I'm completely new to this hobby and have a newbie question. The search function isn't working for me right now and I've been reading forums for days looking for this, but I guess I gotta ask. Can anyone give me a run through on water changes? What is your personal technique? I don't have an RO water filter yet, so I planned on getting distilled water from the store. What do you mix your water in? I have a 55 gallon tank and plan on doing 10 gallon water changes. Do I need to find a 10 gallon container, mix the water/slat content to my tanks specific gravcity and put a small heater into the container to match my tanks temp? Then drain the 10 gallons from my tank and add the new water?
Water changes
- Thread starter Doug W
- Start date
Dubbin1
Active member
I mix mine in a 12gal rubbermaid tub with a pump and heater. Some people say to let it mix for 24hrs but I usually give it a few hours then do the change. You will want a couple 5gal jugs to drain the water from the tank into so you can easily dump it. I do 10% water changes on both of my tanks every week.
TekCat
New member
I also have 55G and I do 5G weekly water changes:
12G tub for mixing + 5G water + salt + heater + 2 powerheads (one for mixing and another for aerating with airtube).
1. Mixing for about an 45 minutes
2. check salinity and temp.
3. Adjust if needed. If not, go to step 6
4. Mix for 30 minutes
5. go to step 2.
6. Take 5G out of tank
7. Put fesh mix in tank
8. Done
12G tub for mixing + 5G water + salt + heater + 2 powerheads (one for mixing and another for aerating with airtube).
1. Mixing for about an 45 minutes
2. check salinity and temp.
3. Adjust if needed. If not, go to step 6
4. Mix for 30 minutes
5. go to step 2.
6. Take 5G out of tank
7. Put fesh mix in tank
8. Done
egdevilboy
In Memoriam
1) Get RO or Salt h2O from your LFS...
2) Syphon out H2O from fish tank
3) replace h2o
4) clean off lights for salt creep, clean skimmer cup, scrub interior glass w/ pad, squigy exterior glass
5) check water parameters
Also, check salinity before changing h2o. If its high just add R/O if its low add salt. If its fine add 50/50 mix of salt & RO
2) Syphon out H2O from fish tank
3) replace h2o
4) clean off lights for salt creep, clean skimmer cup, scrub interior glass w/ pad, squigy exterior glass
5) check water parameters
Also, check salinity before changing h2o. If its high just add R/O if its low add salt. If its fine add 50/50 mix of salt & RO
PatMayo
New member
I do mine a little differently. I have a 44 gallon brute garbage can and I mix enough water to fill the 44 gallon can. I have a powerhead in it for circulation and an air stone as well.
I change 8 gallons a week. I use a 5 gallon bucket to siphon the water into. I don't fill each bucket to the top so 2 buckets equals about 8 gallons. I use the bucket to put the same about of water back into the tank. Because the water is mixed ahead of time I only have to mix it once per month.
I think its better to have the salt water mixed up several days in advance or even longer.
I keep a heater in the can to keep it at the same temperature as the tank. I use a refractometer to set the salinity at the exact same level as the tank as well.
Regards,
Pat
I change 8 gallons a week. I use a 5 gallon bucket to siphon the water into. I don't fill each bucket to the top so 2 buckets equals about 8 gallons. I use the bucket to put the same about of water back into the tank. Because the water is mixed ahead of time I only have to mix it once per month.
I think its better to have the salt water mixed up several days in advance or even longer.
I keep a heater in the can to keep it at the same temperature as the tank. I use a refractometer to set the salinity at the exact same level as the tank as well.
Regards,
Pat
