waterchanges

[hunterdaddy]

I see lots of people saying they let their water sit over night to become airated and whatnot.
I have always just mixed my water with the salt right out of the tap. I have never had any major problems in the 2 years I have been doing this.
Only things that have died on me was I had a total wipeout when moving my tank once. Only creatures to survive was my gold banded maroon and my corals. My colt corals died about a month or 2 later. Never figured that one out though.
Anyone else just use plain ole tap water for their salt water tanks?

 

[fishies]

I don't use tap water, and never would. I do not trust it. I use preped RO, and always have it premade and ready in a container for use. Tap water just seems to risky for me, that and the fact that I'm a total spaz about water quality

 

[thomas712]

RO water, a basic necessity

 

[hunterdaddy]

bump

 

[dreeves]

RO/DI water...no nitrates in the tap water, but a slight amount of phosphates...ended a hair algea problem once I switched and slowly replaced the tank water.

 

[hairtrigger]

Tap water currently, cause my filter broke. But I'm also fighting cyano right now. That should steer you in the right direction.
Besides the cyano on my sandbed... everything else seems to thrive.

 

[beth]

Salt should be allowed to aerate for 48 hrs, or longer. Regardless of what the package says, salt takes time to dissolve in water and it is really very important that you give it time. Undissolved sea salt in water can cause stress and difficulties for marine life. Raw, inadequately dissolved salt/trace elements can result in damage to fish gills....something that you might not see the result of right off---thus you might not get the association between fish mortality and your raw salt practices.
I use an old 15gal tall tank [has a 1' food print] to do mix up. Aged, adequately mixed salt is always ready to go. With a tank like this, it only takes up 1 sq foot of space and is very convenient.

 

[richard rendos]

RO/DI water for water changes and top off.

 

[josh]

I let mine mix overnight with a strong powerhead. Also, get some RO...tap water has some funky stuff in it not to mention it comes out of copper pipes.

 

[hunterdaddy]

Hmmm I have never seen any problems doing water changes with tap water. However due to the large consensous of RO/DI being far better than tap I will have to look into using it from now on.
Thanks everyone.

 

[timsedwards]

yup my way is exactly the same as Kip's (perhaps because when i started out i asked him )
RO/DI is a neccessity in my opinion. The whole tank is better. I used tap water for months and had endless problems, even with RO bought from LFS I still had problems.
All the best,
Tim.

 

[scotch]

I use RO water but I don't do anything to it.
Then I check my salt and adjust accord...just pour in to the sump and let it "melt" on the filter.
What is the reason for the "sit" time???

 

[timsedwards]

so the water can aeriate (important for RO/Di), so all of the salt can dissolve properly and to maintain a stable pH.

 

[slappy]

i just take the lazy way out and buy premixed water from the lfs. i do about a 5 gallon change every two weeks or so