Water Change

[Viking2627]

I am planning my first water change. I am doing a 20 percent change. Is it ok to take out my skimmer, powerhead, and filter and clean them? Is it also ok to move rocks around to clean the sides of the tank? I have a few small pieces of coral. I do have a BTA on one of the rocks I want to move to clean behind. I saw a video on youtube that said to set up a 5 gallon bucket, put a pump in it and let it mix for 6 hours. Is this the best idea?

 

[mpjones]

I usually mix my salt in the night before I do the w/c. IMO I wouldn't move things to much as it's your first w/c. This say you do not stir thing up a lot. I usually clean my pump, and power heads on a rotation base not all at once. I'd leave the skimmer for now as it's probably not that dirty. I've also noticed that when you do a complete clean of the skimmer it sometimes goes back through a lil bit of a break in period again. This is just my opinion. See what everyone else has to say and make your best judgement from there!

 

[patsfan1130]

It's perfectly fine to remove and clean your skimmer & pump and clean them. You can move some rock around to clean glass / detritus as well. before a WC you actually want to stir things up a little so you can remove it. Just don't go crazy. I too make up my water the night before but have used it as soon as it was up to temp in the past. fully mixed/aerated water that is up to temp is perfectly fine.

 

[BenBradford]

Careful of moving the anemone. It can decide in a minute that it isn't happy where you reposition it and go wandering. I would recommend positioning rock in the tank so that it never moves again and you can clean also... My problem was always moving the rock around too much and cleaning the equipment too little

 

[Viking2627]

thanks to all

thanks to all

Thank you for the advise

 

[BenBradford]

you are welcome

 

[rlm2005]

If you are going to be moving the rocks around to clean the glass on the sides you may want to think about repositioning the rocks so you won't need to do that in the future. At least leave enough room to get a scraper in there, even if it's a long handled one.