my tank has be cycling for 7 weeks. nitrates are still a bit high and i just added 50 lbs of LR.i have brownis alge all over my crushed coral,. i was told by my LFS not to do a water change untill compleatly cycled. is this true?

The purpose of making a water change at the end of cycling is to reduce the Nitrate level. Nitrates are not reduced during cycling but slowly increase. They are the final product of the Ammonia-Nitrite-Nitrate cycle and slowly increase and can only be easily removed from an aquarium with water changes.

All I do is add macro algae to balance out the tank.

that way nitrates are 0 regardless of the water changes being done.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden