How do you change your water.

[20gallonreefer]

Everyone has different size tanks and setups so what is the process of your water change. Maybe we can get some ideas around to make it a little easier for everyone.

On my system 550 gallons total, I change 50 gallons every sunday.

I have a closet across from my tank that I keep my 55 gallon drum in mixing salt all week with a maxi jet.

So here are the steps to my water change.

1. Turn off my return pumps
2. Siphon out 50 gallons. with a 30' tube (I have a black line on the tank to where i measured 50 gallons)
3. Blow out all the remaining water in the tube and place it in the sump.
4. Connect the tube to the maxi jet that mixes the salt.
5. The water starts pumping into the tank and I turn one return pump on until it is full.
6. Turn the second return pump on and roll up the tube.

After that the ro/di starts automatically filling up the drum and I just use a 50 gallon bag of salt and dump the whole thing in later on in the week. Its usually right where it has to be but I always test to make sure the specific gravity is correct.

 

[noelskii]

how long does that maxijet take to pump out 50gals 30ft away?

 

[20gallonreefer]

About 15-20 minutes. It's going into the sump so the first 30 gallons is basically a siphon then the maxi jet has to work to lift the rest. I usually just hang out in the basement playing the piano or something while it's pumping.

how long does that maxijet take to pump out 50gals 30ft away?

 

[jnelson]

I have a 30g tank with a 12g sump (total water volume is probably about 25g).

I do 5 gallon water changes every two weeks (20%). I use two old salt buckets, some flex hose, and a Quiet One 2200 pump. The pump is ridiculously fast considering the volume of water I'm changing, so the act of draining/refilling water literally takes about a minute, tops. The skimmer chamber of my sump holds about 5 gallons so I stick the pump in there, pump out, and pump new water in. Pretty straightforward.

 

[kenconnect]

I do 15gal every week on my 100 gal rimless tank. First i make up 15 gallon every friday in the am then put in the salt (h2o) mix with a mj 900 and leave it mix for 24hr. Then sat am turn off my system clean out my collection cup and raise the spong change the sock and begain to siphon out water with a hose then just use the same mj to put it back into the sump and turn the system back on.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

I do 5 gals on Sundays and 5 gals Wednesday's

 

[Mercury]

I do 5 gals on Sundays and 5 gals Wednesday's

thats a lot of gals in a week... lol

 

[Mattl22]

I do 5 gal once a week on my 75 I usually put 5 gal bucket on my kitchen chair and use tube to siphon into my sump ! Then I use same tube and bucket to take 5 gal out of display !

Then once in blue moon I'll do 20 gal where I clean all the crap outta the sump

 

[Mattl22]

20 gal reefer how bout some pics??

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

thats a lot of gals in a week... lol

Not Realy mercury lol it's ten gals a week lol wow that's 40 a month lol

 

[lnevo]

10 gallons a week on my 65 seems like a good amount, set my controller to water change mode, skimmer and return turn off, I pump out two buckets from my sump, fill up the buckets and fill the sump back up. Cancel the mode, return pump kicks back on, skimmer goes back on 10 minutes later. I think I've got the process down, yet somehow I keep finding new ways to spill some water on the carpet.

 

[MikeC]

On my system 130 gallons total, I change 30 gallons every Saturday.

I have a closet across from my tank that I keep my 44 gallon Brut garbage can in mixing salt all week with a maxi jet.

So here are the steps to my water change.

1. Turn off my return pumps via feed cycle on Apex.
2. I start with Siphoning out 20 gallons from DT vacuuming top layer gravel into (4) 5gal homedepot orange buckets then siphon 10 gal from sump into 2 more buckets. (tank is in bacement so I have to cary buckets up the stairs to empty outside) I do have a bathroom downstairs but I'm not conferitable putting salt water into the bathroom sump pump?
3. Change filter socks
4. Connect the tube to the maxi jet that mixes the salt.( have the 1200 I do need to get a bigger pump)
5. The water starts pumping into the tank and I turn return pump on until it is full.
6. Clean skimmer cup
7. Clean glass.

After that the ro/di fills up the 44 gal drum and I just add salt in two days to get ready for next week.

 

[Mattl22]

Nice size tank my dream tank!!! What
Kinda coral u growing In there ? Is that cal reactor running yet looked like tank kinda new is the cal alk demand that high yet??

How much does it cost a month too run that big guy??

 

[20gallonreefer]

Currently I have a mix of some starter sps such as monti caps, birds nests, and digis. A few lps such as orange hammer, and my favorite metallic green torch and some high end zoas. I am an sps guy so my goal for this tank is to be a full blown out sps tank with just a few of my favorite lps and zoas.

The cal reactor is running but with a very low flow just to raise the cal and alk a little since I use plain instant ocean salt. Not really much of a demand the coral is too small but it does help.

And monthly cost lets see...
$45 in salt every month
$15 in GFO
$350 in electric for the entire basement. Not sure what the tank contributes to that but if I were to take a random guess I would say at least $300 because We are not in the basement too often to be running up the bill. It's more of like an entertainment room only when people come over.

The problem is not putting my chiller outside and I'm slapping myself in the head for not doing it. The room temp used to never go above 70 in the summer even with no air conditioner on. Now it hit 95 this summer and the 220v air conditioner couldn't bring it down below 80. So now I am figuring out a way to make an air duct because the chiller is right next to a window so I want to make a duct with a fan that pulls the hot air straight out the window. The tank still stayed at 78 though so the chiller is definitely working good.

After that project is done I am looking into installing some solar panels. Enough to run the entire tank during the day and a battery capacity to run them overnight or during a cloudy day or something. Of course this will have a transfer switch incase the battery's drain out completely it will automatically transfer over to the standard house electric it is running on now.

Nice size tank my dream tank!!! What
Kinda coral u growing In there ? Is that cal reactor running yet looked like tank kinda new is the cal alk demand that high yet??

How much does it cost a month too run that big guy??