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dileggi
10/25/2007, 09:03 AM
Hey all,

I actually have two questions, for anyone that may be able to help.

My first question is regarding water changes. When doing the water change, is it OK to disturb the substrate to get all the waste that wasn't caught in the filters? Or do I want to leave the substrate along for bacteria or whatever?

Also, my tank is a 29 gallon. If I did a water change of 5 gallons would that be sufficient?

The second part of my question is regarding some sort of algae bloom that I'm getting. Keeping in mind that my tank is only approximately 8 weeks old right now, it may be part of the algae blooms that I was told I would get, but I'm not sure. What I have is a bunch of green algae on my sand. It actually looks like grass is growing. I'm torn between liking the way it looks, or wanting to get rid of it. Any suggestions on how to handle this, or if it would just subside on it's own?

I wasn't sure if I decided to leave it, if that would give me problems.

Thanks in advance for your time and help!

an411
10/25/2007, 09:17 AM
I would add a clean up crew if your ammonia nitrites and nitrates are all 0. It seems like to me this is the algae bloom that comes fater the cycle and it is normal and should pass over time. I do a 10% water change every 2 weeks. This method has been working for me

dileggi
10/25/2007, 09:36 AM
I actually do have a small clean up crew in there. I have 3 turbo snails. But, they seem more opt to stay on the live rock and glass. They don't seem to care much about the sand at all!

As for ther 10%, thanks for the info. But, that would only be approximately 3 gallons of water per change. Do you think I would be OK if I bumped it up to 5 gallons? I'm only asking since it's easier to figure out the mixtures of salt, etc based on 5 gallons.

an411
10/25/2007, 09:45 AM
yeah I dont think that would be an issue doing 5 gallons. People do 20% it all depends on the size of the tank. I am not sure which snails are the best for the sand. You may be able to just pull it out but see if anyone confirms that method before you try cause I am not 100% sure on that

Piscator
10/25/2007, 10:00 AM
At 8 weeks the tank is still likely to have some algae blooms. Totally normal and nothing to worry about.

Just keep an eye on the basic parameters, husbandry techniques, moderate feedings (if you have any stock yet), maintanence, etc.

5 gallon changes every 2-3 weeks worked fine for my 29 when I was running it, and it was a convenient amount to change since the buckets I had were 5 gal. pails.

Best wishes,

dileggi
10/25/2007, 10:01 AM
Ok, then I guess I'll attempt to stick with the 5 gallons. There's not much in there at this point anyhow. Just those 3 turbo's, 2 Green Chromis and the live rock and live sand.

As for the snails, I never even thought that another type may be more useful with the substrate. I'll have to look into that!

When you do your water change, do you disturb the substrate to get that waste out of there?

dileggi
10/25/2007, 10:05 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11049160#post11049160 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Piscator
At 8 weeks the tank is still likely to have some algae blooms. Totally normal and nothing to worry about.

Just keep an eye on the basic parameters, husbandry techniques, moderate feedings (if you have any stock yet), maintanence, etc.

5 gallon changes every 2-3 weeks worked fine for my 29 when I was running it, and it was a convenient amount to change since the buckets I had were 5 gal. pails.

Best wishes,

Thanks for that info. At this point, my livestock is fairly small outside of the rock and sand. Only 3 turbo's and 2 green chromis. I am usisng the 5 gallon pails as well, which is why I was hoping I could get away with doing 5 gallon changes.

Am I OK to disturb the substrate with my siphon when doing the change?

GoingPostal
10/25/2007, 10:15 AM
Some nass or cerith snails will stir up the sand, as will hermits. It may just be a normal bloom due to a new tank.

Piscator
10/25/2007, 10:27 AM
When you do your water change, do you disturb the substrate to get that waste out of there? [/B]

Just a little on the very surface. Generally speaking, there is a lot of good stuff going on in your substrate, and you don't want to mess with it most of the time.

But a little skim over the surface to suck up some nuissance algae or detritus is fine.

Good flow and circulation by some adequate powerheads, along with some sand sifting snails, may eliminate the need to touch it at all.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 10:41 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11049317#post11049317 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Piscator
Just a little on the very surface. Generally speaking, there is a lot of good stuff going on in your substrate, and you don't want to mess with it most of the time.

But a little skim over the surface to suck up some nuissance algae or detritus is fine.

Good flow and circulation by some adequate powerheads, along with some sand sifting snails, may eliminate the need to touch it at all.

Thanks for the information. I'll do 5 gallon changes, along with slight disturbance over the top of the sand to get rid of any uneaten food/fish waste that the power head etc did not catch.

As for the sand sifting snails, are they better than the hermits? AS going postal stated, I liked the idea of the hermits, but I was also told I could have problems with the hermits going after the turbo's. Plus, for a 29, can I get away with only one or two sand sifting snails?

