back in the day when I was only using tap water for my tank I would haul out a 20 gallon garbage bin and put it right in front of the tank. Then I'd use one of those Python aquarium vac things with an attachment that would hook up to the bathroom sink to fill it. I'd mix the salt with a huge pasta spoon while it was filling.
I'd only wait until the salt was completely visibly dissolved before using a bucket to hand-ball the water in.
Obviously this was a time consuming and messy process, and if you can use RO water, it's better (Calgary's tap water reads around 140TDS on my meter pretty much constantly, though I hear Vancouver's is much better). If you've got the space for something a little more permanent where you can set up a bin that can hold several water changes worth and transport the water using pumps, you'll be far more likely to still have your tank in a year I think.
On my current set-up I have a dedicated sump chamber for water changes. I can isolate 2/3 of my sump from the flow of the tank using valves, and then drain the 50 gallon chamber where all my reactors are using a permanently installed pump with an outlet at a drain built in to my cabinet. I have another pump in my R/O reservoir in the basement that refills the water change chamber with fresh water, and while it's filling I mix in the appropriate amount of salt. I've got a koralia in that chamber that helps mix it, but at most I wait until the salt is visibly dissolved and I don't see anymore of that distortion of light you get when fluids of different densities mix. Some people like to wait much longer before using their freshly mixed salt, but I've been using mine immediately after mixing now from day one and I've never seen any deleterious effects from it.
|