Water changes

[chufa]

I did a search on water changes, but the results were too vague. I am a little confused on how to best do them.

 

I set up my 12 gallon eclipse recently. I have it with 20 lbs live sand and 20 lbs live rock. It is running with the standard eclipse filter.

 

I plan to change 3 gallons a week. I will mix the water and salt in a bucket. Do I have to warm it up to exactly the same temperature as in the tank prior to adjusting specific gravity? How long do I have to let the water sit before I add to the tank? Do I have to aereate mechanically, and if so, how? I appreciate any tips on this as well as how to do it as efficiently as possible.

[reef93]

I mixed about 3 cups of salt for 5gal rodi water in a bucket with small pump/powerhead. Let it run overnight, usually the heat of pump/powerhead enought to heat it around 78F(depend on you room temp though), if not then I drop a heater into it. Once the temp. reach 78F I measure SG @1.026/35ppt(add little more salt/water if needed).

[leslr]

hi chufa

i've got the eclipse 6. i change about 1gal a week and i have been using water from my LFS's s/w holding tanks. They usually top up their holding tanks=3x a week so i go down the morning after they do one and get a 5gal jug filled. they only charge me $2.00. Which is cheap as 1. it is pre-mixed to the right level, 2. they have/usually allready added any aditives to the water.

I have a couple of 1gal jugs i fill,and the night before bring one in and put it close by the tank and by morning it is pretty close to the tank temp. I scution off a gal, place the jug on top of the tank and using a piece of air tubing from the jug to the eclipse filter box fill the tank back up,the air tubing takes a bit longer but it fills the tank nice and slow as well making sure eveything gets mixed in ok.

i have been doing this for about 8 months with no problems.

anyway thats my 2c's worth.

leslr.

[tinyreef]

3g is a significant amount at one time let alone weekly for a 12g system. you may want to scale that back in volume or frequency. if you hold to that amount then matching the values (temp., pH, salinity) will be more critical due to the stress of the wc (mental visual: toilet flush during a hot shower! brrr!).

 

you may want to let the mix sit overnite as well, some people don't like using just-mixed saltwater. (it can't hurt too much but pH might fluctuate a little from ambient co2)

[chufa]

OK, Thanks! Ill scale back a bit (2 gallons?)and aereate overnight using an airstone and a heater, which i already have.