No water changes

[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.

[Pan]

The reason I let my water sit is to balance out the alk, ph etc.. sometimes i have to add things to get what i want. It is proably one of those things that can be done either way...some say its fine to add and some say no. Kent says its okay to add, but to wait preferably. I only wait because i usually have to dose something or another. I find it more convenient to do it my way. I don't actually use kent...well i do sometimes i have a bucket laying around...but i have found salt is salt. I'd use reefers best but my calcium reactor cracked and i am too cheap to get a new one, and the calcium is low in reeefers best on purpose.

[Jenndarlin]

I don't know how long you have to be in the hobby to not be a "Newbie" anymore but I still definately consider myself a Newbie. There's so much to know I think i always will be....lol...

I started my system about a year ago but I had been researching the logistics for about 3-4 months before the actual setup. Books; specifically "The contientious marine aquarist" and the Internet were my bibles at first, the staff at OA were later to come but have been invaluable. To me the amount of money that I was going to have to put into the setup alone, let alone then stocking the system was the reason I took the researching aspect so seriously. In everything I read, "Good Skimmers and Weekly Water Changes" was not just mentioned but described in detail. I didn't even know until reading this thread that not doing weekly water changes was an option. I just assumed that if you let it go long enough, everything would die....just another reason i love this site...I always learn something new from every post I read on here. From what I have gathered though from this thread is those who don't do weekly or even bi-weekly water changes and have successful systems are very experienced and have a way better understanding of their water paramaters and what they need to be running/supplementing to ensure those water levels. I think I'll stick with weekly water changes for now.

I started with a Coral life Super Skimmer 60, which was great in the beginning but has been up and down over the last 6 months and the motor seems to have gone, again, on the pump in the past few days but I don't think I can fix it this time. I now know this wasn't the greatest choice for skimmers and I want to look at something that will last more than a year and do a better job than this one did.

I also started with a large rubbermaid garbage bin with a heater, some airstones and a maxijet 1200 for prepping the water for water changes. I've never tested anything other than the salinity and temp before doing my water changes but I just assume my water is really good as when I take my water in, my tests have mostly been really good and if not, they tell me what to do and it goes right back down. I am now curious to know what the change water tests at.

I do 10-15% weekly water changes which seems to be the standard recommendation among books, the internet, staff at the stores I've been to and alot of people on here. That's more than enough for me and with the amount I've invested in it, the stories of the negative effects of not doing water changes is just not worth it.

Questions:

1. What test kits for which tests do people use??
I've been thinking of starting to do my own testing at home. Getting to the store weekly to get my water tested just hasn't been feasible lately and I wouldn't mind getting a better idea of the different tests done. I have a cheap test kit I bought at one the big animal superstores in the beginning but i know it's not accurate. So which brand names or test kits, products does everyone use??

2. Skimmers options. What's a good skimmer for 100 - 150gal????
I have a 100 gallon system including the sump but with rock displacement I figure there's about 60-70 gallons of water in the tank (not sure if this makes a difference or not). I have a plan in the works for a bigger system (150-180gal) that I would like to be able to transfer any new skimmer to. I have heard alot of good things about the Euro Reef Skimmers, I have heard mixed reviews about remora's and I've seen alot of things about DIY...but i definately don't think i'm there yet......lol

I sometimes think I ask too many questions but I wouldn't know most of what i do if i hadn't ask lots of questions