Water change
- Thread starter edikpok
- Start date
I always use warm water from the tap, but then again that's for freshwater. I only just realized that this is in the marine forum!
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No tap water!
I would not use warm tap water...goes through a lot of copper piping in the hot water heater. Tap water is full of phosphates and other bad stuff. Stick to RO water or filtered bottled water (non-carbonated) for mixing, then heat it by submerging your mixing container in hot tap water and stirring until the temperature is right. I find that heating to a temperature is faster than cooling to a temperature by the same method, so try not to overshoot.
I would not use warm tap water...goes through a lot of copper piping in the hot water heater. Tap water is full of phosphates and other bad stuff. Stick to RO water or filtered bottled water (non-carbonated) for mixing, then heat it by submerging your mixing container in hot tap water and stirring until the temperature is right. I find that heating to a temperature is faster than cooling to a temperature by the same method, so try not to overshoot.
reefrash
bartender another round of skimmate
Another option is to have a large vessel (depending on the size of your tank trash can etc.), to mix up your salt water in. place a powerhead for mix/circulation, and a heater in the vessel making sure the element does not come in contact with the plastic (I'm paranoid). Here's the cool part, have a piece of acrylic tube attached to the outflow of the powerhead, all you need to do is pump it into the tank, simple. Oh, yeah use R/O water or equivalent.
I have my RO unit connected to my bathroom faucet and then the pure water goes into my 25 gal. plastic container. When it fills almost to the top, I put away the RO unit until next use, put in the right amount of salt, then put in a heater and air pump in to mix the salt. Then, I use tubing to pump the water from the container to my tank once the temperature is right!
I too use a heater in my reservoir... but at the very least, let the water sit long enough so that it reaches room temperature.
RO is best, unless you have good tap water. I'm lucky, my tap water has zero nitrates or phosphates, so I'm using it for now (I will eventually get an RO/DI unit). I prefer to fill the Rubbermaid tub with cold water, turn on the pump and allow it to reach room temp. overnight. Once it's at room temp I add the salt and start heating it. 24h later when it's fully mixed and up to temperature I do the water change.
