Water changes?

A

ABATTLEDONKEY

In Memoriam
hello,
I am just wondering what all your thoughts are on when, and how much water should be done in a water change. i approx 30% a month but i buy water from the store. thats $30 a month alone in water costs. im thinking about mixing my own but i wanna pass it by the RC first so i dont mess it up. any help is appreciated. thanks
-Paul
 
I do 20% once a month, but there are lots of schedules people use. Yours seems fine to me. I might do 2 15% changes, instead, though.
 
I do 20% every two weeks on my 55 gallon I'd suggest you pick up an RO/DI unit and just mix it yourself.
 
This is a question that you will get many many opinions. It depends on what your trying to do with the tank. Is it a fish tank or reef? I have done where I change water every couple of months and just add make up water and trace elements. Worked okay. Recently I have been on a mission to build a tank that looks like the ones that you see in magazines and RC's main page. That requires weekly changes (15-20%) and CHECK THE CHEMISTRY!!! Just becauase you mix the water up and dump it in the tank it does not mean the job is done. I made this mistake. IMHO, You need to check your PH, calcium and salinity at a minium . I do mine once a month and I am quite happy with my tank. One thing to remember, get a good skimmer and good lighting and with a little effort you will have a tank that will be ready to be shown off. Mike/KD9RG

Oh one more thing, get an R/O unit and save yourself some money buying water.
 
I change out 10% per week.

There are lots of systems and methods that people use, but I am absolutely religious about 10% per week (actually a little more than that....5G on a 46G bowfront). It's not just lip service, I actually DO it! :)

Even though I am a newb, my tank looks much more mature than it's mere 4 1/2 months, and aside from the standard algae/diatoms/cyano the first month, has been a problem-free tank.

I attribute A LOT of the success and ease and lack of issues to the weekly water changes.

Have fun!!
tracy
 
I change 20% weekly on a 58. I'm also a newbie at reef tanks but changing 50% on my planted tnak has always done well by me and the tank. I'm hoping to build up to weekly somewhere between 30-50% changes on the reef as the process becomes easier.
 
thanks for the help guys. how about mixing it yourself? it sounds really simple, but you know how that is. ive read i should mix appropriately then let a power head in the tank for at least 24 hours. over kill? also what is the best mix out there? thanks
-Paul
 
I like instant ocean the best, whatever you use you shouldnt change that can be a huge problem, You should wait 24hrs before addding new mix, you should use a refractometer as well.
 
Paul,

If you're happy with what your LFS gives you, find out what salt their using. IME, Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals is just fine. I've read you can speed up the process by using an airstone. Personally, I use 5 gallon buckets, filling them up with RO/DI water with an airstone in it. Once it is full, I add salt half a cup at a time until I'm at 1.026. I use a Koralia-3 pump in the bucket to mix it up. I let it sit for about half an hour after that then into a 5 gallon jug it goes, then into the garage where it sits for a week or two as I mix ahead of time. So far it seems to be a fine recipe for me.
 
Personally I think water changes are over rated. I only change my water a couple times a year and I have excellent results with this method. My last water change was preformed in March 2007. I do run a calcium reactor and also have a good skimmer so I'm sure that makes a huge difference. I only top off with RODI water for evaporation. You will definitely need to try different things out to see what works best in your system.

Here are pictures of my system and you can see that a nice tank can be accomplished without water changes.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1290202
 
i've been looking for a thread thats on here for a minute now and can't seem to find it, but the best way I have found to mix saltwater...

Power Drill + Paint Mixer + brute container (garbage can) = Saltwater in minutes

a power drill and a paint mixer will by far out do any powerhead (that i have ever seen).

I would have never thought of it, until I saw someone on here talking about it.
They had a link to a site explaining why this is the best and most efficient way to mix.

Had something to do with the elements in the salt not having time to precipitate out of the water while the mix was being made. which apparently can be a huge problem with powerheads, because they take so long to mix. Also the site suggested not ever using aireation to mix your saltwater, and to only use it for stored saltwater that you are about to add to a tank to oxygenate it a little bit. They had really good reasoning behind it.

Also I can mix 30 gallons of saltwater in 15 minutes, ready to use, salt completely dissolved. The long process of the whole thing is me waiting for my RO unit to fill my trash can up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11583552#post11583552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reef of Eden
i've been looking for a thread thats on here for a minute now and can't seem to find it, but the best way I have found to mix saltwater...

Power Drill + Paint Mixer + brute container (garbage can) = Saltwater in minutes

a power drill and a paint mixer will by far out do any powerhead (that i have ever seen).

I would have never thought of it, until I saw someone on here talking about it.
They had a link to a site explaining why this is the best and most efficient way to mix.

Had something to do with the elements in the salt not having time to precipitate out of the water while the mix was being made. which apparently can be a huge problem with powerheads, because they take so long to mix. Also the site suggested not ever using aireation to mix your saltwater, and to only use it for stored saltwater that you are about to add to a tank to oxygenate it a little bit. They had really good reasoning behind it.

Also I can mix 30 gallons of saltwater in 15 minutes, ready to use, salt completely dissolved. The long process of the whole thing is me waiting for my RO unit to fill my trash can up.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to the artcle you're referring to? I'm definitely not a chemist, but I was under the impression that using airstones was not for "re-ionization" than oxygenation. Either way, the more reading the better :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11583658#post11583658 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cd77
I was under the impression that using airstones was not for "re-ionization" than oxygenation.
Click to expand...

i'm not sure what your trying to say here^

the problem is, I can't remember the details of the site. i just made a thread to see if anybody remembers it.

i just remember it saying don't use aeration to mix your salt, and they explained how it probably came about that people had the idea of mixing with an air stone.
 
I'm well technical - I take 2 buckets out and put 2 buckets back in once a fortnight. I top up 1 bucket of FW the week inbetween.

(140l ish tank, 2 buckets = 20l so thats... 14.3% every 2 weeks or 7.2% weekly lol)

I'm about right lol, I never worked it out before!
 
I have a rubbermaid container with a powerhead in it that is constantly mixing saltwater. It's really easy to just mix your own, and it's good to have it on hand and ready to go. I like having 10-20g on hand at any given time, just in case! :)

Tracy
 
In the long run, you will usually save money by mixing your own. I also found that the LFS did not mix to a salinity of 35 ppt. Plus you need RO/DI water for top-offs anyway, so the RO/DI unit is a good thing. I bypass the DI part to fill bottles for our drinking water (this was a big hit with my wife).

As for salt brands, IO and RC are used by the majority of people here. That does not make them better, just that they are more popular amongst the people here so they should be fine to use. BTW, the price difference between IO and RC online is only a few dollars. At the LFS, the difference can be HUGE. I had some issues with Oceanic when I used it alone, but many have used it and have great results. It is really high in calcium, so some people mix it with IO or RC. During my transition to RC, I did not have issues when I used it with RC once I reached 60% RC to 40% Oceanic.

As for water changes, there are pleanty of ways to do it, but a 10% weekly is an old standby. I like to do more frequent, smaller changes rather than one big one monthly. But I only have a 90 gallon tank. If my tank was much larger I might change my tune.

Here is a good article to read:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

According to Randy's article:

Water changes of 15-30% per month (whether carried out once a month, daily or continuously) have been shown in the graphs above to be useful in moderating the drift of these different seawater components from starting levels. For most reef aquaria, I recommend such changes as good aquarium husbandry. In general, the more the better, if carried out appropriately, and if the new salt water is of appropriate quality.
Click to expand...
 
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