Water Change timing?

[tinyfish]

I think I may be doing something wrong.

How often and how much water am I supposed to be changing out?

I have been testing after a water change and dosing accordingly.

 

[Harry_Y]

I do about 10% weekly

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What have you been doing?

People use many varied schemes. I change about 1% daily.

 

[klepto]

How often and how much water am I supposed to be changing out.

That all depends on what you are keeping or plan to keep. Many choose monthly water changes around 20% and others go with weekly changes of 10%. Then there are the exceptions like Randy who have dialed in a system which allows for optimal stability.

Regardless of how much you change, curing your fresh salt water for at least 12 (ideally 24 or more) hours is highly advisable.

Some practices I employ

Adding salt to the container first, then diluting with RODI.

Adding the water rapidly to agitate the salt and continuing to stir it until all of the salt dissolves.

If the salt settles out on the bottom of the container then the water won't cure out evenly and getting the salinity on will take forever.

Adding a heater if water or ambient temps are low to encourage everything to dissolve. I remove the heater once everything has dissolved to save energy.

Using a salinity calibration fluid (aka standard) every time when making up some salt water to ensure that my refractometer is reading accurately.

Covering new water once the salinity is 35ppt and retesting before doing a water change.

Finally, ensuring that the total dissolved solids(TDS) on my source RODI water is minimal, ideally 0ppm TDS.

 

[slief]

My water changes are automated using a litermeter III. I do just shy of 20% a month or about 3.7G per day. I will likely be increasing that a bit in the next week or so to about 5G per day or about 30% a month. Even at my current water change volume, my tank is very stable and happy so I may only bump it to 25% and save on water/RODI and salt..

 

[jason2459]

Klepto, do you get a lot of precipitation adding water to the salt?

I've always filled with water first, get to temp, and then slowly add salt while a powerhead is mixing. Never had a problem with residue or major precipitation that way. I do let it mix for a while like around 24 hours but I also mix enough to last the month and do weekly changes. I dont heat or mix between changes. I want to get back to daily again soon.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Jim.mer]

ive always done 20percent weekly

 

[clownfreak]

I fill my mixing container with RO/DI, dump in salt, drop in a small powerhead and let it mix. I test and tweak as needed, let it cure for a while (I'm too lazy to use it immediately any way). It usually cures for 1-3 days. I change whenever I feel the motivation/need to, but probably more than the typical 20% monthly.

 

[jc-reef]

Klepto, do you get a lot of precipitation adding water to the salt?

I've always filled with water first, get to temp, and then slowly add salt while a powerhead is mixing. Never had a problem with residue or major precipitation that way. I do let it mix for a while like around 24 hours but I also mix enough to last the month and do weekly changes. I dont heat or mix between changes. I want to get back to daily again soon.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I was thinking the same thing...instant precipitation once the water hits all that salt. I think even some of the chemistry experts have even stated that as well. I don't know if the precipitation would disolve back into the water or just fall out as unusable elements...


-------

 

[bertoni]

Adding water to the salt seems to cause precipitation for some people, and the at least some of the precipitation will be permanent, such as calcium carbonate.

 

[klepto]

Adding water to the salt seems to cause precipitation for some people, and the at least some of the precipitation will be permanent, such as calcium carbonate.

Good to know. I'm glad I threw my methods out there. I haven't had issues with precipitate, but I can definitely see how inadequate agitation could increase the amount of precip. I started using this method to avoid having to heat the water before mixing. Perhaps I will resume the typical method of heating water then adding the salt. Thanks for the input all.

 

[allsps40]

I do 10% weekly water changes.

 

[D5HP]

I guess I'll post my method as well since I've had a lot of success with it.

After losing a few inverts after 20% changes I began to investigate doing smaller (like 5% changes) often and had some success but it was quite a hassle.

I think part of the problem with the previous invert deaths was adding the water to a central location and the tank developing "pockets" of variable parameters since all the pumps were off.

Now I take a 5g bucket of fresh saltwater and add about .8 gallons, drain until my float switch drops....wait 3-5 minutes. I do this until I don't have anymore freshwater and I have a bucket of nasty water.

Yes, I'm draining some freshly added water each time but since I have a small tank (20g) the cost of salt and water is immaterial. I believe this is a very effective method as the inhabitants of the tank experience absolutely no change whatsoever and the HIGH flow in the tank causes an immediate dispersion of any "pockets" I may have been introducing previously.

 

[tinyfish]

I am currently doing 20% on a monthly basis and testing and dosing on a weekly basis.

I have a limited number of buckets. I am using a siphon to drain the water into buckets, then dump the buckets. I use buckets to mix new saltwater, warm water then salt. I use a refractometer for salinity to 1.025. I usually let the new saltwater cure for about 4 hours.

My largest system is 100g consisting of 75g display and 25g in a 30g sump. My smallest system is currently 20g. The 20g system is not too hard to do, but the 100g system taxes me physically due to a degenerative condition.

Maybe the 10% weekly would be easier on me and better for the systems. As well as letting the saltwater cure for longer.

 

[ANGRY JOHN]

i have a 90 and i try to do 5 gallons a week. To make things easier on you, try using a maxi jet and two buckets. I shut off my main return, pump 5 out of the sump, pump in the new 5 and start the system back up. I do not dump the old 5 until i know that i added as much as i took out. There was a lot of mistakes before i saved the old water to verify i was good to go before dumping. Call it growing pains.

 

[klepto]

I am currently doing 20% on a monthly basis and testing and dosing on a weekly basis.

I have a limited number of buckets. I am using a siphon to drain the water into buckets, then dump the buckets. I use buckets to mix new saltwater, warm water then salt. I use a refractometer for salinity to 1.025. I usually let the new saltwater cure for about 4 hours.

My largest system is 100g consisting of 75g display and 25g in a 30g sump. My smallest system is currently 20g. The 20g system is not too hard to do, but the 100g system taxes me physically due to a degenerative condition.

Maybe the 10% weekly would be easier on me and better for the systems. As well as letting the saltwater cure for longer.

Limited number of buckets? huh? I reckon your hardware store could help you out with that!

Out of curiosity, what brand of salt are you using?

Do you regularly calibrate your refractometer?

Another suggestion: perhaps purchasing a large rubbermaid and mixing up larger quantities of salt up could be helpful to your situation. That way fresh water will be ready at all times. This can be a great help in emergencies and when ones' energy reserves are low. Elevating the large rubbermaid is useful because then you can just siphon out into a smaller container or pump it directly into your systems for the water change.

 

[clownfreak]

Tinyfish, if you are having difficulties with water changes you can make them significantly easier. Using two buckets/rubbermaids and a pump will take out most of the work. Mix up your fresh saltwater in bucket 1 (using the powerhead to mix it), after the saltwater is ready drain tankwater into bucket 2, attach tubing to powerhead (use head loss calculator on main page to find out how large of a pump you need), and then pump the new water in.

I also don't dump the removed water until I know I have enough water in the tank.