Am I messing up by not changing water?

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

My tank is just about to hit 5 months old.

I have been hqving issues with nutrients bottoming out, and have been dosing nitrates and phosphates daily (several times a day for phos) and as a result of that, i have not been changing much water at all for about 2 months.

I am still finishing off Dinos that I let take over the tank without realizing that's what they were (came as soon as phos hit 0)

My alk consumption has been about 1.8 dkh per day with about 16calc (some of it is sand reacting, some of it is a duncan and lots of coraline)

My mag is slowly dropping, (I have mag to dose if that also drops)

However, i am not dosing any strontium or iodide, the only traces going in is chaeto grow.

I run rox carbon in a reactor, i have chaeto and caulepra in the fuge. 90 total water volume. ATO kalkwasser, and dose small amounts of sodium bicarb and calc chloride daily to keep them stable. The fuge is solely for copepods to thrive, which they are. I think the nutrient issue is from starting a fuge with phyto and pods on day 1 after cycle.

Stock.
1 duncan with 2 heads + 8 small heads
1 kenya tree
2 hermits
1 algae blenny
1 mandarin dragonet
2 ocelaris clowns
5 astrea snails
2 trochus snails
3 cerith snails
1 turbo snail
3 nassarius snails
1 "ninja star??" Snail that was sold to me by mistake when asking for trochus
2 trochus snails
1 Coral Banded Shrimp


75G Reef
Saturday 12/31 09:42 PM
Temperature: 79.1 °F
pH: 7.89
Nitrate: 8 ppm
Phosphate: .02 ppm
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Alkalinity: 10.1 dKH
Calcium: 400 ppm
Magnesium: 1440 ppm

TLDR: I am not changing water due to low nutrients

How much am I screwing up my traces by not changing water?

 

[Cthulukelele]

If you're worried about it there are trace elements products you can dose using math associated with your calcium and alk consumption. Another option is increasing your bioload by adding a few fish. Your bioload is TINYYYYYY for an 90 gallon total volume tank and I don't see how you will ever not be bottoming out nutrients unless you are massively dosing nitrate and phosphate, and if you need to do that, why not add some more eye candy!

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

If you're worried about it there are trace elements products you can dose using math associated with your calcium and alk consumption. Another option is increasing your bioload by adding a few fish. Your bioload is TINYYYYYY for an 90 gallon total volume tank and I don't see how you will ever not be bottoming out nutrients unless you are massively dosing nitrate and phosphate, and if you need to do that, why not add some more eye candy!

I have an engineer goby in qurantine. As i have a 2.5 inch sand bed, but idk what else to get

I spent so much time establishing an environment to support a mandarin with pods, I haven't picked much out.

I was thinking a firefin goby or whatever they are called. Any other recomendations?

My wife has been pushing me to get more, and I can't make up my mind.

I love color, so anything colorful and conpatable with what I got would be the best.

 

[Lavey29]

Chaeto gro replenishes most trace but weekly water changes are essential with new tanks. I think you are doing more harm then good. At 5 months I was double dosing Neophos and neonitro to get measurable numbers too. It's not uncommon but water changes help balance new unstable tanks like yours.

 

[sbankston]

sounds like you are about three months ahead of me. I have the purple firefish on my list at this stage.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I have an engineer goby in qurantine. As i have a 2.5 inch sand bed, but idk what else to get

I spent so much time establishing an environment to support a mandarin with pods, I haven't picked much out.

I was thinking a firefin goby or whatever they are called. Any other recomendations?

My wife has been pushing me to get more, and I can't make up my mind.

I love color, so anything colorful and conpatable with what I got would be the best.

What are your display dimensions/tank size? A firefish is an easy choice which you mentioned. A few options (I will avoid super crazy pod eaters w the mandarin):

Fairy/flasher wrasse
Royal gramma
Bangai cardinal/pajama cardinal
Chromis
Hawkfish (flame or long nose probably okay with your coral banded if it's big, but might try to eat them)
Zebra barred dartfish

 

[Cthulukelele]

Depending on your scape and tank size a bristletooth tang of some variety could work, and they have a huge bioload.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Chaeto gro replenishes most trace but weekly water changes are essential with new tanks. I think you are doing more harm then good. At 5 months I was double dosing Neophos and neonitro to get measurable numbers too. It's not uncommon but water changes help balance new unstable tanks like yours.

What % do you think I should go for, originally I was just doing 5% 2 times a week, but it fell rapidly to nothing after dinos started.

