How do you prepare water for water changes?

[BryanN]

I am thinking about starting a saltwater aquarium and am wondering how you guys do water changes. DO you all have R/O units or age your water? I am quite new to saltwater so any comments would be appreciated.

Bryan

 

[cal91666]

I do have an RO/DI unit. I try to keep about 20 - 25 gallons of freshwater on hand at all times as well as about 20 gallons of saltwater available all in plastic containers on wheels.

 

[HoopsGuru]

I think it really depends on what type of tank you are keeping. For a fish only system, I may lean more towards just using tapwater (within reason, it would require some testing for contaminants) that is pre-treated appropriately. For a full reef with delicate corals, R/O water should be used in most cases .

 

[fishfreek]

Method I use to prepair water.

I have a RO unit that I use to make up my water. I have two 30 gal trashcans in the basement. 1 is for freshwater and 1 is for saltwater mixing and storage.

For the freshwater one its real simple i just fill it with RO water and ut a lid on it for later use. For saltwater one I fill it with RO water then i drop in a heater and powerhead. Get the water up to tank temp and then i slowly sift in salt mix till I have added enough salt to bring the water up to a SG of 1.025. Now I let that sit till I need to use it but for at least a minimum of 24 hours.

Recently I have been doing weekly water changes of 5 gal on my 20, 5 gal on the 45 and 10-15 gal on the 80.

 

[gooyferret]

Method i use,

I buy RO water from the LFS (i use the large rubbermaid containers 16gal) I then add the salt for mixing....to SG of 1.025. I then let it sit inside for about 2 days, to get the tempeture at room temp about 77degrees. I then syphon the water outta the main tank, and add the newly mixed water to the sump that way im syphoning the main tank and filling it also from the sump...is that a good process?