Freshwater changes are cake..hell everything freshwater is cake but what i want to know is how some of the more experienced handle water changes. do you premix your saltwater and have it on hand? do u mix it at the time of change? how do you keep salinity equal to that in the tank. just your water change procedure. most of it is out of curiosity but i also want to learn different methods if there are any =)
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The Mother of all Newbie questions...(water changes)
- Thread starter LtSmash
- Start date
I keep a glass aquarium in my stand under my main tank premixed with salt water. I fill it with deionized water run directly from the tap using a 50 foot hose. In the tank is a heater, a small internal filter to get out dust, etc., a mixing spoon, and a small powerhead. When the main tank needs a change all I have to do is fill it from the tank underneath with a powerhead and hose directly into the main tank. Therefore, the only buckets I need to hand carry around the house are from the dirty water siphoned out of the main tank. Carrying buckets around gets old. The disadvantage is there is no room for a sump or refugium.
My method is as follows:
The night before the water change I pre-mix the water and salt into a 30gal. industrial trash can. Using my trusty deep six hydrometer I get the salt at my desired specific gravity the same night. I usually do this on a Saturday and Sunday. Put in my PH and heater, let stir all night. I use the reef crystle brand salt. In the morning I turn off my pumps and let all the water drain into the sump. Which actually holds about 22g. with pumps off. I then clean the sump glass up, and let settle for a couple of minutes. I always take a magic marker and mark the water level in the sump befors siphoning.Then place in garden hose and siphon . After water is siphoned I take the hose and walk all the waster water out. Take into the house, hook one end to my mag12, drop into the trash can with the salt water. And put the other end into the sump. Plug in pump and let fill to marked line on sump. With the leftover water I pour into a 5g. bucket and mark with a marker. Then pour back into the trash can. I then siphon out of the main tank to the marked line on the 5g. bucket and add the remainder of the water afterwards.
Power up and clean up.
The night before the water change I pre-mix the water and salt into a 30gal. industrial trash can. Using my trusty deep six hydrometer I get the salt at my desired specific gravity the same night. I usually do this on a Saturday and Sunday. Put in my PH and heater, let stir all night. I use the reef crystle brand salt. In the morning I turn off my pumps and let all the water drain into the sump. Which actually holds about 22g. with pumps off. I then clean the sump glass up, and let settle for a couple of minutes. I always take a magic marker and mark the water level in the sump befors siphoning.Then place in garden hose and siphon . After water is siphoned I take the hose and walk all the waster water out. Take into the house, hook one end to my mag12, drop into the trash can with the salt water. And put the other end into the sump. Plug in pump and let fill to marked line on sump. With the leftover water I pour into a 5g. bucket and mark with a marker. Then pour back into the trash can. I then siphon out of the main tank to the marked line on the 5g. bucket and add the remainder of the water afterwards.
Power up and clean up.
I pre-mix my water in a 30 gal trash can. I keep a RIO 2100 in it at all times to keep it circulating. Then just attach a hose to the RIO and pump the water in. I always keep my trash can full and ready to go with water, cause you never know when you may need to do a emergency water change.
One thing I can offer, as far as mixing to achieve the correct salinity. When I'm mixing a new batch I will shoot for making the salinity a tad on the heavy side, then I don't bother measuring it until it has been aerating overnight. On the day of the water change, it is easy to fine tune to the exact salinity I want by adding a little bit of pure water. It is more difficult to find the water is too light and have to add more salt mix and wait for it to dissolve properly.
My system is about 500+ g. I have 60 g mixed on hand all the time. When I do water change about every 2 months or so, I get an additional 100 g in Rubbermaid containers (2X50 g). I mixed the salt and aerated it using a power drill. This usually tank about 15 minutes. I leave it for 24 hr, and aerated it again before use if for change the water. Mixing and aerating the water with power drill is very easy and fast. I use a large stainless steel pain mixer from Home Depot that I got for 6 dollars to do this. I keep all my containers in the laundry room to keep things out of sight. In changing the water, I just siphon the water to the drain, and then pump the water from the laundry room to the tank. I don’t use the heater, but do keep the salinity level the same. The water in the laundry room is significantly lower than the tank temperature, however, the fishes and corals tolerate the lower temperature change without problem. It often lowers my tank temperature by about 2-3 degrees when I do water change.
