Cycle-is-finished!!

[RockinAR]

Whoo-hoo.....It took over a month, but now finally

 

Ammonia - 0

Trites- 0

Trates - A little high...but I understand a water change should bring it down?

 

Now, being that I have yet to change water, what is the cleanest way to do it as far as getting water out? Is there a siphon pump with a hose or something I can stick in there. I really don't want to be scooping it out with a cup or something...and how much should I change? It's a 12g.

[jovis67]

ummm i use a cup a large taco bell cup

i would do a 3 gallon change if i were you then like 1.5 g every 2-3 weeks after that

[ross76053]

RockinAR,

 

Do a good bit of reading on water changes - how much and how often. Search this site, www.wetwebmedia.com, and www.reefcentral.com (although their site is slow as Christmas). Everyone has an opinion on how often to change water - you'll need to read all you can and decide for yourself.

 

As far as how to change it, it depends. After about five days, I get a good layer of "slime" (for lack of a better term) on the top of my water, so at the advice of another reefer in this forum (I think it was Printerdown01?), I use a 16-oz. plastic soft drink bottle to skim off the top. Then I continually dump that water into an empty one-gallon jug so I'll know when I've removed a gallon.

 

However when your tank matures a bit and you have detritus or algae (have I mentioned I hate algae?) sitting on your sand bed, you may want to siphon it out with a hose (avalable at your LFS).

 

I used to make my own saltwater, but it's proven to really be a pain making it a gallon at a time, so I buy it from my LFS for .99 cents pre-made, 80 degrees and fully circulated.

 

Good luck to you!

Ross

[harbingerofthefish]

I siphon for my water changes. It takes a little longer but I'm only taking out 4 cups

 

I used to make my own saltwater, but it's proven to really be a pain making it a gallon at a time...

 

Again, having a 5 gal tank makes life a little easier. The amount of water I use during a water change just so happens to be the volume of my blender. Coincedence? Just dump in the salt, pour in some water, and frappe'. Saltwalter cocktail

[printerdown01]

I use a small water bottle to take water out of my tank... works very well. It would be a pain on a larger tank, but I only pull out 1 gallon from my 12 .

[cranfordrd]

harbingerofthefish- so.. when you do a water change you don;t have it mix and sit overnight?

[harbingerofthefish]

No, I just blend till runs clear, siphon it in, and then it's magarita time! :fiesta:

 

If there is some benifit I'm missing on not letting it sit, please fill me in.