started to vacum my sump for detritus and and vacum off the liverock when i do my water changes...then replace it with my water change water...

i agree 5 gallons a week will have better results then one big water change a month...as it is also replenishing trace minerals every week
 
Thanks for the good input. It seems the consensus is more water changes -that's easy enough. I should clarify one thing: I am actually doing semi-weekly water changes - 2 5 gallon buckets not quite full (so about 8 gallons) every 2 weeks. I can definitely bump that up to 15 gallons every 2 weeks. Or would it be better to do less more often?
 
Carolyn,

I agree also with more frequent waterchanges "right now", if you do 20-30G every two weeks that will help immensely. I would also suggest cutting back on feeding as well, you can try smaller portions if you feed daily or feed every other day. I'm not sure what type of skimmer you have but you may want to think about getting a more efficient one, if you feed heavy then oversize it. If you are not ready to upsize your skimmer then just evaluate your tanks condition with the increased water changes and/or reduced feeding's....I think you will be pleased with the results. :D

Cheers,
 
I think what you are aiming for will definitely help; however, I would personally start with once a week for about 1 month, and then slowly move towards your every other week goal.

The only reason I mentioned this is so you can dilute some of the nutrient in your tank steadily, and safely. I have done this on one of my tanks that I was having some problems with, and trust me, you will be very impressed with the results - I know I was (explosive new growth/color/clarity, etc. :shock: ).

btw, do you have a fuge? How large?
 
I change 40 gallons in a 120 every other week. Still nitrates are 5-10, but I just started vodka dosing and hope it helps. I also battle different algae breakouts, mejanos, if it's not one thing it's another. I don't know if it gets any better than this.

Kay
 
Carolyn,

I certainly vote for more water changed more frequently. I am likely in the minority, because I change small amounts of water twice a week. I have a 55 with a small sump and I change 3-4 gallons every Wednesday and Sunday for a total of around 10-15% per week. Despite having a crushed coral bottom and undersized skimmer and only about 40 pounds of live rock, my nitrates never register above 5 on multiple tests. I like this procedure because it takes less than 15 minutes and I think does wonders for my tank.

I have a very low-tech system, but the water changes, the freshwater/kalkwasser top off, the daily glass cleaning, and occasional pruning of my in-tank and in-sump macros are the only regular maintanence procedures I use.

I clean my skimmer and powerheads when they seem to need it, and wipe off my salt creep and bulbs (T-5's) from time to time, but that is it.

I hope you are able to get the desired result with increased size and frequency of changes.

Good luck! :D
 
I'm doing 15% weekly, that's around 25 gallons. Any more/less than that and the sump water starts to look funky.

What are you running for chemical filtration? Carbon? Phosphate remover?

How are you exporting excess nutrients? A refugium with macroalgae?

What kind of skimmer do you have?
 
carolyn are you running the euroreef i sold you on this tank?...if so it is plenty enough for that size tank unless you have a high bioload. smaller feeding through out the day instead of one big feeding is alot better..i went from once a day feeding to every other day as my phoshates got out of control..

I started to run this stuff through a phosban reactor and my nitrates and phoshpates went down signinicantly.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4136+13964&pcatid=13964
 
For mechanical filtration I have Euroreef Skimmer (courtesy of Pampee) and phosban reactor with phosban in it. (phosban changed out about a month ago, still reads good out of the reactor).

For nutrient export I do have a fuge but it's never prospered. I'm not sure why? There are tons of pods and critters in the fuge but the macro (caulerpa and cheato) has never gone wild (not like in my seahorse tank YIKES).

Feeding: I feed frozen mysis/Formula one/Spirulina enriched brine shrimp - I'll feed maybe about 20 mysis to the 5 fish once a day. I rinse before feeding (I do rinse with tapwater but then strain in brine shrimp net).

I'll start my new waterchange regime Monday...I guess it'll prob take over a month before I'll see any significant changes.
 
@CarolynM wrote:
For nutrient export I do have a fuge but it's never prospered. I'm not sure why? There are tons of pods and critters in the fuge but the macro (caulerpa and cheato) has never gone wild (not like in my seahorse tank YIKES). I'll start my new waterchange regime Monday...I guess it'll prob take over a month before I'll see any significant changes. said:
What kind of light is over the fuge, and are you running it on a reverse cycle (ie how many hours is the light on)?
When I first added my fuge, my lighting option was not enough, and I barely saw any growth. The moment I changed the light and increased the watts/gal, everything started growing like you wouldn't believe.

As far as the results are concerned, if you are planning to do it every week, as I mentioned above, you will see positive results, from my experience, in about 1.5-2 weeks.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
I was reading another post on this board and am wondering if I stumbled upon a possible cause to my refugium not growing much algae. I have a sump with 3 sections. First section contains skimmer and drainpipe from tank. Middle section is the largest - it contains the return pump. Third section is my refugium. I needed a slow flow of water to my refugium so I currently have the PHOSPHATE REACTOR draining to it -so the only flow into the refugium is PHOSPHATE free...I'll change this around and see if I can get any more growth.
 
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