Water Changes

[scapone]

Ok my tank has been up and running for 6 month's I have never had to do a water change. I only have a few inverts in the tank. I have a lot of purple and green coraline algae on my liverock. My parameters are always zero for nitrites,nitrates, and ammonia. Is this normal? And how will this change once I add my first few corals. Also on a side note i mix around my sand as best I can but I have a few hard spots what causes that?

[seabass]

Your LR can process some nitrates. So with your light bio-load and feeding, your system is able to keep up without water changes. Consumption of elements is probably light too.

 

Water changes serve to replenish buffers and elements while removing harmful substances (like pollutants, nitrates, dissolved organics…). As you bio-load increases, you will need to remove excess nutrients from your system; water changes are a safe and easy way to accomplish this.

 

As you add more corals, the consumption of elements will increase. Water changes will be able to handle this for awhile. However, you might eventually need to dose extra calcium. B-Ionic is a good calcium buffer system.

[Isaka]

For sifting your sand, go with nassarius snails. Mine are under the sand prob 75% of the time. They will keep the sand nice and tilled I would say 1 per 2 gallons should be fine.

[tylernt]

Every time my tank tests at 0 nitrates, I get tempted to skip water changes. But then I remember all the OTHER nasties building up in the tank I can't test for, as well as all those micronutrients getting depleted that I also can't test for... so I do a water change.

 

Hard lumps in sand... I remember reading somthing about that long ago. Um. Something about a calcium/pH imbalance that causes the sand particles to bind together, I think?