max h2o change?

i am running a hob, no media, w/ carbon. couple inches of sand, 35-40lbs live rock, and a skimmer. i know i need more rock, (55 gal), and have been otherwise moving slowly. i'd just like to get the base line down and keep it down!
thanks again for all the great responses!
 
cmar said:
i have two clumps of cheato, don't feed much, tank is approx. 7 mos. old. probably not enough clean up crew; 2 red leg hermits, one blue leg, 4 large turbos, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 conk. since the 'trates get up to @ 20 b/4 changes, then lower to @ 10 or so, i just thought if i could get them real low to begin with, maybe they'd only go to 10 or so between changes. how soon between changes is safe?
thanks for all the help & responses!
Click to expand...

I have a 75 and keep a chunk of cheato that is larger than basketball. I trim it about once every week to week and a half back to the larger than basketball size. But I also have a large sump to utilize. (40+ gallons in size) with the refugium being about 1/3 of that space. Then I have 6 mangrove plants in the sump that are also growing.. Not real fast but they have started to take off more than they had.. I also run a skimmer..
 
Personally I found that high nitrates it better to do a couple of water changes in the 25-30% range(about a day or 2 a part) than to do one large one of nearly 75%. For one thing it will allow your tank's inhabitants to adapt easier to the change in water.

For an established tank - with stable nitrate levels - I've found that a weekly water change of 10% is just fine.
 
Wow, I'm lucky I get my water from my city aquarium. I've done safe water changes of nearly 50% with no harm done to my inverts and fish. Anemone loved it.
 
whoa, sorry! i just realized there was another whole page of responses! grins, i just have two clumps of cheato in the tank, and no, i have not trimmed them, should i? it doesn't seem to grow much, but i do need to ask, what is the purple-ish growth on them?
 
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