Nitrates out the roof. Water changes

[TexanTrail]

I kinda let my FOWLR tank, 65 gal, get out of hand. I'm cleaning it up and my nitrates are out the roof. All other, Ammonia, pH, nitrites, etc are good. Did a 20% water change today. How soon can I do more water changes? Should I change out a larger portion of water?

Thanks in advance for your help.

David

 

[Keithcorals]

What sort of filtration do you have ?
As long as the ph salinity and temp of the water is the same as your tank the fish will be fine with a bigger change I've done 50% changes on overstocked systems every month for years without a problem back when I did service work.

 

[TexanTrail]

I use cheato as filtration

 

[Keithcorals]

People don't like this advice and it's not to be done without understanding what you're putting in your tank but you can add phosphate to bring down high nitrate if your chaeto is getting enough light to out compete pest algae. Also if you are not getting very fast growth with the chaeto and the nitrates are that high you may want to consider increasing the light anyway. Water changes will be the recommended method but the amount will depend on who is giving the advice. I'm comfortable with 50% as long as the new water matches the old with ph salinity and temp

 

[Reefing Madness]

I agree with changing 50% of your water out, I'd do it 3-4 days in a row to get em in the clear numbers.