Preparing reef water

[mike550]

Hello all. Trying to organize my thoughts around "œbest" way to make saltwater but also being realistic about what's important. Here are my thoughts so far.

Generate 35-40 gal RODI water in a Rubbermaid Brute can. Use a small pump and hose to circulate water while adding Marin Reef Salt mix. Couple of questions.

1. Should I try to match salinity of tank or the prescribed 1.024-1.025?
2. How close should water temp match the water temp in tank?

Also open to any suggestion for testing equipment etc

 

[outssider]

I would shoot for closer to 1.026 for both. In a year or two (when you're dosing consistently) you may need to make the water change water a bit lower because the tank water's slinity will increase due to dosing cal/alk/mag.

temperature depends on how much of the tank water you're changing and what the temperature difference is between the tank water and the water-change water.

 

[CNGH]

assuming it's a display tank and not a quarantine where you're doing hyposalinity, then you should do your best to match natural seawater, which is about 1.025 to 1.026. if the display tank salinity is low, don't try to raise it all at once. do it gradually over a series of water changes, and instead of topping off w/ RODI, just top off w/ saltwater till you're at or near your desired salinity.

how much water temp matters depends on the size of your tank and how much you're changing out. if you have a small tank, like 50-60 gallons or smaller, ideally, temps should be pretty close. but if you have a 100+ gallon tank, and you're changing 5 or 10 gallons, a 10 degree temp difference in new water to tank water will not impact overall temp very much if at all. if you're doing a larger water change, like 20-30%, then the closer to matching the better.

you should have an accurate way to measure salinity, like a refractometer. the swing arm guages are not very accurate.

also, make sure you have lots of towels handy...just in case.

 

[Uncle99]

Make RODI. add salt slowly while mixing to close to 1.025 or 6:
Mix for about 4 hours until clear, wait 24 hours.

Measure your salinity level, make any small adjustments up or down and deploy.

 

[SantaMonica]

Generally the slower you can do anything, like changing water, the better, and the less effect your alk/temp difference will have on the life.