Davidb6
10/25/2007, 10:57 AM
I like nassarius snails for cleaning uneaten food off the sand. They also bury themselves in the sand which disrupts the top layer a little.

Watch out for hermits, they will kill the snails and take the shell. Large hermits and small snails is one alternative. If I did it again, I would not add hermits...maybe one large one.

As for water changes…IMO, what is easy for you is best. I do 5 gals a week (7%) for 3 weeks and 10 (15%) gal during the 4th week; just because it’s nice even numbers. If I see problems in the tank I change more. As the tank ages (year) it will become more stable and water changes can be adjusted.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 11:02 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11049532#post11049532 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Davidb6
I like nassarius snails for cleaning uneaten food off the sand. They also bury themselves in the sand which disrupts the top layer a little.

Watch out for hermits, they will kill the snails and take the shell. Large hermits and small snails is one alternative. If I did it again, I would not add hermits...maybe one large one.

As for water changes…IMO, what is easy for you is best. I do 5 gals a week (7%) for 3 weeks and 10 (15%) gal during the 4th week; just because it’s nice even numbers. If I see problems in the tank I change more. As the tank ages (year) it will become more stable and water changes can be adjusted.

Thanks for the info on the snails. I'll look into some of them. 1 or 2 would be sufficient?

I guess I'll just try the 5 gallon method and see what happens. It just seemed easy to stick with the 5 & 10 gallon options for mixing and because of the bucket size...(thanks to home depot). But, I was worried with it being a 29 gallon...I rounded to 30, that by doing 10 gallons at once, that would be too much changing a 3rd of the water.

Thanks again for your help!

Mavrk
10/25/2007, 11:42 AM
I recommend doing weekly water changes. I like 10% but 20% will work great as well. It is easy enough to either fill the bucket half way and do weekly 2.5 gallon changes, or measure out 3 gallons and mark the spot on the bucket. This would save a little money. With displacement, you are probably closer to the 25 gallon than the 30 gallon.

20% will not hurt anything, and can even be a good thing, but is an unnecessary expense.However, I highly recommend weekly changes instead of every 2 weeks or monthly.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 11:51 AM
Thanks for the insight Mavrk. I never even considered the water displacement as a factor.

As for doing 5 gallons at a shot, I knew I could mark the bucket for other gallons, i.e. 2.5 or 3. But, when I mix the salt, buffer, etc, it's always broken down into how much to add per 10 gallons. It was just easier if I did the 5 gallon bucket and used half the doseage. I was just basing it on my lazy math skills! Will that still be oK?

Toddrtrex
10/25/2007, 01:11 PM
Not that it matters, but I do 5 gallon WCs on my 29 every week. Like you I have 5 gallon buckets, so it is the easiest way to do it. In fact all of my tanks get 5 gal WC each week.

As for the Nass snails, depends if you get the big ones or small ones for how many to get. I have just put 2 of the big ones in my 29, not sure if that is enough or not yet, but would rather have too few, at first, as opposed to too many.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 01:15 PM
Thanks Toddrtrex. I'm thinking the the too few snails would be better than too many...good point! I'll add 2 this weekend and see how that goes...with the assumption that I can find these snails. Are they fairly common?

As for the wc of 5 gallons...thanks! I appreciate the info and that's what I'll do.

Toddrtrex
10/25/2007, 01:18 PM
I can't speak about their availability in Philly, but I know that in Chicagoland I have no issues finding them. And at worse, you could get them online, but hopefully you would need other livestock -- since shipping a couple of those snails would cost more then the snails themselves.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 01:37 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11050529#post11050529 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
I can't speak about their availability in Philly, but I know that in Chicagoland I have no issues finding them. And at worse, you could get them online, but hopefully you would need other livestock -- since shipping a couple of those snails would cost more then the snails themselves.

There seem to be 3 or 4 LFS's in the area that have an extensive array of salt/reef livestock, etc. Hopefully, the thought is that they readily have them and that I've just never noticed them since I never had a salt/reef tank until now! :D

Toddrtrex
10/25/2007, 01:49 PM
And they are easy to miss, since they are in the sand bed. ;)

I know one LFS that I stop at had them and I was surprised, but that was because I couldn't see them.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 01:59 PM
I'll just make the calls to the stoes before I actually go.

Would they go by any other names than the nass or nassarius?

Toddrtrex
10/25/2007, 02:13 PM
The only other name might be super nass for the larger ones, but otherwise I can't think of any.

dileggi
10/25/2007, 02:46 PM
Great! Thanks for all your help and info Todd

Toddrtrex
10/25/2007, 02:48 PM
Glad to help