How to do my own saltwater change?

[Miami Reef]

Since the tank is pretty large, we call a fish person to come over and do our saltwater changes. Since they charge over $100 per change, we only do a 20% change every 3-4 months.

I think I can do my own saltwater changes. It'll save a lot of money, I can do it more frequently, and I can be more in touch with my aquarium.

I just have some questions. I could ask the guy who does our maintenance, but I don't think he'd be thrilled because that's his job.

1. I know you can purchase salt to mix inside water, but what water do I use? Tap from sink? Do I mix anything in it to get rid of chlorine?

2. How do I make the temperature of new water the same as the tank?

3. When I move my rocks around, a lot of poop and dirt flies out. Is there a blowing fan tool I can use to clean rocks?

4. What else do I do during a saltwater change? The only thing I think they do is just dump old water out, and add new water in. Is it that simple? I feel like I'm missing something. Is there anything chemically that I need to check/add. What else do you do besides for the actual water change?

Sorry for the very newbie questions. I hope you guys can help answer them.

 

[keddre]

what water do I use? Tap from sink? Do I mix anything in it to get rid of chlorine?

Some people use RODI, and if you have a professional doing it, I would bet that's what they are using. While there is nothing wrong with using tap water with a dechlorinator (that's what I use), it is usually safer and easier to use RODI as you know you are having "pure" water

How do I make the temperature of new water the same as the tank

Honestly, I never worried about this. While you don't want to dump scalding hot water in the tank, if you add your water slowly I FEEL it should disperse without affecting your fish. That's only my opinion though, and I would say something different if it was a nano tank

Is there a blowing fan tool I can use to clean rocks

Turkey baster

What else do I do during a saltwater change

Unless you are running a special sand bed, I would turkey baste before the water change so that you catch are the flying filth in your bucket when you dump it. Also if you are running a reef tank, you will want to keep an eye on your calc, mag, etc. as some salts add these naturally. Ideally you can buy the same salt and find out if the person you hired is dosing anything into the water.

 

[mckinleyw]

im no expert but this is some of what I would say for answers.


1. ONLY RODI WATER. You can get this from ur local reef store or pick up your own rodi unit.
2. when mixing add a heater to the bucket or jugs of frozen water to cool down.
3. turkey baster works awesome.
4. any equipment maintenance, cleaning the algae off the glass whatever you feel you can do while mixing, removing and adding.

 

[JoshKReef]

How big is your tank and how much do they actually charge?

You would need to invest in a rodi system, salt, a heater, a powerhead, a mixing container, a refractometer, and a pump to pump from the container to the tank if lazy.

If you have a fish store local, you can buy premixed saltwater, or RO water (to mix salt) to avoid buying salt and a rodi system.

 

[mckinleyw]

lol what he said

Some people use RODI, and if you have a professional doing it, I would bet that's what they are using. While there is nothing wrong with using tap water with a dechlorinator (that's what I use), it is usually safer and easier to use RODI as you know you are having "pure" water


Honestly, I never worried about this. While you don't want to dump scalding hot water in the tank, if you add your water slowly I FEEL it should disperse without affecting your fish. That's only my opinion though, and I would say something different if it was a nano tank


Turkey baster


Unless you are running a special sand bed, I would turkey baste before the water change so that you catch are the flying filth in your bucket when you dump it. Also if you are running a reef tank, you will want to keep an eye on your calc, mag, etc. as some salts add these naturally. Ideally you can buy the same salt and find out if the person you hired is dosing anything into the water.

 

[Reef man 89]

Exactly what ^ said I would like to add one thing makes sure the salinity is the same in the tank as the new water

 

[Big G]

Well, you may want to do a bit of research/reading to familiarize yourself with all of the aspects of Saltwater reefing. May I suggest the book "The Idiots Guide to Saltwater Aquariums" it's a great read and resource. I re-read it frequently. And then there is this link on how to setup a saltwater aquarium: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...-saltwater-reef-aquarium.138750/#post-1603526
Many of the questions you have can be answered with these two sources. Knowledge is good; experience makes us with we had more. And there is a series of videos online by Bulk Reef Supply. It's called 52 weeks of reefing. They go through the entire process explaining everything you need to know about setting up a aquarium along with maintenance. I highly recommend this video series. Here's the link: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video

 

[Young@Heart]

I still consider myself a bit green. Havo said that I would strongly suggest the following:

Take a Salinity measurement use a refractometer. If you don't have you'll need it to do your own water changes.

Before you dive in (pun not intended) you need to find the approprit salt for mixing. Use marine salt like Instant Ocean

Recommend you should use RO/DI: reverse osmosis/ de-ionized water. I am learning the value of that

I just let the water come to room temp naturally

What kind of tank
How many gallons is the tank

How Are you set to watch your water chemistry

 

[Miami Reef]

I see. I'll look into the RODI machine.

I'm honestly not familiar with the full system of the aquarium. I'm not sure what's connected to what. Can I take pictures of everything?

 

[Miami Reef]

Here is the full system (excluding the sock filters as I already know what that is)

What's the purpose of these machines and how do I clean/maintain them?

 

[JoshKReef]

Here is the full system (excluding the sock filters as I already know what that is)

What's the purpose of these machines and how do I clean/maintain them?

You already have a rodi system under there, it's probably automatically topping off your system I bet.

 

[keddre]

The white and purple machine is a RODI filter. Find out when the cartridge was last changed tho. The all black cylinder might be a UV, I'm not 100% though.

The smaller purple and white machine is an auto doser and the A and B bottles are the nutrients I was saying they might be dosing,,, which it appears they are

 

[JoshKReef]

There is also a protein skimmer, but it doesn't look like it's in use

 

[Dsnakes]

Have a full tank picture?

 

[Miami Reef]

 

[Roy 9121]

I just buy premixed salt water from my LFS, but my water changes are only 10 gallons at a time. I would highly recommend using RO/DI water, I was using just filtered water for a while and it caused a whole host of issues.
If you have any area in your tank where you see a lot of debris build up, maybe consider putting a power head in to circulate water through that area.
Hope that helps, good luck.

 

[Fudsey]

With what you have inside the sump area, I would suspect that more than just a water change is being done for the $100 you spend. Unless you are changing the 2 part dosing containers and the RODI filters yourself.

 

[Dsnakes]

That's a beautiful tank. I'm sure they are performing a fair bit of maintenance to keep it top top shape.

 

[Miami Reef]

Im not sure exactly what they do during a maintenance, but I will ask them and see if it's worth me doing it, or letting them do it themselves.

 

[JoshKReef]

Im not sure exactly what they do during a maintenance, but I will ask them and see if it's worth me doing it, or letting them do it themselves.

You may also want to ask if all that equipment is actually yours, they may just leave the rodi system there for convenience