water change question

[roundman]

I now have a 75 gal display w/ 125 lbs live rock, 75 gal sump with 75 lbs live rock filled up all but 3 ", 20 gal long 6"sand bed, and 10 gal fuge with 10 lb liver rock and cheato. With the live rock, corals, sand not sure of the volume but would guess 150 gal total. Nitrates =5-10 and have some hair algae I am trying to finish off.

The question is if I am doing 40 gal water changes is weekly to often?

Thanks

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

I would be changing 30 gallons weekly in that set up. JMO.

 

[paulduong]

roundman;533885 wrote: i now have a 75 gal display w/ 125 lbs live rock, 75 gal sump with 75 lbs live rock filled up all but 3 ", 20 gal long 6"sand bed, and 10 gal fuge with 10 lb liver rock and cheato. With the live rock, corals, sand not sure of the volume but would guess 150 gal total. Nitrates =5-10 and have some hair algae i am trying to finish off.

The question is if i am doing 40 gal water changes is weekly to often?

Thanks

i would do 10 % every week

 

[weaglereefer]

Ok, so you're doing water changes because of nitrates. In theory, if you have 10ppm nitrates, and you change 20% of the water, you should get down to 8ppm. 20% off that and you're around 6ppm after 2 weeks if you're not introducing any nitrates.

The questions here are: where are the nitrates coming from? Skimmer too small? Fuge not big enough? Too much feeding? Bad test kit? Correct algae diagnosis?

A 10g fuge with rock is likely not big enough to provide for a sufficient amount of macro algae. Are you pruning the algae frequently? Remember, if it's not growing, it's not exporting nutrients.

 

[roundman]

Nitrates from not doing water changes very often, but have that fixed now so they are not so labor intensive.
The cheato is growing slowly but I have ordered new bulbs and am waiting on them to arrive.
What size fuge is recommended for this size. I can upgrade to a 20 gal with what I have but is that big enough?

Thanks for the responses

 

[weaglereefer]

I think the general "rule" is a fuge should be 10% of the display's volume. This is of course one of those rules that isn't set in stone. I would say go with the biggest fuge you can fit, maintain, and light properly. And mix up the algaes, chaeto is great, but if you can add some variety, why not?