Please refresh my memory
- Thread starter Mr31415
- Start date
Water changes do two things: remove water and introduce new water. Removing old water helps to remove waste produced by the living things in the tank. It works even better if you intentionally suck up waste you can see. Adding new water brings in minerals that have been used by the living things in your tank. Tanks with low loads may never need additives if they utilize regular water changes since the new water has close to ideal levels of everything.
Mr31415
Active member
Ok thanks - that is what I thought. Now my next question is - why do people always recommend then to use water from your main tank when doing a water replacement there to start a quarantine or another tank? sure there might be some backteria in the water column, but are you not using water that you consider bad enough that you would throw it out?
Tang Salad
Algae skeptic
When you start a new tank, that 'bad stuff' from the established tank is more helpful than bad. In addition to the beneficial bacteria, it also adds organics (wastes) which help feed the bacteria and allow the cultures to multiply faster in the new tank.
wonder where this is leading to. here's my take.if you are running two reef tanks,where one is a sps dominated one and the other a lps one,i wud use the "old" sps tank water to do water change for the lps tank.
i'll also do the same if one of the tank is a FOWLR.
anyway,that's what i'll do to keep maintenence cost down.
salt mixes can get pretty hefty if you are running two or more large tanks.
i'll also do the same if one of the tank is a FOWLR.
anyway,that's what i'll do to keep maintenence cost down.
salt mixes can get pretty hefty if you are running two or more large tanks.
LobsterOfJustice
Recovering Detritophobe
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8298439#post8298439 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tangerine
wonder where this is leading to. here's my take.if you are running two reef tanks,where one is a sps dominated one and the other a lps one,i wud use the "old" sps tank water to do water change for the lps tank.
i'll also do the same if one of the tank is a FOWLR.
anyway,that's what i'll do to keep maintenence cost down.
This is what I do. I have an SPS tank and a FOWLR. I usually take around 10 gallons out of the reef, then use 5 of it to do a 5 gallon water change on the FOWLR. The FOWLR gets an additional 5 gal of water changed with fresh mixed water every once in a while too.
Think of it this way: You might take 5 or ten gallons of "bad water" out, but you are leaving the rest in your tank, so it's obviously good enough for your tank. It's not necessarily "bad enough to throw out"... it's just you tank water.
The reason many people use water from their main tank for hospital and QT tanks is because they are planning on eventually moving the livestock from QT to the main tank. Using main tank water for QT makes the conditions between the two tanks very similar so the acclimation process is not so stressful.
It would be better to add newly mixed salt water to all tanks if there are no plans to move livestock from one tank to the other.
It would be better to add newly mixed salt water to all tanks if there are no plans to move livestock from one tank to the other.
