jamesthero
Member
i going to get a ro filter this weekend and change my tap water over and crushed aragonite bed base to sand how should i do this will it start a cycle over?
how do i change tap to ro water????
- Thread starter jamesthero
- Start date
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jdragunas
Guest
as long as your new water parameters are EXACTLY the same as your tank's water parameters, you can change as much as you want, but that's really difficult to do. Your temp, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph, alk, calcium, etc. should all be the same... that's why people only do like 10% a week, because it's almost impossible to match those things perfectly.
I changed to RO from tap about 4 months ago, and i just started doing my topoffs with it, and my water changes with it. If you want, you can do 25% water changes about 2x's a week for about a month or two... that should remove most of the tap water from your tank. as for the CC to sand, this is how i did it:
Make sure you prepare your new sand ahead of time by adding water to it - this will reduce cloudiness when you add it.
1. purchase a few large rubbermaid containers (double capacity of your tank).
2. prepare new water in half of the containers
3. drain almost all of the water from the tank into the remaining containers (leave only about 2-3" of water in the tank).
4. Remove a few pieces of LR into a container with the old water
5. place powerhead and heater into the same container
6. remove your corals into the same container (if you have corals) (actually, you should remove the corals to the container when the water level gets to their level in the tank, so they aren't in the air for long.)
7. Remove all of the LR into the containers with the new water
8. Catch all of the fish and cleanup crew, and place into conainer with the old water and BTA (put some sort of cover on it if you feel your fish are at a risk to jump)
9. remove the remaining water, and scoop out the CC (A dustpan would work the best!)
10. clean out tank (with just a rag and water)
11. Place the first pieces of LR in the tank (the ones that will go directly on the bottom) (you want the LR direclty on the glass bottom of the tank)
12. place sand in tank around LR, and all over the bottom of the tank. (a small cereal bowl works for this)
13. Add the old water back to the tank
14. add the rest of the LR back to the tank
15. allow the sand to settle some
16. add all living critters and last pieces of LR to the tank.
this will take you a good amount of time, so i suggest to change it on a sat, or a day you have off of work. Hope this helps!!!
I changed to RO from tap about 4 months ago, and i just started doing my topoffs with it, and my water changes with it. If you want, you can do 25% water changes about 2x's a week for about a month or two... that should remove most of the tap water from your tank. as for the CC to sand, this is how i did it:
Make sure you prepare your new sand ahead of time by adding water to it - this will reduce cloudiness when you add it.
1. purchase a few large rubbermaid containers (double capacity of your tank).
2. prepare new water in half of the containers
3. drain almost all of the water from the tank into the remaining containers (leave only about 2-3" of water in the tank).
4. Remove a few pieces of LR into a container with the old water
5. place powerhead and heater into the same container
6. remove your corals into the same container (if you have corals) (actually, you should remove the corals to the container when the water level gets to their level in the tank, so they aren't in the air for long.)
7. Remove all of the LR into the containers with the new water
8. Catch all of the fish and cleanup crew, and place into conainer with the old water and BTA (put some sort of cover on it if you feel your fish are at a risk to jump)
9. remove the remaining water, and scoop out the CC (A dustpan would work the best!)
10. clean out tank (with just a rag and water)
11. Place the first pieces of LR in the tank (the ones that will go directly on the bottom) (you want the LR direclty on the glass bottom of the tank)
12. place sand in tank around LR, and all over the bottom of the tank. (a small cereal bowl works for this)
13. Add the old water back to the tank
14. add the rest of the LR back to the tank
15. allow the sand to settle some
16. add all living critters and last pieces of LR to the tank.
this will take you a good amount of time, so i suggest to change it on a sat, or a day you have off of work. Hope this helps!!!