Complete Water Change?

[Shakeb1000]

Hello everyone,

 

so i started cycling my tank roughly 2 days ago and I realized the water I used to mix my saltwater wasn’t RO/DI or Distilled. It was just filtered Nestle Water. I want to completely remove all the Water in the tank and replace it with Saltwater o get from my local fish store. I just wanna make sure it’s okay if I do that, meaning nothing will go wrong? Will there still be salt left in the sand that might raise the salinity when I add the new water? I’m just cautious on if I can do such a thing or not. Let me know if you’ve ever done a 100% water change or have any ideas

[Donny41]

Yes you can 

[specore]

I wouldn't worry about it.  You will be doing multiple water changes before you add any livestock anyways, and as long as you don't keep using the Nestle water you won't have any issues.  The potential issues from the added minerals would be from a buildup in mineral concentrations over time as you top off, etc.  

[Clown79]

I wouldn't bother either.

I would just continue the cycle.

 

Start using distilled or rodi for evap top ups and when your cycle is done start doing your waterchanges with distilled/rodi.

 

 

Even lfs water can be bad, some don't change filters often enough or it's just RO water not rodi. it should be tested if one chooses to go that route.

[specore]

3 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

 

Even lfs water can be bad, some don't change filters often enough or it's just RO water not rodi. it should be tested if one chooses to go that route.

Good advice.  I've seen LFS water running 300 TDS!  RO/DI water should always be checked with a TDS meter, regardless of whether you make it yourself or buyit.  

[patback]

27 minutes ago, specore said:

Good advice.  I've seen LFS water running 300 TDS!  RO/DI water should always be checked with a TDS meter, regardless of whether you make it yourself or buyit.  

A lfs once tried to tell me the sulphur smell coming out of their salted water was fine and not to worry about it.  

I skipped that week because there was no way of testing the saltwater.  Sure enough, a week later I was greeted with "you came at the perfect time, we just upgraded our water filtration"

That's when I started buying rodi only and mixing at home so that I could test the water and shortly after I bought my own rodi unit. 

[Clown79]

31 minutes ago, specore said:

Good advice.  I've seen LFS water running 300 TDS!  RO/DI water should always be checked with a TDS meter, regardless of whether you make it yourself or buyit.  

Jeez, that's high. Mine out of the tap is 375

[patback]

12 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Jeez, that's high. Mine out of the tap is 375

Mine is in the 40s out of the tap.  One of only a handful of good things about NY.

[specore]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

Jeez, that's high. Mine out of the tap is 375

My tap water runs less than their "RO/DI" was running.  Guess something in their system must have been so old it had started leaching back into the water 🙂

 

[Boggers]

You you fail to change out your DI, it will leach back into the water. 

I wouldn't say there is a need for the 100% change either, but yes I do it with my 1G tank every week or 2.