Aging Saltwater?

[jburke30]

Greetings All,

 

I have read a number of recommendations on using aged saltwater (usually for a week or more) for water changes, and I was wondering if anyone here is doing this. I have a couple of questions about the best way to go about it, and I wanted to get opinions from experienced reefers on the topic.

 

First off my questions..

 

1.) Should the holding container be airtight?

 

I ask this because some of the recommendations include heating and circulating/aerating the water while it is aging. I seems that keeping the container airtight during this time would be difficult. Also, if it isn't airtight don't you run the risk of getting contaminates in the water?

 

2.) Should I add some of my main tank water to the mix while it's aging?

 

This seems like a good idea to me, but how is the bacteria going to help if it doesn't have any porous surfaces to cling to?

 

I'm a bit worried about keeping the water in my mixing container (which is open with no way of making it airtight) because of the possibility of amonia buildup before use, but if I don't put it in the mixing container then I wont be able to heat and circulate/aerate the water.

 

Any thoughts or experiences with this topic?

 

Thanks for any responses.

[lil reef]

Just use a 5 gal bucket for mixing. place the lid on top and don't hammer it down. Adding tank water isn't going to do anything. It wouldn't have anything to feed off of.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Aging a week????

 

I age it for 24 to 48 hours under heavy aeration... as long as Im not doing more than a 10% change I don't even bother heating it, I make sure my salinity is a bit lower than the tank and add it as part of my top off..... I change a gallon a day on my 20 gallon tank.

[Djm9288]

I usually aerate for like an hour. Thats it. It does the job!

[JPF]

I mix and dump. Temp is close to tank temp. Same for salinity. But then again I run a rough and tumble tank. Soft corals only and a single damsel. No difficult corals or other inverts. It sure is pretty though.......

[LiQuiD]

I have always read and heard to air raid for many hours and heat as well. There may be good reason for this, but what a pain in the butt. I hate water changes, and just want it done. I have always just did it the quick and easy way, grab the gallon of RO(pour a little in a spare gallon jug for room), half cup of IO right into gallon jug, cap it, shake it for like 2 minutes, check to make sure all has disolved, quick salinity check, slowly pour into tank. Only doing the 10% change, the few degree difference does not affect the tank so heating up is out of the question, IO has always disolved "instantly" haha get it, so no need to mix overnight. Hey what can I say, people may say this is wrong, but I have not had a problem yet. I am either one of the lucky ones, or one of the smarter ones.:

[tgrupert]

I found a 5 gallon bucket near a dumpster at a chinese resturant. Now they save them for me. I'm sure you can get them all over for free if you look and ask.

[Glenn]

Maybe I'm a little too cautious but I always age mine for atleast 3 days under heavy airation. Most of the time I pre-mix it and let it set for a week before adding to the tank. Although I do not heat it because adding 5.5 gal. to a 55gal. (10% WC) really IMO is not enough to affect the temp. (I just don't dump it around any fish/inverts). My pre-mix setup is a 29gal. plastic storage container and 2x200gph PH's w/ airation attachment. HTH

[tgrupert]

also room temperature ios VERY close to the temperature in hte reef.