What do you think?

I was hoping I would get more advice:-[

 

Well, I've been reading, reading, asking, waiting, and waiting and this is what I'm going to do. I saw this on my local reef forum and this is what I'm going to follow and dread it. The person did "2 50% changes day 1, 50% day 3 and 7, then 20% on day 11." I'm going to switch it to one 50% on day 1 and follow the rest. Take my canister off-line and shake off all my rock and turkey baste during. Once this is completed, I will run my pellets at 1/4 dose and I'm thinking of getting just a basic hang-on filter for GAC and carbon if needed and for surface movement. If, after this, my nitrates do not come down, I'll be pretty close to giving up but wish me luck!

 

your scape looks great I don't think you have too much rock

 

Your plan sounds good,wish I could tell you an easier way but I don't know of one.On the brighter side,half the hassle of doing water changes is getting out everything needed and then putting it away so just leave it out until you achieve your goal.If I lived a little closer I'd give you a hand but I'm sure you can do it,and those nitrates will come down it's a mathematical certainty! Just be careful with your feeding so you don't replace the organics you are removing.

 

thanks sailorguy...I wish you did live closer to help. Now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to mix 20-22 gallons of saltwater......since I don't have an RO/DI unit and get my water from the LFS what do people recommend as a big water holder - could I just rinse out and clean one of our plastic garbage cans? I would mix and have it in there for no more than 2 days most likely one day....I figured when I'm doing the change, I was going to try and wet skim out some of the water - sound like a good idea?

 

I'm no expert so maybe someone will advise against this but... I have a sump so it was a little easier for me to do this. Awhile back I had some build up on my live rock. I rigged a filter sock in my sump and ran my siphon hose into that. As I was siphoning the sock was grabbing all the big stuff and keeping the water in the system. Maybe you could do that into a 5 gallon bucket and recycle the tank water a few times instead of making a ton of water up.

 

Do a water change after you clean the rocks off

 

Interesting idea, thoughts?? I really think my problem is in the rock and sand, due to its age and years of poor husbandry on my part, I think they are leaching nitrates and phosphates.....when I've done water changes and checked them right after, it's been a minimal decrease - so that tells me the trates are too high for the pellets to be able to really do their thing, I have to do a total turnover to make a dent in addition to really rinsing my rock and siphoning my sand (in sections over the whole bed)......

A question I do have though is doing this large of a water change, should I expect the normal "new tank" blooms? diatoms, cyano, etc.? I sure hope not!!

 

I was actually thinking the same thing,old tank syndrome.I recently had to change tanks,about six weeks ago my corner tank started leaking badly and I had to replace it quickly.I did have a 15gal. tank that I was able to transfer my fish and some corals to.The rest of my rock and corals and a anenome I kept in 5gal. buckets till I set up my new tank.I set up a new 40breeder using new sand,all of my old rock minus the tons of xenia which I scrubbed off with a vegetable brush,and all new water.I added the rest of my corals and lost nothing but the xenia which I deliberately got rid of.I was in a bit of a hurry so I used conditioned tap water to fill it and put new carbon and GAC in my fluval to handle any phosphates.I also added a bottle of Instant Ocean birospira to help seed the new sand with bacteria.The new tank is doing great,I did have some diatoms on the sand and a couple pieces of new rock that I added,but other than that no algae problem,no cycle,and water parameters have remained good with nitrates<5.

 

So... the moral of that last really long post of mine is NO,I do not think that large water changes will cause any of the problems that new tanks are known to have.Also,if you wanted to you could move your livestock out for a day or so and replace your entire sandbed and start fresh with all new water.It would be alot of work but if you think"old tank syndrome" is the problem it just might be the cure.This could also be done in a day instead of many water changes over a longer period with questionable results,which is the way I would rather do it.Maybe some others with more exsperience will chime in if I'm wrong about this.