How to do a less irritating water change?

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bighabeeb

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 3, 2011
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So I currently do my PWCs by removing water with a siphon, then dumping in from 2 5 gallon jugs full of RO/DI saltwater. Now, the problem with pouring this stuff in is that it knocks stuff around quite a bit (couple frags got knocked to the floor of the tank etc). Now the fish and corals all seem to bounce back from it fairly quickly, but anybody have suggestions for how to avoid it?

I'd tinkered with the idea of pouring the new water down into the sump and letting it pump its way back up to the DT....but it seems like that would be really inefficient....
Thoughts?

Happy New Year,
 
I've been using buckets to mix my water and then I dunk a smaller bucket in and put the water in that way. less mess and less sandstorm. Then when the bucket is like 1/4 full I dump that in. This works on my smaller tanks not sure how it would work on a larger tank. :)
 
I add it to my sump no big deal but u can also get a small pump and pump it back in. You could also if u wanted to put a T with a shut off in your drain line and you can do it from there as well.
 
I'm new to the sw world, but here's how I've got mine set up. I have three 10 gallon tanks in a closet behind my tank. One is full of pure RO/DI and plumbed in to my ATO. Both of the others have a line marked at exactly the same spot. One is to fill a few days before I do a water change to allow the water to get up to temp and mix well. The other is so that I know exactly how much to take out, so that I have exactly the same to refill. I have a mini-jet 606 that I use to pump from the 10g to the sump, where I'll be doing my water changes. It isn't a high GPH pump, but it'll drain a 10g tank in a couple minutes.

Again, haven't actually had a chance to practice this yet, as I've yet to do a water change (cycling), but it worked well for filling the tank.
 
I like to siphon it out tho because that's when u do your "vacuuming " but putting that T in makes it extremly simple if that's what ur looking for.
 
If u can raise ur bucket u could siphon back into the tank from the bucket. But a power head would be my choice as I have no sump
 
I actually happen to have a spare powerhead - but it's designed for circulation so not sure how I could use that to pump water back up into the DT?

That would definitely be an ideal way of doing it...all else aside, lifting a 5 gallon jug, while easy for someone as huge and well muscled as me (ha ha), is not how I enjoy spending my time ;)
 
Just buy a cheap pump 20 bucks it doesn't need to be powerfull at all.
 
How important is it to mix the saltwater 24 hours before using. Is it ok to mix a couple hours before?
What do u guys do?
 
I do a day or two before just to sure everything mixes up and no salt crystals in the water column I just drop a power head in my bucket.
 
I used to pour from a small bucket and found it to be a mess.

Since I don't have a sump my process has made my weekly chore much more rewarding.

I start by mixing salt in a 5 gal bucket of RO. I have a Rio power head I place in the bucket along with a small heater. 24 hours of mixing seems to do well.

I remove heater and attach a hose with a 90 degree fitting to the Rio.

After I vacuum my rock and sand as I collect my water, the only thing left to do is turn the Rio power head back on and watch the tank fill back up.

I do this weekly and find that splitting the chore into 2 days has made it much more pleasant.
 
I've never found water changes to be a pain, per se - just dont like irritating zoas, polys and whatnot, making them all suck in until its done because I'm disrupting things dumping water in.

Pump idea is definitely gonna be worth a shot.
 
Small power head short hose. Pump to your overflow or sump.

I do this but I let it go against the glass in the display tank. It takes no time at all to do a 5 or 10 gallon water change in a tank.
 
ShooterRick said:
Small power head short hose. Pump to your overflow or sump.

Agree that's what one 50 gallon drum in garage to tank never a mesd
 
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