How do you do a water change? Present your method.

[91Atrac]

I'm wanting to see how everyone does there water changes. I use a pump and a hose with a brute container/Rubbermaid garbage bin.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I have two 32 gallon Brute cans, both with the dollies. In one can I mix 25 gallons or fresh saltwater using two old school Koralia powerheads....a K4 and K8. The water is then heated to 78 F and tested for salinity with a refractometer. Using the empty Brute, I siphon out 25 gallons of old water using a Python siphon hose. Then the new saltwater gets pumped into the tank using a MAG 7 with a 6 foot piece of hose. That's it!

 

[pickupman66]

I have a 66 gallon tank with sump so about 80 gallons. in my garage I have a 50 gallon drum with RO/DI water.

1. fill up three 5 gallon buckets with water
2. add a pump to each and heater depending on season
3. add 2.5 cups of salt to them. this gets me really close to 35ppt.
4. let them mix for a few hours and check the salinity. adjust if necessary.
5. Check temp
6. using another bucket, I draw via gravity and siphon 3 buckets worth from the tank. I pump the sump into the tank until almost dry so I dont have to use a pump in it. I use a 7 foot poly hose to make it easy
7. I also vacuum the barebottom tank while siphoning
8. using another pump, I pump the water back into my display tank until all three buckets are empty
9. leave buckets in living room for a few days

 

[91Atrac]

Great styles guys keep up the posts. Let's see what can be done easiee

 

[Mark Siy]

As I only have a small 15 Gal DT, its easy. I make 4 Gal RO/DI, mix in reef salt with powerhead/air pump and heater in an old Salt Container bucket. After 1-2 days, siphon out 4 Gal DT water into another old Salt Container bucket and pour in the new salt water. Clean up all equipment and dry. I do water changes every week or every 2 weeks depending on my free time. It only takes me about 15min to do a water change, although making the 4 Gal of RO/DI takes about 3-4 hours!

 

[Pdandy]

I have a 44 gallon brute can that has a float valve in it. Once a month I roll it out of the garage and hook it up to my ro filter and let it fill up. Then I add my salt and drop in a pump with a piece of vinyl tubing that goes out of the lid on one side and back in on the other to mix it. Coincidentally this pump is also sufficient to raise this water temp to my tank's temp, so no heater needed.

24 hours after I started mixing the new water I siphon my main tank down 44 gallons straight into the toilet. If I need to, I will do some substrate vacuuming and other cleaning as part of the water removal.

Then I use the vinyl tube attached to the mixing pump to run the new water directly into the tank.

 

[Bob Escher]

Since right now I only have a 45 gallon I still use a Aqueon water change hose and clean the sand a little. Once a month I do 4.5 gallons ( all my water is in Home Depot buckets) water change. The day before I fill a bucket with RO/DI water that I make into three 3.5 gallon water jugs ( easy on my rotator cuffs) then take 2.5 cups of salt mix using water pump and heat it with a heater at the same time. After I drain the old water I ( I have four different buckets each marked for what it's for) pump half the new saltwater into the refugium section and the other half into the main if I'm doing the 10% otherwise a 5% is done weekly
(Two gallons) hope I made sense. I don't lift anything anymore learned the magic of pumps

 

[91Atrac]

Since right now I only have a 45 gallon I still use a Aqueon water change hose and clean the sand a little. Once a month I do 4.5 gallons ( all my water is in Home Depot buckets) water change. The day before I fill a bucket with RO/DI water that I make into three 3.5 gallon water jugs ( easy on my rotator cuffs) then take 2.5 cups of salt mix using water pump and heat it with a heater at the same time. After I drain the old water I ( I have four different buckets each marked for what it's for) pump half the new saltwater into the refugium section and the other half into the main if I'm doing the 10% otherwise a 5% is done weekly
(Two gallons) hope I made sense. I don't lift anything anymore learned the magic of pumps

Pumps are amazing. Forgot to I use a sump pump in the brute container and a garden hose for return line.

