First water change today...

[dbeals]

Hey guys...so far so good with my tank...I'm doing my first water change today and would like any advice to make it go smoothly. I figured I would remove 20% of my 55gal which would be 10gal. I bought 10 gal of spring water from the grocery store for this (would this be ok??) I'm also using instant ocean for salt, which seems to be quality salt... I do have a power head that I can mix the water up with in 5 gal buckets beforehand...How long should I premix it for? Also when I'm siphoning out the water, any advice...I heard its a good idea to clean out the debris from the LR...How bout cleaning out the sand?? I understand that the premixed water I will add should be the same salinity as the water in my tank...however how long does that premixed water have to settle out for to have a proper salinity reading?? One more thing...should the water I'm adding be the same exact temp of my tank right now (79deg)?? Hey thanks guys for any help, much appreciated.

[EllieSuz]

No, no....not Spring Water. What did you use to fill the tank the first time? Many LFS sell RO/DI water and until you decide to acquire a RO/DI filter, this would be your best option. Most Walmart stores have a dispenser for RO (but not DI) water and this would be the next best alternative. I have used that quite successfully. You could use distilled water, but you'll find that expensive. You should have started your water yesterday for a change today. It's always a good idea to give it at least 12 hours with a powerhead and a heater. Salinity and temperature should be as close to exactly the same as your Display Tank as possible. This early in your system, you shouldn't have to do anything to the sand. Oh, another quick tip. Pour the salt into the water, not the other way around. Give it a good stir and then aerate and heat it. Why don't you wait until next weekend to do your water change and get the right water for the job? You will be getting wildly different opinions any minute. The tough job is to decide whose advice works best for you. Good luck.

[sentencedme]

BUY A RO/DI SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WILL SAVE YOU TONS IN THE END.....ONE OF THE BEST/CRUCIAL SALTWATER HOBBY INVESTMENTS YOU CAN EVER MAKE.....GOOD LUCK.....

[dbeals]

Originally posted by EllieSuz
No, no....not Spring Water. What did you use to fill the tank the first time? Many LFS sell RO/DI water and until you decide to acquire a RO/DI filter, this would be your best option. Most Walmart stores have a dispenser for RO (but not DI) water and this would be the next best alternative. I have used that quite successfully. You could use distilled water, but you'll find that expensive. You should have started your water yesterday for a change today. It's always a good idea to give it at least 12 hours with a powerhead and a heater. Salinity and temperature should be as close to exactly the same as your Display Tank as possible. This early in your system, you shouldn't have to do anything to the sand. Oh, another quick tip. Pour the salt into the water, not the other way around. Give it a good stir and then aerate and heat it. Why don't you wait until next weekend to do your water change and get the right water for the job? You will be getting wildly different opinions any minute. The tough job is to decide whose advice works best for you. Good luck.

Hey thanks for the advice...I think I am going to wait a few days...just so I know how to do it the right way. Just curious....what is the problem with spring water? probably shouldn't have bought 10 gal of it yesterday hahaha.

[dbeals]

Originally posted by sentencedme
BUY A RO/DI SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WILL SAVE YOU TONS IN THE END.....ONE OF THE BEST/CRUCIAL SALTWATER HOBBY INVESTMENTS YOU CAN EVER MAKE.....GOOD LUCK.....

This does seem like the best route.. Im kinda hurting for money lately....how would this filter from marinedepot.com hold up???

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_Aquari...ceuticals.html

[EllieSuz]

I'm afraid that filter is insufficient for saltwater aquariums. You'll need to use RO/DI or at least RO water. Using anything else is asking for all kinds of problems down the road. Maybe the store where you bought your spring water will exchange them for distilled.

One more thing. If you are using a swing arm hydrometer to test your salinity, be absolutely positive that there are no tiny bubbles on the arm that can give you a distorted reading. dbeals told you a RO/DI unit is the most important investment you can make for this hobby, but I think a refractometer might even be more essential.

[Playa-1]

The procedure I would recommend for you is:
-Fill a container with RO/DI water (not spring water).
-Add a powerhead and a heater to the container.
-Measure the salt out and add to the container of water.
-Allow the mix to circulate for at least 4 hours (leaving to circulate over night would be better).
-Measure the salinity with a calibrated refractometer and make adjustments as necessary by adding additional salt mix or water to get the salinity reading where you need it. Allow to circulate for a while, retest, and repeat procedure as necessary.

I would suggest that you have the water ready to go at least a day in advance and It's always a gr8 idea to have additional water ready to go in case of an emergency. It's wise to use a much larger container for salt mixing and RO/DI storage.
To give you an idea. I have a 30 gallon brute container with mixed salt water that I keep mixed up ready to go. I also keep a 30 gallon container of RO/DI water on a float valve. A 5 gallon could be used but it's going to be a real pain.

Temp needs to be close and the salinity needs to be exact unless your making some type of an adjustment.

Before you do a water change grab a turkey baster and use it to blow off the liverock in the tank. Make sure the baster is clean and free of any soap residue, It may be a good idea to have a dedicated turkey baster for this process. You can use the turkey baster to lightly blow off some of the sandbed, roughly 25% of the sandbed. Care should be used so that you only disturb the very top of the sandbed. This process will get lots of detritus back into the water column and then when you do a water change, a percentage of this waste will be physically exported with the water. Any mechanical filtration will also help with the detritus removal from the water column. After the water clears up, It would be a good time to clean up any mechanical filters that you may have in the tank.

[dbeals]

Originally posted by Playa-1
The procedure I would recommend for you is:
-Fill a container with RO/DI water (not spring water).
-Add a powerhead and a heater to the container.
-Measure the salt out and add to the container of water.
-Allow the mix to circulate for at least 4 hours (leaving to circulate over night would be better).
-Measure the salinity with a calibrated refractometer and make adjustments as necessary by adding additional salt mix or water to get the salinity reading where you need it. Allow to circulate for a while, retest, and repeat procedure as necessary.

I would suggest that you have the water ready to go at least a day in advance and It's always a gr8 idea to have additional water ready to go in case of an emergency. It's wise to use a much larger container for salt mixing and RO/DI storage.
To give you an idea. I have a 30 gallon brute container with mixed salt water that I keep mixed up ready to go. I also keep a 30 gallon container of RO/DI water on a float valve. A 5 gallon could be used but it's going to be a real pain.

Temp needs to be close and the salinity needs to be exact unless your making some type of an adjustment.

Before you do a water change grab a turkey baster and use it to blow off the liverock in the tank. Make sure the baster is clean and free of any soap residue, It may be a good idea to have a dedicated turkey baster for this process. You can use the turkey baster to lightly blow off some of the sandbed, roughly 25% of the sandbed. Care should be used so that you only disturb the very top of the sandbed. This process will get lots of detritus back into the water column and then when you do a water change, a percentage of this waste will be physically exported with the water. Any mechanical filtration will also help with the detritus removal from the water column. After the water clears up, It would be a good time to clean up any mechanical filters that you may have in the tank.

Hey thanks playa...this was very helpful and I will use these tips

[Everyones Hero]

Don't let them get you all worried about not using RO/DI water. If you have good quality water from the tap you'll be fine until you have the money for one.

I've been using well water since May or June and my tank is doing fine. I've got a good bit of coraline growth stating to take over & the corals I have are doing just fine.

I also have 2 mushrooms that just split. Now I've got 4 mushrooms.

The only things that have died since I started my tank are 2 snails, and that's because my hermit crab wanted their shells.

My tap water has a Ph of about 8.0-8.2 which means there isn't much CO2 in the water & I know I don't have to worry about chlorine or other additives.

[Playa-1]

Don't let them get you all worried about not using RO/DI water. If you have good quality water from the tap you'll be fine until you have the money for one.

There's a proactive approach and then a reactive approach.
My advice would be to take the proactive approach and if it requires a little extra money up front to go that route, then so be it. The proactive approach will likely save you much more money in the long run then you spend up front. A good example is a QT tank. You can QT your fish up front and be proactive and keep the disease out of your tank all together, or you can take the cheaper, instantly rewarding shortcut and not QT your livestock. Eventually your going to introduce disease into the tank and spend a small fortune and a whole lot of free time dealing with the consequences. One bad roll of the dice and you wipe out your whole tank in a few days. It doesn't pay to take the chinsey road.

Using tap water is taking a similar gamble. It's not just the tap water itself, it's also the infrastructure of the water system that delivers the tap water to your tap including the plumbing in your house. Irresponsible government and industry that dumps contaminants either directly or indirectly into our water supply. Phosphate, metals, dissolved minerals, traces of drugs and pesticides, chlorine and chloramine could all cause issues in your tank. Would you really want to expose your liverock and sand to absorb these potential issues and then leach them into your tank slowly long after you switched to quality treated water.

The best bet IMHO is to take the proactive road and prevent these problems before they occur.

