[Alva]

Hi

I know that I need to do a 10% water change every 4 weeks if I only have a few fish, however, what no-one has told me is if I need to do a water change if there are no fish in!

I have living rock in my tank and it has been completed four weeks now with everything but fish.

It is at the stage with the brown algae looking stuff at the moment and I am not sure if I need to leave it until I am ready to put fish in (after incubation period) or whether it should be changed every four weeks anyway.

The salt levels and temperature are spot on at the moment.

I am new to all this so would appreciate a response.

Many thanks.

Alva

[charlie]

If it was me, I would do 10% every 2 weeks, but that is just me. The brwon is probably diatoms, meaning you could add a cleanup crew. Your water parameters are?????????????????????????????

[LCP136]

you should probably do a 20% or more water change every 4 weeks once there are living animals in there. The brown algae usually signifies the end of your tank's cycle. Test for a couple days and if your parameters are good, which I assume they are at this point, you should start to build up your cleaning crew and you can a couple clownfish or other hardy fish.

[Ninong]

Hi LCP136,

[Ninong]

Hi Alva,




You could do a water change now if you feel like it. I probably would. There are no hard and fast rules as far as water changes go. Some people like to do them every other week and other people prefer every other month. Some people like to do 10% and other people prefer 15% or 20%. You don't usually do a water change greater than 20% in a reef aquarium except in emergency situations.

The diatom bloom should go away all by itself within two weeks.

Good luck!