No water changes

[mark]

All I used to do (using ro/di water) was aerate, match temp and salinity and never seemed to have problems. Only thing I'm doing different now is ensuring the Ca and Mg are also up.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Telford

Here's the simple question then...other than temperature, salinity, de-chlorination and taking out ammonia. Are there any other tricks, tips, neccessities when doing a water change?

Proper Calcium levels, alk, ph etc etc.. I always test these things after water has sat for a day or two...being mixed and aerated. bad salt has and will happen again. if you are using tap water i would suggest a copper test kit as well.

[Telford]

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

Proper Calcium levels, alk, ph etc etc.. I always test these things after water has sat for a day or two...being mixed and aerated. bad salt has and will happen again. if you are using tap water i would suggest a copper test kit as well.

Is it very important let your water sit for a couple days after mixing it? Do you just manually aerate it or?

[Interior_Reef]

One tip i find good, is if you have to syphon the tank water out, dont swallow it!

I use an airstone in my water tub, and the only reason i let it sit is to allow the heater to get it to the same temperature as the tank, that and to allow the chlorine to evap.

[fishdaddy3]

Originally Posted by Telford

Is it very important let your water sit for a couple days after mixing it? Do you just manually aerate it or?

I read an article once that said it was important to let newly mixed salt water age for a few days because it is very caustic and corrosive when just mixe and it could be hard on livestock AND equipment.

[digital-audiophile]

I usually let my water sit for 24 hours, just to have a chance to mix really well and bring it up to temperature.

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by fishdaddy3

I read an article once that said it was important to let newly mixed salt water age for a few days because it is very caustic and corrosive when just mixe and it could be hard on livestock AND equipment.

That's UNdissolved salt and saltcreep that's corrosive. As long as the water is clear it's fine to use. Using a high powered pump helps hasten help dissolving process. I use a DIY modded maxijet which will blast the water out of my 33 gallon Brute garbage can if I'm not careful.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by fishdaddy3

I read an article once that said it was important to let newly mixed salt water age for a few days because it is very caustic and corrosive when just mixe and it could be hard on livestock AND equipment.

I used a mixer paddle on the end of a drill, mixed it up real good the only time I let it sit for more than an hour is when I felt lazy all of a sudden, but having said that overnight would be good. now I used RO water so I wasn't worried about clorine or anything.


Steve

[Aquattro]

I just added 80g to my system, it didn't sit more than an hour per batch. I added 4 20g pails over the course of the day. Every thing is fine.

[kwirky]

Wow I totally missed this thread, it got to like 50 posts in 2 days!

I'd say siphoning out detritus has the effect of changing my water. My 5 gallons or less of siphoning is my small window of opportunity to siphon out as much visible detritus as possible and I've been trying to develop my own way of getting as much as I can with each change.

As for aerating water any changes larger than 5% I aerate if the water's straight out of the RO unit. I do this for 24 hours then use it. If my RO basin has had the current batch of water in it for like a week I just dump in the resulting saltwater right away.

And I test my water going into the aquarium about every 3rd batch or so (or on a new bucket).

One "no-no" i've done is use the well water a couple times out of desperation here on the acreage (since I haul water from the city to use on the aquarium). I have comprehensive test results of the water done by the hospital and it's supposed to be better than city water except it's high in potassium (which doesn't hurt since our salt's low in it). I haven't had problems yet but I haven't really used it much out of fear of something nasty happening. I've only used about 5 gallons in total over the past 3-4 weeks.