How do you change your water ?
 

Just curious how some change their water.Any tricks or special set-ups one would like to share? Especially those that have peices that almost reach the surface of the main display. I don't have as big of a sump as I would like, so changing just from just the sump does'nt allow me to just draw all that I want from there, so I have to also take some from the main tank.Then just slowly add it to the sump to refill. I remember a member some time ago had neat setup (medican) Thought about buying it, but I think Deb (emilyb) beat me to it:razz:.

if you're worried about corals near the top drying out, you can spray them with a turkey baster regularly while they're out of water. Spending a lil time high and dry wouldn't hurt them too much would it?

I don't have that problem though. I siphon my water into a 5gallon polaris juig and dump it in the driveway (kills the weeds!). yup that's it really. I have a big container that always has at least 10 gal saltwater ready for whenever i need it. I keep it behind the display so it's easy to access.

I just let my corals get a tan for 5 or 10 minutes during low tide

If I'm siphoning out from the display, I have some Xenia that's out of water for a bit, doesn't seem to effect it.

High and dry seems to work with my corals.

I'd only worry if I had a sponge that was near the top.

The only coral that i have that doesn't like spending time sticking out of the water is my birdsnest and then it's only the tips that suffer

I have a 5 gallon aquarium in the garage that actually only holds 4.5 gallons of water. I fill it with 4 gallons of fresh water and add 2 cups of IO salt, I let it mix for 24ish hours. I have a 5 gallon water jug that's marked for 4.5 gallons and I siphon the water from the tank, sometimes I take some from the sump but because it's low there isn't much of a siphon created. I dump that down the toilet or out the back patio depending on if there are a lot of weeds or not. I rinse out the water jug, and fill it again with the new water from the garage, pour it in and turn on the sump again.

Doug

ps I'll add about 1 ml of the RHF Ca and Alk to my 4.5 gallons before I add it to the tank.

I have a pre-sump that holds about 30 gallons, with a by pass .
To do a water change I open the by pass , open the drain at the bottom of the pre-sump , once emptied, close the drain, refill via ro/di water on a kent float valve, once full, add salt, mixing pump, heater and let mix for 24 hours, test, and close by-pass and I'm done!
Takes about 25 hours with NO effort

Hey Mike, where were you while I was trying to sell it ? :lol: :razz:

Anyhow we did keep it, for our RO/DI and salt mixing. Never did figure out how to go beyond that, but if you want to have a look at it for design, feel free. :biggrin:

I have a 2nd sump dedicated to water changes. When I want to change, I shut off flow into/out of this sump, marking the level of the water in this sump (25 gallons). The main sump and tank continue to run normally.

I open the drain valve on the 2nd sump and the sump empties. I use a rag to wipe the sump clean of any "stuff".

Meanwhile, new SW has been mixed in advance in a 50 gallon mixer. A quick throw of a valve and the mixer pumps new SW into the empty sump.

Total time: 5 minutes. (4 of those are because the drain valve is slow to drain the sump!)

Right now, I'm not heating the new water. I just let it enter the system cold.