first water change since adding livestock

if you can mix it before hand i would. would make it less stressful on the fish, if you can mix it and let it sit that long, do your water change slowly as to not just add it all at once and cause a temp change in the tank. what are you using for water? RO, tap?

 

k well i would think if you just did your change slowly over an hour or so it'll be ok if you dont let the new water get up to temp. thats the hard part with the smaller tank is keeping the water parameters in check with water changes. I love the small tanks though

 

As long as the salt as mixed for 24 hrs you're good. Like mentioned earlier, if you can do a drip water change over time. Take a piece of airline tubing from your new batch of water to the tank and use another airline from the tank to a waste bucket. If you have one of those small cheap blue valves so you can control the flow and get them to match at a pace you're comfortable with that way your temp won't fluctuate that much.

I do that with my tank 5 gallons at a time. It's easier than waiting for a to fill back and forth with just a single bucket. But I do 20 to 25 gallon water changes at a time also though.

 

Make your salt solution and get it up to salinity and let it mix at least a few hours, overnight is best, a couple hours before you get ready to do the change, take your heater out of your tank and put it in the new mix to get it up to temp. Then siphon out your tank water, then add new...good to go

 

MJ powerhead works great for fast mixing, if you have an extra lieing around. Walmart also has some cheak 4-6 gallon tank heaters for around 9 bucks, would be perfect for the small amount of water you plan on replacing. At first I didn't want to get the thing either (I run a 10g nano) but it is very convenient. You can let it warm for a few hours and then just do the water swap when it is ready, no need to do a little at a time as you would without the heater.

 

for the future...i mix the water in a 5 gallon bucket and put a mj 1200 and 900 in there to mix it up. These are just extra powerheads i have around and they actually do a really good job warming the water. I also let the salt water brew for atleast a day, i think that is how the powerheads warm the water cause they are in there so long.

 

I usually heat the water until it's tank temp, dump in salt and let it mix for an hour with a powerhead. Hung says he does his client's after 15 min. A whole day of mixing probably isn't necessary.

 

Posted By h2so4hurts on 04/30/2009 03:16 PM
I usually heat the water until it's tank temp, dump in salt and let it mix for an hour with a powerhead. Hung says he does his client's after 15 min. A whole day of mixing probably isn't necessary.
It's actually been recommended by several salt companies that you pre mix your water at least 24 hours before changing. This allows time for the salt to disolve properly, ph to come into balance and for the proper temp to be acheived. I would stick with the salt companies as it is kinda what there good at.

 

The flip side is that it may not be a great idea to let it sit for a long time. I've noticed with Reef Crystals that I'm starting to get a layer of precipitate in my water change container, that has to be coming out of the salt...