I heard waterchanges are not good to do with a dino outbreak so I even stopped siphoning them out, and instead siphon them through a filtersock back into the sump.

Its been nearly 4 weeks since any new saltwater has gone into the tank. Somehow my salinity is still pegged on 1.026, i assume thats from the 2 part dosing while some saltwater gets removed for testing / quickthawing food where the water is not poured back in, and being diluted back down by my ato.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Depending on your scape and tank size a bristletooth tang of some variety could work, and they have a huge bioload.

My scape is... probably better for a fish to feel like its bigger than it is vs being able to support a lot of coral.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

What are your display dimensions/tank size? A firefish is an easy choice which you mentioned. A few options (I will avoid super crazy pod eaters w the mandarin):

Fairy/flasher wrasse
Royal gramma
Bangai cardinal/pajama cardinal
Chromis
Hawkfish (flame or long nose probably okay with your coral banded if it's big, but might try to eat them)
Zebra barred dartfish

Oh he a big boy, but not very teritorial, lets the mandarin and blenny hang out with him in his cave. So idk if his lack of aggression is going to make him am easy target.

 

[Spare time]

My tank is just about to hit 5 months old.

I have been hqving issues with nutrients bottoming out, and have been dosing nitrates and phosphates daily (several times a day for phos) and as a result of that, i have not been changing much water at all for about 2 months.

I am still finishing off Dinos that I let take over the tank without realizing that's what they were (came as soon as phos hit 0)

My alk consumption has been about 1.8 dkh per day with about 16calc (some of it is sand reacting, some of it is a duncan and lots of coraline)

My mag is slowly dropping, (I have mag to dose if that also drops)

However, i am not dosing any strontium or iodide, the only traces going in is chaeto grow.

I run rox carbon in a reactor, i have chaeto and caulepra in the fuge. 90 total water volume. ATO kalkwasser, and dose small amounts of sodium bicarb and calc chloride daily to keep them stable. The fuge is solely for copepods to thrive, which they are. I think the nutrient issue is from starting a fuge with phyto and pods on day 1 after cycle.

Stock.
1 duncan with 2 heads + 8 small heads
1 kenya tree
2 hermits
1 algae blenny
1 mandarin dragonet
2 ocelaris clowns
5 astrea snails
2 trochus snails
3 cerith snails
1 turbo snail
3 nassarius snails
1 "ninja star??" Snail that was sold to me by mistake when asking for trochus
2 trochus snails
1 Coral Banded Shrimp


75G Reef
Saturday 12/31 09:42 PM
Temperature: 79.1 °F
pH: 7.89
Nitrate: 8 ppm
Phosphate: .02 ppm
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Alkalinity: 10.1 dKH
Calcium: 400 ppm
Magnesium: 1440 ppm

TLDR: I am not changing water due to low nutrients

How much am I screwing up my traces by not changing water?

Chaetogro contains iodine

 

[shakacuz]

as mentioned, dosing what you need is all you’ll need to focus on if you’re not doing water changes.

i have been running a 40B, 20G long sump setup for almost 2 years(at the end of february) with 0 water changes. all i do is send out an ICP once a
month or bi-monthly to see what i’m missing and dose accordingly (i actually follow the reef moonshiners method, which allows me to know how much exactly to dose and when with a provided spreadsheet)

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

What are your display dimensions/tank size? A firefish is an easy choice which you mentioned. A few options (I will avoid super crazy pod eaters w the mandarin):

Fairy/flasher wrasse
Royal gramma
Bangai cardinal/pajama cardinal
Chromis
Hawkfish (flame or long nose probably okay with your coral banded if it's big, but might try to eat them)
Zebra barred dartfish

Chaetogro contains iodine

I don't see it listed on the bottle. Does it really?

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

as mentioned, dosing what you need is all you’ll need to focus on if you’re not doing water changes.

i have been running a 40B, 20G long sump setup for almost 2 years(at the end of february) with 0 water changes. all i do is send out an ICP once a
month or bi-monthly to see what i’m missing and dose accordingly (i actually follow the reef moonshiners method, which allows me to know how much exactly to dose and when with a provided spreadsheet)

I was thinking of doing this eventually, but not so while the tank is so young.

Maybe I should get an ICP in the mail now and see where it takes me.

 

[Lavey29]

What % do you think I should go for, originally I was just doing 5% 2 times a week, but it fell rapidly to nothing after dinos started.

I heard waterchanges are not good to do with a dino outbreak so I even stopped siphoning them out, and instead siphon them through a filtersock back into the sump.

Its been nearly 4 weeks since any new saltwater has gone into the tank. Somehow my salinity is still pegged on 1.026, i assume thats from the 2 part dosing while some saltwater gets removed for testing / quickthawing food where the water is not poured back in, and being diluted back down by my ato.

First, you need to understand that new tanks have various problems the first year. It's part of the maturing process and due to instability, lack of biodiversity, etc... some of these problems are small and correct easily. Some are more difficult and take weeks or months to correct. Dinos are on the more difficult side so don't expect a quick fix. You have little coral so you could opt for an extended blackout and H202 dosing but I would suggest cutting lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only, no whites. Keep up weekly 15% water changes and siphon dinos out. Get a conch and a sand sifting goby to keep your sand stirred and dinos in the water column. Dose neophos and neonitro to maintain. 05 to .1 phosphate and 10 nitrates. Dose PNS probio once a week which is a natural bacteria. Give this 2 months and see where you are at

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

First, you need to understand that new tanks have various problems the first year. It's part of the maturing process and due to instability, lack of biodiversity, etc... some of these problems are small and correct easily. Some are more difficult and take weeks or months to correct. Dinos are on the more difficult side so don't expect a quick fix. You have little coral so you could opt for an extended blackout and H202 dosing but I would suggest cutting lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only, no whites. Keep up weekly 15% water changes and siphon dinos out. Get a conch and a sand sifting goby to keep your sand stirred and dinos in the water column. Dose neophos and neonitro to maintain. 05 to .1 phosphate and 10 nitrates. Dose PNS probio once a week which is a natural bacteria. Give this 2 months and see where you are at

The dino problem is almost gone, dosing phosphates and nitrates and a little manual removal had been working and it seems to be not coming back.

I only mention it as 1 of the 2 big reasons I stopped changing water.

The Dinos I have don't go into the water column without scrubbing, and evidently do not attach to sand.

I do have UV going.

However, thank you for saying I CAN do water changes with them, everyone was telling me to stop lol, and it was like, 3 months into my tank that I hit that point.

I will do a 10% today and a 10% in a couple days.

However, with phos dosing, its taking me a lot to maintain .02, my system consumes it so fast it's rediculous. Ill increase my dosing to get up to .05, I am pretty sure my duncan likes higher phos as he opens way more at .03 than .01-0

 

[Lavey29]

The dino problem is almost gone, dosing phosphates and nitrates and a little manual removal had been working and it seems to be not coming back.

I only mention it as 1 of the 2 big reasons I stopped changing water.

The Dinos I have don't go into the water column without scrubbing, and evidently do not attach to sand.

I do have UV going.

However, thank you for saying I CAN do water changes with them, everyone was telling me to stop lol, and it was like, 3 months into my tank that I hit that point.

I will do a 10% today and a 10% in a couple days.

However, with phos dosing, its taking me a lot to maintain .02, my system consumes it so fast it's rediculous. Ill increase my dosing to get up to .05, I am pretty sure my duncan likes higher phos as he opens way more at .03 than .01-0

I had various ugly stages the first year but maintained weekly 10 to 15% water changes. I had to double dose neophos and neonitro to get measurable numbers. After the year the tank seemed to go through an evolution and became much more stable and predictable. No need to dose phosphate or nitrates. I do recommend PNS probio which removes organic waste that feeds nuisance algae.

 

[Lavey29]

The dino problem is almost gone, dosing phosphates and nitrates and a little manual removal had been working and it seems to be not coming back.

I only mention it as 1 of the 2 big reasons I stopped changing water.

The Dinos I have don't go into the water column without scrubbing, and evidently do not attach to sand.

I do have UV going.

However, thank you for saying I CAN do water changes with them, everyone was telling me to stop lol, and it was like, 3 months into my tank that I hit that point.

I will do a 10% today and a 10% in a couple days.

However, with phos dosing, its taking me a lot to maintain .02, my system consumes it so fast it's rediculous. Ill increase my dosing to get up to .05, I am pretty sure my duncan likes higher phos as he opens way more at .03 than .01-0

Feed fish pellet food it raises phosphate. Frozen raises nitrates.

 

[nuxx]

Just make sure as the tank matures and things grow, your nutrient export is keeping up.

 

[Spare time]

I don't see it listed on the bottle. Does it really?

Yes. Its hidden in the ingredients. I think it's potassium iodide if I remember correctly. Brightwell is wonderful like that lol