Minh Nguyen
Minh Nguyen
Minh, constructive critisism! why not heat your water for the water change? surely no fluctuation is better! giving a far more stable tank :roll:
LT smash i change mine every fortnight, 90 gals religously i might add! i have a 90 odd gall tank under the main display tank, which is filled with R/O heated and vigerously aireated by a large powerhead( aqua clear 5000) mixed with reef crystals, at least 3 to 5 days before i'm gonna use it. The salinity is measured using a TMC precision floating hydrometer, as i'v had such unreliable results using swing needle types?
i then pump 90 gals out, and the new mix back in, with no fluctuation at all. it normally takes around 30 mins. The only differance being the drop in redox, with the new mix! but thats something i dont follow, how can new mix have lower redox? :?:
LT smash i change mine every fortnight, 90 gals religously i might add! i have a 90 odd gall tank under the main display tank, which is filled with R/O heated and vigerously aireated by a large powerhead( aqua clear 5000) mixed with reef crystals, at least 3 to 5 days before i'm gonna use it. The salinity is measured using a TMC precision floating hydrometer, as i'v had such unreliable results using swing needle types?
i then pump 90 gals out, and the new mix back in, with no fluctuation at all. it normally takes around 30 mins. The only differance being the drop in redox, with the new mix! but thats something i dont follow, how can new mix have lower redox? :?:
I use the trash can also.
But instead of 150' of hose to drag out everytime I want to fill up the tank,
I drilled a hole and added a bulkead and ball valve.
Just fill up the bucket and away I go.
I also keep it mixed super high.
(50 gal bag of salt in about 30 gal of water)
that way I don't need to keep it heated or at the exact salinity.
I fill the bucket up 1/2 way with the pre-mix then add hot water to bring it up to the correct temp and salinity.
But instead of 150' of hose to drag out everytime I want to fill up the tank,
I drilled a hole and added a bulkead and ball valve.
Just fill up the bucket and away I go.
I also keep it mixed super high.
(50 gal bag of salt in about 30 gal of water)
that way I don't need to keep it heated or at the exact salinity.
I fill the bucket up 1/2 way with the pre-mix then add hot water to bring it up to the correct temp and salinity.
Not a good idea. Things precipitate out of solution if you get it super saturated (like Ca++ and CO3--) That is often why you may have deposits on the side of the container and some unsoluble stuff at the bottom of the container.LFS42":2ewhycgt said:......
I also keep it mixed super high.
......
GT,
I am not ignoring you but will answer your question later since it will take longer
Minh Nguyen
GT,Garry thomas":35nfop7r said:Minh, constructive critisism! why not heat your water for the water change? surely no fluctuation is better! giving a far more stable tank
......
I think reef animals can tolerate salinity and temperature change more than most people think.
Most of my coral are high light SPS. Consider this situation: In the reef in the tropical area with fast approaching rain storm that dump several inches of rain on to the reef. This can change the salinity, temperature by quite a lot, at least for a short time until the water mix well.
Anyway, I never find temperature changes of 2-3 degree have any consequence for the fish and corals in my tank. My fish did not even have an Ich outbreak with the temperature change. Coral slimed up due to air exposure but everything just looks much better the next day.. I have three containers I need to use three heaters plus three PH to mix the water if I want to heat it. I just elect not to get 6 additional equipments for my tank, especial if I find that it cause no problem.
I don't cut corner when it come to things that make a different, but inconsequential items, I often does not bother with it. IMO and IME, minor changes as above are not very important.
