Water changes

[Nick540]

In a new 33 gal tank how often should water changes be done? I only done one and that is because i heard that it can interfere with the cycle of ammonia, nitrate and PH levels from the addition of new rock if you change during the cycling process.

 

[Reefscape]

Hiya Nick540...

No need to do any water changes untill the cycle has finished. When Ammonia, nitrITe are at Zero and nitrATE is between 0 and 5 your cycle will be finished..Then do a 40 - 50% water change...Then, its down to your maintenance routine really...10% every week is good enough for a 33gal tank...heavily stocked and i would suggest more like 15% per week...

Hope that helps a little..

Niko

 

[TKOS]

I assume you have no fish or inverts you want to save in the tank right now? If that is the case let the cycle run out, if there are living things you will need to do water changes to keep the ammonia levels low. Nitrite isn't as big a deal in marine tanks due to the high concentration of salt in the water.

Water changes once the tank is populated will depend on bioload. You will want to keep th nitrates on the low side to keep inverts happy and to keep algae growth down.

 

[Nick540]

Thanks for the advice. There are 2 hermit crabs in the tank and 3 snails. I put them in because there was some hair alge starting to grow on the rock. They have ben in now for almost a week, only one of the snails died which i left. Does this mean i should do a 10% water change due to the inverts?

 

[Reefscape]

as you only have inverts in there, i would do it every 2 weeks untill you get fish in there...

Niko

 

[TKOS]

Water changes will just be work for you. They won't affect the cycle. Remember that any ammonia or nitrite detectable just means more than the bacteria can eat at the current growth level, not the total introduced into the system. So I would try to keep that ammonia below 1 ppm which may mean slightly more frequent changes but may not mean that depending on bacterial growth (they can only grow so fast).