Question about storing water
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Randy Holmes-Farley
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I store both for lengthy periods, but some salt mixes contain organic matter and are not best suited for the water to be stored before use. Reef Crystals and Tropic Marin Bioactif are two that come to mind.
Hey Randy... I use Reef Crystals and make the water a few days before adding it to my aquarium... never had any problems that I know of. Do you know why this is not recommended to do? Thanks as always
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Hey Randy... I use Reef Crystals and make the water a few days before adding it to my aquarium... never had any problems that I know of. Do you know why this is not recommended to do? Thanks as always
Reef Crystals claims to add vitamins. If you think those are useful, you'd want to use the water before they have a chance to break down on their own, or for bacteria to consume them. I'm not sure how long that will take.
I don't really think there is any demonstrated utility to them, but a further concern is if you store that water without any aeration, it might become stagnant as the bacteria use up the O2 to metabolize them, and then potentially produce hydrogen sulfide when the O2 runs out.
If you keep it stirred/aerated, then the worst that will happen is some bacterial growth and loss of the vitamins (and maybe the metal chelators they add).
If you store salt water without organics (I use normal IO), then it need not be stirred after the initial mixing. I also never heat mine.
Excellent info thank you Randy! The reason why I was asking is bc they state to let it 24 hours for the pH to stabilize. I've always made the water, heated it and turned on the water pump... then slowly added the salt to the brute can to reach desired salinity. I wait a day or two and add to my system during a water change. As I stated I've never had any visual problems doing this.. but I certainly don't have any monitors or testing equipment to monitor any elements they may or may not add. The main reason I use it is the supposedly extra calcium and since right now I don't run a calcium reactor or dose anything it's kept my system on point since I have a low coral count so far.
Anyway, thank you again for the helpful information. Maybe I will switch to only waiting overnight then using it instead of a day or two and see if the calcium/alk etc levels stay higher.
Anyway, thank you again for the helpful information. Maybe I will switch to only waiting overnight then using it instead of a day or two and see if the calcium/alk etc levels stay higher.
redfishbluefish
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I also believe Red Sea Pro wants you to use their mixed salt within four hours.
fully support the aeration method, my small reefs get full water changes due to ease of access but that's a real liability for someone storing up capped saltwater and unaware. for sure ive dumped rotting water w fresh ammonia in it from being capped for a long time before having been given this info in an old post. I don't even have to mix mine, all I have to do is leave the cap off the blue water bottles in the pantry, full of sw. they'll need topoff before using and temp bring up, but with this open topped method in a relatively low traffic area no stagnancy any more. average sit time maybe a month per bottle before use