When I did 100% water change in the past, I have make sure the salinity and temperature match within several degree. I did this several times when the RIO melted in my tank and cause my tank to crashed. (100g tank several years ago)
Minh Nguyen
Most of my coral are high light SPS. Consider this situation: In the reef in the tropical area with fast approaching rain storm that dump several inches of rain on to the reef. This can change the salinity, temperature by quite a lot, at least for a short time until the water mix well
I've also been in many places in Hawaii where fresh water runoff from the mountains goes right into a bay with huge reefs in it. Honolulu bay for example has a lot of freshwater pouring into it.
Not to say either of you is correct (because I don't know). I too don't worry too much about the minor changes in Salinity I cause during a water change. However I do heat my water to get a better mixture. Hot water molecules move faster making it easier to mix the salt, where cold water’s molecules don’t move as fast and make it harder to mix the salt in.
- Location
- Palatine IL
I have my normal sump water level noted by a mark on the tank. When I am ready to change water I fill 30 gallons of RO/DI water into a 50g water container I bought from a farm supply store. I add salt and check the salinity. Then leave it overnite to aerate with pump & heater. Next day I pump the new water into my sump then I open a valve to drain the water directly from the tank sump into the house sump till the water level is back down to the marker on the sump. My tank is upstairs. No lifting for a reefer with a bad back.
My redox level also drops and i have attributed that to the possibility that my main tank with the skimmer has a much higher oxygenation level than fresh water.... have not noted any harm to the inverts....
My redox level also drops and i have attributed that to the possibility that my main tank with the skimmer has a much higher oxygenation level than fresh water.... have not noted any harm to the inverts....
I use a power drill to mix my salt water. My salt (Instance Ocean) always dissolves completely without any residue in about 5 minutes.King Jason":dqx6bbpl said:......I do heat my water to get a better mixture. Hot water molecules move faster making it easier to mix the salt, where cold water’s molecules don’t move as fast and make it harder to mix the salt in.
Minh Nguyen
I'm with minh I buy my water from my lfs pre-mixxed get it close to spec and change. my lfs guy told me not to wory about the temp in the tank to mutch to let it go up or down so when or if something happens in the summer like my a/c go's out the animals are use to it. i have not had any problems.my temp will change 4-6 deg in a day. i have also been at the beech here in oregon in the bay and watched crabs as tide was comeing back in and i'm standing waste deep in 75+deg water thats like a 20+ deg change in temp and this bay fills fast with in an hour or so.
starrs2001
starrs2001
I used to buy water from The Seattle Aquarium for 5 cents/g. It is filtered NSW from the Puget Sound and irradiated with UV. It was great for the tank and cheap. I had a great tank when I was in Seattle.hfmann":2xr81eyg said:This is really good info. It was always a real chore for me to do water changes before? This is really going to help.
Any of you "power reefers" adjust the ph of your NSW to match the tank?
Hal
Minh Nguyen
Problem with LFS mixed water.
They don't always use the same salt.
I know we use what ever salt was being "pushed" that month.
Sorry I got off the subject.
I agree, Temp isn't all that critical.
My fish seem to enjoy a little cooler water mixed in.
Minh:
I didn't even think about the super saturated water leeching elements out of the water.
My mixing vat doesn't have any noticable deposits on it though.
I'll keep a look out.
They don't always use the same salt.
I know we use what ever salt was being "pushed" that month.
Sorry I got off the subject.
I agree, Temp isn't all that critical.
My fish seem to enjoy a little cooler water mixed in.
Minh:
I didn't even think about the super saturated water leeching elements out of the water.
My mixing vat doesn't have any noticable deposits on it though.
I'll keep a look out.
Any of you "power reefers" adjust the ph of your NSW to match the tank?
Well, I don't know if I fit into the "power reefer" cateory :wink: , but I can tell you that I don't worry about the ph of the new water.
I think I might stop heating up the water too. I think the water in my tap comes out around 70. It's prolly 72 or 73 after it sit overnight in my 32G rubbermaid. Tank is usually around 78 in the AM when I usually do my WC's. Sounds like the temp swing isn't a problem, so why waste the electricty!
Louey
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