heating water for water change

[cintec]

how do most of you do this when doing a water change do you put an aquarium heater in and let it sit for a couple of hours or is there a better way.

 

[MarkGP]

For me it usually takes longer than that to heat up. I let it sit overnight with a heater and powerhead and recheck the salinity.

 

[xpace]

pretty much I'm doing the same, depends how much water you are changing at the time as if you let it sit somewhere and get the room temperature, the final mixture when you put it in your tank will not differ much, of course if your room temperature is 18C/64.5F then that's a different story

 

[Ron Reefman]

Where I live, heating the water up is rarely an issue, cooling it down is. But I'd do the same thing either way, move it into the house and get it to room temp. In our house that's in the upper 70s or low 80s most of the year.

 

[cintec]

is there a quicker way to heat the water than using a heater right now its between 40-50 degrees

 

[dzfish17]

You can get a bigger heater or use multiple heaters. I usually use one jager 300w but if Im in a hurry I use two of them... warms the water quickly.

 

[jrjones800]

i let it sit overnight with a heater going

 

[nanojg]

I dont heat the water, although I dont ever do larger than about 10% changes.

 

[EllieSuz]

I always use water that has been heated and aerated, but in a pinch you could heat a container of water in the microwave and add it to your change water. I've never understood how people do a water change with temperature and salinity approximated. It's not that hard to have the new water absolutely the same. When I do a water change from the sump, my fish don't even know there's been a change.

 

[windyridge]

Me too EllieSuz.

I use a cheap pump to circulate my water change water and it provides some heat along with a spare heater to get the water to temp. I circulate for 48 hours and usually kick on the heat 12 hours before I change the water. When I had my 29G, the circulator provided all the heat.

 

[Chris27]

or is there a better way.

Bigger heater

Be patient my friend, if you're heating the water while adding salt, the water will likely be about ready (temp wise) when the salt is totally dissolved.

 

[nanojg]

I've never understood how people do a water change with temperature and salinity approximated.

Because it doesnt matter if its 10% or less, it will not negatively affect any of the animals. I think people can get too obsessed with everything being perfect. I never heat my water change water and never measure the salinity of it either. I measure the salinity once a month at most, and its always about right.

 

[Dr. Reef]

before i got the genesis renew system i used to change water on sundays only. i used to mix salt on sat nite and let the chiller or heater run till sunday check salinity and do water change. now i keep the chiller and heater attached at all times.
RENEW does water change 3 gal everyday at about 8pm so i just check for salinity and let the chiller or heater and RENEW do its job automatically.

 

[bumski667]

i also usually heat my water and let a powerhead run overnight before doing a water change.
Also it's relative to how much you are changing. If you're doing less than 10 percent, maybe you don't need to heat it if the temp is within 15-20 degrees or so. You just don't want a drastic drop in temp in your tank which causes stress for every thing.
I do at least 15-20% weekly so i like my water at approximately the same temperature.

 

[bid2ask]

i boil the r/o water in a big stainless steel sauce pot with about 2 gallons of rodi, that added to about 18 gallons of 65 degree water brings it to about 78 degrees, takes about 15 minutes to boil

 

[Curl58]

I use a heater to get the temp close.

 

[RubberFrog]

You probably see a bigger temp swing from morning to night than anything caused by a water change with unheated water.

 

[pkirby]

normally I mix water up before going to bed and throw a heater and a pump in the bucket... when I wake up saturday morning it's ready for me to do a water change! I have heated water in a pan on the oven as well though when I needed it right away and it worked fine. I just made sure the pan was clean and I rinsed and rinsed and dried the pan before using it to make sure there was virtually no dish soap remaining on the surface from the last time it was washed.

 

[fishgate]

Because it doesnt matter if its 10% or less, it will not negatively affect any of the animals. I think people can get too obsessed with everything being perfect. I never heat my water change water and never measure the salinity of it either. I measure the salinity once a month at most, and its always about right.

+1 Room temp after sitting overnight mixing with a powerhead. I change around 4-5 gallons per week on a 40G tank. Topoffs also room temp RO water about a gallon at a time just dumped in.

I think even if you did up to 20% change with a 10 degree difference you would not notice any more then 1 degree maybe in the tank water when done.

 

[cbm369]

I actually have my RODI unit tapped into the hotwater supply line. By the time it travels the distance to reach the sump, it's a very reasonable 80 -82 degrees.