About to do my first water change

[leenie]

Hi everyone!
I am going to do my first water change today and just had a few questions about the whole thing. I have a 50 gal, and plan to change out 7 gals every 2 weeks or so. I am going to buy some "Catalina water" from the LFS (water collected from the Island of Catalina in CA). I have 20lbs of live sand on top of 20 lbs of aragonite.
1. Do I need to heat the water? I am sure the water at the LFS is heated to the correct temp, but do I need to heat it again? I only live about 5 min from the LFS.
2. Do I need to vacuum the sand? I have a Gravel Vacuum cleaner I bought from WalMart. If I do vacuum, won't it suck up some of my beneficial live sand?
3. Should I take all 7 gals out, and then put 7 gals in? Or should I do a few gals at a time?
Anything else I need to know? All comments are appreciated!
:happyfish

 

[beachbumtx]

HIya!,
Well, when I get my RODI water from work it is not at the proper temperature. I would not rely on any store to have it at the proper temperature. Here is what I do. I fill my bath tube up with hot water. Set the buckets of RODI water in the tube (leave the water in the buckets ) and let set until the water warms up closer to your tank temperature. I add my salt to get the salinity matched unless the salinity in the tank needs changing. If tank salinity is high, then I make the mixture in the bucket weak to bring down the tank salinity. IF the tank salinity is low, then I make the salinity in the bucket a little stronger.
It will take some time for the water temps to rise. So, I do a little tank cleaning. Scrub the algae off the glass and anything else that is needed. I will siphon out the water while filtering through the substrate. It is important to vacuum the substrate to get any detritus out that has collected. It will help manage you N levels.
If you have power heads or pumps running, you will need to turn them off so you don't burn them up when the water levels get too low for them to move water.
After the water temps rise to meet your tank temperature, add the water to your sump, not your tank. If you are running back pak filters and not a sump, then siphon the water into the tank so you don't disturb the substrate. Pouring the water straight in with cloud up the tank by disturbing the substrate.
Check your salinity to see if they are at the proper levels. If too high, add some freshwater (RO water). If too low, take a gallon out and add salt to that gallon. Then add the water back to the tank. Never add salt directly to the tank that has fish in it.
Make sure you turn your pumps and powerheads back on.
I suggest doing a water change once a month once your tank becomes more established.
Other means of heating the water to match your tank is buying a seperate heater and thermometer to place in the buckets.
Hope that helped.

 

[leenie]

Thank you BeachBumTX for all the info! Good idea using the bathtub. I never thought of that! Okay, I am so glad I asked this question. I would have poured the water straight into the tank, and it would've probably been cloudy for awhile.
One more question about vacuuming-- won't I end up vacuuming up some of the live sand? Or will it come back down after it's vacuumed. I don't want to take any of it out, but I see snail poop in it, and want that gone...

 

[beachbumtx]

HIya!,
There is no way around it...you will lose some substrate. Try to minimize it when sucking it up the vacuum only half way up and then pull the tube off the bottom and let it fall back out. Then hit a new spot and repeat.
For the stuff that is sucked out, drain out majority of the waste water from the bucket. Stir up the remainder. Wait a moment to allow the sand to settle, but not too long for any detritus to settle down. Try to scoop up as much as you can with your hand. Add it to your tank by placing your hand and setting the sand on the bottom. Do not dump it into the tank and let it fall to the bottom.
It can be a pain, especially if it is the fine reef sand. You may not be able to salvage what you lost. Its one of the reasons we always suggest a good thick layer of sand.

 

[leenie]

Thank you again for the quick reply- sorry but one more quick question, if I wanted to add more live sand in a few months, could I just add it directly without having to cycle it?

 

[saltcreep]

I never vac my sand. If you have CC you need to vac it but not the sand, Yes you can add live sand after if you want to.:yes:

 

[birdy]

No do not vaccume your sand you should have enough critters in your cleanup crew to clean your sandbed.
I prefer to use a heater to heat my water to the correct temp that way it is exactly the same temp as the display.
I do agree with adding water to sump if you have one available.

 

[beachbumtx]

Hiya!,
I use a mid size aragonite sand and I vacuum it. Its a lot smaller than crush coral, but slightly larger than reef sand. Lots of stuff get collected.
I guess with that fine stuff, since they say not to vacuum, just use your hand to mix the surface layer if you get any type of algae build up.

 

[birdy]

As I said before, do not disturb your sandbed if it looks like it needs cleaning then you need a bigger cleanup crew with lots of sandbed cleaners, like nassarius snails, cerith snails, and fighting conchs. Stirring up a sandbed can be harmful.

 

[leenie]

Okay. Thanks all of you! I have pretty fine live sand, so I probably shouldn't vacuum it. But I will do all else noted. Thanks!