[QUOTE=2_zoa;23142101]I'm not on any water change schedule. I change out a couple gallons (I mix 2 gallons) here and there. I use a racking cane from my old home brewing equipment. I siphon off my rocks or suck up any cyano off the sand bed when I do them. Occasionally I'll vacuum the sand bed, the last time I did the sand bed I let the water decant and then I placed the water back into the tank leaving the sediment behind in the bucket. At that time I place a couple gallons of fresh salt water in to allow me to leave much more water behind in the bucket. I siphoned out about 8 gallons worth and let it stand for about 45 mins before placing it back into the tank.
when dealing with cyano i would not place the siphoned water right back.
it's easier to replace it with newly mixed salt water ( in don't do sheduled WC, but i will always take the easier way)
I measure Nitrates, Phosphates, and I tried to measure Iron.
Nitrates- I always measure between 10 and 25 on Salifert. The color is not quite 10 nor is it quite 25.
Phosphates- Always test zero on my Hanna checker. (713 model)
Iron- Always tests zero on my Hanna checker. I got this test after reading your first thread, only to find out that the level of iron in NSW is way to low for any test kit to detect. I know your run a much higher level in your tank but I've not felt comfortable dosing that much iron into my tank. Especially with no delectable Phosphate in my tank. I know its there, but it's low. I do have some red hair algae on my snails shells.
Before doing anything with trace elements you need to cover the base first
Ph,KH, Ca, Mg, PO4 and No3 should be within certain boundaries
the red outlined parameters are the basic values to control:
the other values will benefit SPS species the most