[freedominco]

This is what you need, there is even a 10% discount code out there.

http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1...er_75_GPD.html

[Raibaru]

+1 on the ro/di.

I used tap water for about a year and couldn't get algae under control if my life depended on it. Then got an ro/di and a lot of it went away within a month. I'm still having issues to this day with bryopsis because of it and I could have saved myself the headache if I did things right from the beginning.

I don't know if I should cut my losses when I upgrade and frag off some of the corals and chuck the rest, or keep at trimming, dusting, water changes, and carbon+phosban still.

[dbeals]

Im still curious why i cant use spring water though. Isnt that free of anything harmful? Or should i just ask...what is the difference between RO/DI water and regular spring water???

[Raibaru]

Spring water will still have stuff in it, and chances are they added stuff to it to make it taste better and last on the shelf longer. If you were going to buy water from the grocery, you probably should have gone for distilled (cheaper too usually, how much did you spend btw?).

Many larger chain groceries also can fill containers of water for you and provide RO (sometimes ro/di) too if you ask the manager.

But for ~$100-150 you can get a great RO/DI system that can be hooked to your sink faucet or a hose adapter and provide all the water you'd need for a year and you'd only need to buy new filters and a membrane once a year or so.

You can use your spring water though. It's just not ideal really. You may get an algae bloom etc. But I've seen some absolutely fabulous tanks that have been run on tap water for a decade. But again, just not ideal.

I'd sooner drink the spring water and either use tap, distilled, or wait another week and mail order an ro/di.

[chris82079]

do you have the coupon code by chance. I have been using the wallmart ro and like the price of the typhoon system


thanks!

[Playa-1]

Originally posted by dbeals
Im still curious why i cant use spring water though. Isnt that free of anything harmful? Or should i just ask...what is the difference between RO/DI water and regular spring water???

http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp

Issues: Water
Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?
While bottled water marketing conveys images of purity, inadequate regulations offer no assurance.
[En Español]

Sales of bottled water in this country have exploded in recent years, largely as a result of a public perception of purity driven by advertisements and packaging labels featuring pristine glaciers and crystal-clear mountain springs. But bottled water sold in the United States is not necessarily cleaner or safer than most tap water, according to a four-year scientific study recently made public by NRDC.

NRDC's study included testing of more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. While most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were contaminated: about one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination -- including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic -- in at least one sample that exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines.


Check out this link


And for what it's worth, when's the last time the water was tested and the filter was changed at the local water vending machine. If you've been around small business operators as much as I have, You would seriously question the water quality at such an operation.

[dbeals]

Hey i appreciate all the advice... Ive decided to not beat around the bush and just buy a RO/DI filter... Thanks

[Aqua Keepers]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

[JJ21]

melev sells very affordable ro/di systems

[t5Nitro]

I have a filter guys RO/DI system. As above said I also know melev sells RO/DI systems. Might be a pretty good deal out of him. If you are strapped for cash and can't afford one just yet, use tap water with stress coat chlorine/chloramine conditioner or something. I used that for a while until I could buy an RO/DI. Never experienced any algae issues but my TDS out of the tap is around 230 anyway (which is low to begin with compared to others tap TDS).

[cephlover87]

your setup sounds just fine to me, i have had a VERY successful 125 gallon reef tank for over a year now and before that in the same tank i was holding sharks and stingrays and all sorts of cool animals and i have never once used anything other than conditioned tap water, the only thing that is actually important is the salt, if you have a reef tank with sensitive corals than the type of salt is important, but as long as the salt adds elements such as calcium and trace elements it should be fine, in terms of how much of a water change, its not an exact science, 10 gallons should be just fine but if you feel that you need a little more than go for it, to mix the salt, personally i just bought a paint mixer and attached it to my power drill. my LFS owner (and also a good friend) laughs at me and chastised me at first, but after a year of great reef keeping he has come to realize that fish keeping isn't about an exact science, its about experimenting and figuring out what works for you, i use the coldest water out of my bathtub faucet into 5 gallon buckets or 30 gallon totes and then i simply use my return pump, which has an inline heater, to add the water to my tank. the fish and corals can deal with things like these, in the wild when a storm brings down colder water the corals adjust and make due, in the same way your water parameters will even out in a matter of hours if not minuets so don't kill yourself being exact on every little thing, just mix and pour and get the salinity close but again, its not the most important thing in the world, im a living testimony that tap water with the right conditioner (prime) is just as good as RO/DI units, heck i have had a feather star in my tank for 7 months now and he is doing just fine. so if he can survive tap water than anything can as long as you have the right skill,
good luck