partial water changes

[maxximo]

Hi

 

I'm new in this matter. I did a partial water changed but it was a dissater... I lost my percula fish and many polips... Can you please help me describing the right procedure to do partial water changes.

 

Thanks

[FAC_WNY]

Take out X gallons of water and replace it with X gallons of freshly mixed saltwater of the same SG, temperature, and pH. Its pretty much that simple.

 

 

Cheers,

Fred

[holyherbiness]

FAC_WNY, people often say that you must let mixed saltwater sit for a period of time (24 hours, well aerated+mixed) before putting it into the tank to stabilize it.

[bill_m3]

What I do:

 

5% change at a time and drip the new water in slowly over a 30 minute period.

 

If 10%, I'll add back in 5% as above, and take about an hour for the second 5% to be added (if not the next day). My tank runs fine with 95% water capacity.

 

With this method, I don't even have to worry about the water temp and my inhabitants are never shocked. The SG can even be off slightly. I just keep my eye on the themometer to make sure no dips occur. If I see a slight drop, I'll just slow down the drip.

[dsg7777]

Originally posted by bill_m3

What I do:

 

5% change at a time and drip the new water in slowly over a 30 minute period.  

 

If 10%, I'll add back in 5% as above, and take about an hour for the second 5% to be added (if not the next day).  My tank runs fine with 95% water capacity.  

 

With this method, I don't even have to worry about the water temp and my inhabitants are never shocked.  The SG can even be off slightly.  I just keep my eye on the themometer to make sure no dips occur.  If I see a slight drop, I'll just slow down the drip.

I'm not sure I understood what you said. Are you saying you take out 5 percent of the water, drip in the new water till its full, then take out another five percent? It seems that if you do it that way, you are removing some of the dissolved nutrients of the new water you just put in, and arent taking out as much "old water" as you could.

[maxximo]

Many thanks for your help, these comments will help me to do this properly.

 

Just one more question, Can you please let me know if you add to the water something else than salt? I've read that some adds trace elements or kalkwaaser or many other things... is that safety?

[yOyOYoo]

maxximo, since you're a beginner, I would you recommend NOT adding anything to the new freshly mixed saltwater. Besides if you keep up with regular water changes and only have soft corals, you don't need to dose anything.

[impur]

Adding fresh SW will replace trace elements. Its in the salt. I mix up about 3-4 gallons every month in a 5 gal bucket. Just drop a powerhead in there and a small heater and its ready at any moment to go into the tank. I syphon out 1 gallon from my tank, fill a gallon jug with the fresh SW, and pour it in. I do this weekly and have had no losses.

[revance]

I haven't actually done this, but would like to start if I can get organized enough, but if you want to keep your water changes stable try this...

 

Get a large water container (size depends on your tank size, I would use a 5g for mine), mix up a batch of fresh saltwater in it. Heat and mix it. For example I do 1g water changes. Remove 1g from tank, then replace with 1g from the 5g water container. After doing this, add a freshly mixed gallon of sw to the remaining 4g in the jug. Doing this helps prevent swings in SG etc. So if I were to screw up and add a gallon of messed up water to the jug, it would be diluted with the other 4 gallons of water, thus the water would still be very close to what I used the last water change. PLEASE NOTE: this does not mean you shouldn't test the newly mixed waters salinity, pH, etc. !!!! It just makes it easier to keep constant.

[Blackjazz]

Don't forget, i know this is basic basic basic, but for the very beginner it might not even cross their mind, that you have to add some kind of dechlorinator to the water to remove the chlorine, chloromine from the water, if you are using most municipal tap waters. Even for non-beginners, i have forgotten to dechlorinate my water once and it was DISASTER!, just one bucket caused breathing problems for my less hardy fishes. You may not need to use this if you use RO/DI water or distilled water, but from where i read somewhere you shouldn't use distilled water anyway, possibility of dissolved heavy metals (?).

 

If you want, you can use some stuff which is awesome (avaliable in Australia not sure about anywhere else) called Geoliquid, which by harnessing the physics of "brownian motion" can stabilise almost ALL parameters of the water to the correct levels - taking care of chlorine as well. Now i don't know if its BS or not, but since using it my levels have always stayed perfect (apart from nitrates ~5ppm), so I think its great, but then again i might be sucked in to just another big marketing ploy........... you decide.

[bill_m3]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by bill_m3

What I do:

 

5% change at a time and drip the new water in slowly over a 30 minute period.

 

If 10%, I'll add back in 5% as above, and take about an hour for the second 5% to be added (if not the next day). My tank runs fine with 95% water capacity.

 

With this method, I don't even have to worry about the water temp and my inhabitants are never shocked. The SG can even be off slightly. I just keep my eye on the themometer to make sure no dips occur. If I see a slight drop, I'll just slow down the drip.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

I'm not sure I understood what you said. Are you saying you take out 5 percent of the water, drip in the new water till its full, then take out another five percent? It seems that if you do it that way, you are removing some of the dissolved nutrients of the new water you just put in, and arent taking out as much "old water" as you could.

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

Sorry--my message was confusing. What I was saying is that if I'm changing 10%, I'll remove the 10% then add half the new water right away. I'll then add the remaining water the next day (or a period of hours later). This method does two things for me. It creates less stress on the inhabitants, and it also allows me to correct for anything I screwed up with the new water. I check SG of the whole tank before adding the 2nd half and make sure everything looks cool. Because I add the water slowly each time, I don't worry about temp.

[revance]

How does Brownian motion stabilize water parameters??? I am going to have to do some reading on that one... I am curious.