After 2 months of not doing any water changes, no testing, and no top offs, I finally did a change. I guess I got lazy. No worries soon my 12gal nano tank will house a little lion fish and I will have no worries. Hey who knew all my live stock could survive that long with out a change.
water change
- Thread starter maubee
- Start date
JeffDubya
New Member
Skip,
Do you pre-mix a bunch of water and keep it running in another tank, like a refugium? Or do you mix as you need it and then just heat it to roughly the same temperature and go from there?
Do you ever recycle the old water? Or do you just dump it?
If you stick with zooanthids, polyps, anemones and such - and just steer clear from the SPS and LPS, how frequently would you change water.
How much do you change? 10%? 20%?
Just curious.
Do you pre-mix a bunch of water and keep it running in another tank, like a refugium? Or do you mix as you need it and then just heat it to roughly the same temperature and go from there?
Do you ever recycle the old water? Or do you just dump it?
If you stick with zooanthids, polyps, anemones and such - and just steer clear from the SPS and LPS, how frequently would you change water.
How much do you change? 10%? 20%?
Just curious.
JeffDubya
New Member
Thanks for the advice, iDog.idog said:
Since I am actually discussing the topic of "Water Change" - which is the topic of this thread, I'm not hijacking anything. A hijack would be to take the thread off-topic, which I didn't do. If the admins of this board want to discourage this type of posting, they can just close old threads. Generally speaking, there's nothing more annoying to an admin than 20 threads with the same subject asked over and over. I know, I am one.
Obviously, if I had the answer to this question, I wouldn't ask. However, you generally pull water from a tank to remove nitrites and nitrates. If you were to put that water into a small recycling refugium with some kind of biological filter, you could theoretically recycle the salt water, maybe even put it back in better shape than freshly mixed.
JUST ASKING.
Sorry, did not mean to sound harsh, but maubee started this thread a month ago, and it was not meant to be an educational post. Start your own post and then you can move it in the direction you want.
Your tank is already the best at removing nitrogenous wastes. If you were to run a refugium, I would connect it to the tank, not have a seperate reservoir.
Some people never change their water. With sumps, fuges's, a great skimmer, macroalgae, mechanical, chemical, and bio filtration. With a vast setup like this, and proper dosing, you could balance and completely recycle water. In a nano, it is simply more feasible to swap out water rather than polish it. On a 250 gallon setup, you are not going to change 25-50 gallons a week.
If you use R/O water and a reputable salt mix, you will never get it back in better shape than freshly mixed.
Trust me, this site is not hurting for an excess of threads...
Your tank is already the best at removing nitrogenous wastes. If you were to run a refugium, I would connect it to the tank, not have a seperate reservoir.
Some people never change their water. With sumps, fuges's, a great skimmer, macroalgae, mechanical, chemical, and bio filtration. With a vast setup like this, and proper dosing, you could balance and completely recycle water. In a nano, it is simply more feasible to swap out water rather than polish it. On a 250 gallon setup, you are not going to change 25-50 gallons a week.
If you use R/O water and a reputable salt mix, you will never get it back in better shape than freshly mixed.
Trust me, this site is not hurting for an excess of threads...
JeffDubya
New Member
OK, here's another stupid question about WATER CHANGES.
Since I don't yet own a RO/DI filter, I will be buying some water from safeway or Culligan for water changes. If you were me, would you just have an extra heater and bring it up to temperature in the mix bucket? Is there any difference in mixing the water warm or cold?
If I *was* using an RO/DI, I assume I could just bring the water to temp through the faucet. (?)
I wish I had spent the money on a filter instead of a Fluval now that I know what I know. Damn hindsight, anyhow.
Since I don't yet own a RO/DI filter, I will be buying some water from safeway or Culligan for water changes. If you were me, would you just have an extra heater and bring it up to temperature in the mix bucket? Is there any difference in mixing the water warm or cold?
If I *was* using an RO/DI, I assume I could just bring the water to temp through the faucet. (?)
I wish I had spent the money on a filter instead of a Fluval now that I know what I know. Damn hindsight, anyhow.
EDGRAY
New Member
idog said:
A think to know i had that question about water changes on big XL tanks... well know i know thx IDOG.... :mrgreen:
Well i think that happens to all cause everyone gets in different ways what we type and well we tend to be direct and sometimes hurt other people like me i take everything like a joke and im always fooling around like "hope that bicolor blenny dies" :lol: anyways glad that things got seatle...JeffW said:Except maybe an unnecessary flame war.
EDDY :mrgreen:
Temperature really won't affect your salinity. Dissolved solids will not precipitate out unless you get the water darn near boiling. For a few degrees difference, and for all intents and purposes in aquaria, the change is negligible. Density of water is amazingly consistent between freezing and boiling.
Hydrometers are rather innacurate, but at least they are consistently innacurate. If all you are doing is matching water in two tanks, then it should do the job. I would not use one if I were trying to raise or lower specific gravity to any fixed point.
If using the faucet to get the temp, remember it still has to sit for 24 hours.
In summer I don't heat water for changes, in winter I do.
As for water changes, 10% a week should do.
Hydrometers are rather innacurate, but at least they are consistently innacurate. If all you are doing is matching water in two tanks, then it should do the job. I would not use one if I were trying to raise or lower specific gravity to any fixed point.
If using the faucet to get the temp, remember it still has to sit for 24 hours.
In summer I don't heat water for changes, in winter I do.
As for water changes, 10% a week should do.
JeffDubya
New Member
? That's a new one to me. Why do you let the water sit?idog said:
Do you mix the salt prior to letting it sit, or after? I am guessing after... to let stuff settle. But that's a guess.
Although 10% is not a huge amount of water, I was always taught that all aquarium fish, whether marine or FW can be stressed by temperature changes. Shouldn't I try to get it as close as possible? Even if the water gets as warm as room temperature (assume 70 degrees) that is still 8-10 degrees difference.
islandcreation
New Member
Jeff,
I take it when they say, "Sit" that its in circulated water. For me, I have a small plastic trash can with a cheap powerhead, heater and a digital thermometer.
What I do is I add regular tap water add anything that takes chlorin and your salt mix. If I do a small batch I usually add a buffer and Kalkwasser. I usually have it sit for 24-48 hours... I have been getting good results so far.
If any one can chip in or correct me or even give me a better process please tell me.
I take it when they say, "Sit" that its in circulated water. For me, I have a small plastic trash can with a cheap powerhead, heater and a digital thermometer.
What I do is I add regular tap water add anything that takes chlorin and your salt mix. If I do a small batch I usually add a buffer and Kalkwasser. I usually have it sit for 24-48 hours... I have been getting good results so far.
If any one can chip in or correct me or even give me a better process please tell me.
Well your method surely works for you, and alot of people use it. The only thing I would chime in about is the use of tap water. Sure products like "prime" and others take out the chlorine and such, but tap water has alot of other elements that in general we try to avoid adding to our tanks. I'd suggest using RO water if you can get your hands on it.
Just my .02
:mrgreen:
Just my .02
:mrgreen: