How many days do you premix for water changes?
 

Just curious as to everyones practices for mixing their water for water changes :question: .

I do a 10% water change every week to 10 days. My routine is to mix up the change water about 72hrs before, leaving a Mag 1 in the bucket to circulate and make sure all the salt dissolves well. 24hrs before I change the water I throw in an airstone to make sure the water is well oxygenated.

Are there any advantages/benefits of this practice, or are you equally well off by just mixing and changing the same day?

I mix mine anywhere from 15 min to a day be for the change. I would say as long as you go over night with a standard mixing you are fine. I just drop a mag 3 in the bucket when I do the overnight mix, but my 15 minute special I basically use a propeller to froth up the water good and it has worked fine.

Steve

i give it about 24hrs with a venturi powerhead and a heater..

We use about 30g of NSW for water changes in our three tanks each week. After the water changes, we clean and begin filling the two rubbermaid trashcans with RO/DI water for the next week's water change. Once each trashcan is full, we aerate it and heat it. The day before the water change, we add salt, mix it well with the pumps that have been aerating, and aerate and mix until the water change.

I do as Beverly does, although I add the salt as soon as the can is full. It can then aerate until the next water change, anywhere from 7 to 30 days away.

I do the same as reef_raf, you never know when there will be an emergency :biggrin:

I used to do it like reef-raf.. but it seems whenever I have unused mixed salt / water waiting for longer than 3 days it starts to develope nitrates. So now I just mix the day before.

I too try for a day in advance with a heater and a cap 5000 power head I do about 20 gal a week ( if I remember) and i am trying to do it more diligantly :rolleyes:

My wife wouldn't allow a garbage can of water to sit in the kitchen that long :rolleyes:

Steve

Sorry to hear that. Maybe I should talk to her for you? :razz:

you do that and I will take to yours about having a tube ran from the kitchen to the tank for you so you could do a top off with larger than 4.5 gal :razz:

Steve

Ya, but mine would likely say ok. Your wife is just stubborn. She didn't like my idea about removing that wall, and she shot down my idea of buying a puppy for the kids!! That's just being difficult!! :biggrin:

Our kitchen is too small for even one garbage can, so the two of them are in my husband's bedroom. And he's not even the aquarist around here. He's a pretty tolerant guy and is prone to giving in during persuasive discussions, plus I cook him food :biggrin:

Actually, we connect a hose to the RO/DI outlet and fill 5g pails until the two cans are full. PITA, but what are you going to do?

Steve wants to run a RO line from my kitchen to my tank either thru the attic or suspended from the ceiling or some foolish notion like that!! I'm ok with the jugs for now, and when I buy a new house, I'll plan better.

I still think we can get a 300 gal tank in the attic for top off.

Steve