Craig's Tank Journal

[Edmonton newbie]

lookin good

[Doug]

[kien]

it looks like you've got everything well at hand here. Carry on :-)

[craigwmiller]

Here is my water change regiment and rig.

While I was planning out the water changes, I had a couple rules in mind:
- The first rule about water changes is they must be easy or they won't happen regularly for weeks/months/years on end
- no towels should be required in preparation for a spill or even a drip
- no buckets to haul water
- slick & nerdy enough that it's actually kinda fun to do it, making me look forward to the process!

I'm changing roughly 8 gallons of water, every Sunday... here's how:

Rigging:
- RO/DI equipment (aquasafecanada.com 100GPD setup, which consistently makes water at 2 TDS post-RO and 0 TDS post-DI -- incoming water is 190-210 TDS)
- 32 gallon Brute (containing a 100W heater, circulation pump, and Mag-Drive 3 for transferring the water upstairs)
- ~75' of 1/2" clear PVC tubing to connect 4 locations together (with 6 shutoff valves to control where the water goes). Locations: sump/display, Brute, storage room access hose, basement bathroom sink drain (direct/permanent installation)

Process:
1. The Brute is first filled and heated to match tank temperature, and then salted to match tank salinity (currently using Fluval salt at the time of this writing)
2. Water is siphoned from the sump upstairs, directly to the drain under the basement bathroom sink. (siphon is always started from water remaining in the in-between-floor hose from the last change, but can be restarted easily via the access hose - hanging coiled up in the picture).
3. New water is then pumped from the Brute up into the sump.

What type of sand did you go with Craig? Do you plan on maintaining it (stirring or vacuum)?

[craigwmiller]

Aragonite 1-2mm reef grade sand. Not "live", just sand. I soaked and rinsed it several times with RO, until it was as clear as I could get it.

As far as maintenance... Nothing planned. I have several nassarius snails, and also a six spot sleeper goby (who moves enough sand around to free up any loose detritus). When I get more established I might add a sand sifting starfish to churn it up some too.