 

[maroun.c]

-1 day before water change add 12kg of salt to mixing tank
-close valve feeding water change tank connected to system (80 G)
- turn on pump draining water change system
-turn of drain pump
- turn on pump to move water from mixing tank to WC Tank
- Turn off Pump
- Open valve feeding the water change system to minimum flow ( slow water flow to avoid shocking system with any parameters difference)
- one day later open Valve to regular setting
-Repeat every two weeks

 

[choff]

I receive an alert email that my salt barrel is empty (approx every 10 days). I pause my Genesis water change system, pump 60 gal of RODI from tank 2 to tank 1. Tank 2 self starts making RODI again. I add salt to tank 1. 12 to 24 hours later restart Genesis. Done. [emoji13]

 

[MOPAR]

This meme explains my method.

 

[R_C]

This meme explains my method.

I remember those days.

Now I only use (3) 6 gallon jugs, a bucket and pump with hose.

 

[Kershaw]

I have two 32 gallon Brute cans, both with the dollies. In one can I mix 25 gallons or fresh saltwater using two old school Koralia powerheads....a K4 and K8. The water is then heated to 78 F and tested for salinity with a refractometer. Using the empty Brute, I siphon out 25 gallons of old water using a Python siphon hose. Then the new saltwater gets pumped into the tank using a MAG 7 with a 6 foot piece of hose. That's it!

This exactly how I do mine except I mix 30 gallons

 

[jsker]

I use one the babies and clean and drain, http://www.amazon.com/25-Foot-Pytho...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00 mix my salt in food safe commercial 5 gallon buckets http://www.amazon.com/Cambro-RFS221...=1463520737&sr=8-3&keywords=cambro+poly+round

 

[foxfacelo]

I have a 220 gal aquarium and use two 50 gal water storage tanks; one for RO/DI water and one for salted water. I use Spectrapure liter meter pumps for continuous automated water changes. No buckets to haul! Because the amount of water changed at any one time is so small there is no need to heat the salted water. When the salted water tank is empty I pump water from the RO/DI tank into the salted water tank, add salt, and mix for 3 to 5 hrs. That's it for about 2 weeks when I repeat the process.

 

[dbl]

I plumbed my display that I can pump directly out of the tank...just put a hose on a valve outlet and pump old water outside. Turn a couple valves on the water making/mixing station and pump new water to the display. No buckets for me and my floors stay very dry, which was a requirement from my bride!

 

[TheHarold]

20g of water is mixed with 5.8lbs RSCP salt and mixed for an hour.

20g of tank water gets siphoned into a brute.

20g newly mixed water is pumped into the tank.

Done

 

[PatW]

My method is very similar to Red Fish. I have 3 forty four gallon brute trash cans on dollies. The first brute serves as my RODI reservoir. The second is my salt water storage. I mix up about 4o gallons at a time. I siphon off 40 gallons while scrubbing the rock. I then use a mag pump and a tube to pump in the salt water into the DT. The used water gets put into the QT or down the sink. I then rinse the pump in RODI and pump new RODI water into the salt water brute, add salt, and turn on the power head in the brute. I set the RODI to refill my RODI brute. It takes about 12 hours to fill it up.

 

[Ohiostreetz]

I use a kool-aid jug and fill a 5 gallon bucket with old salt water then let the premix saltwater heat up to tank temp and reverse the step to add new saltwater

 

[TinyChocobo]

My method is very similar to Red Fish. I have 3 forty four gallon brute trash cans on dollies. The first brute serves as my RODI reservoir. The second is my salt water storage. I mix up about 4o gallons at a time. I siphon off 40 gallons while scrubbing the rock. I then use a mag pump and a tube to pump in the salt water into the DT. The used water gets put into the QT or down the sink. I then rinse the pump in RODI and pump new RODI water into the salt water brute, add salt, and turn on the power head in the brute. I set the RODI to refill my RODI brute. It takes about 12 hours to fill it up.

Are you manually stopping the refill or using a float switch and solenoid? I'm wanting to store a large amount of RO but haven't figured out how to turn it off manually.