Adding Water

[podge387]

I have read the conciensious marine aquariust and am just tying to get some peoples opinioni on some things. Mainly should i mix the water in the tank itslef or let it age for a few days ina rubbermaid? I am planning on having a fish only tank and am going to have live rock for the benefit of the fish and tank maintenence, shuold i use a sump or a powerfull canister filter? Any suggestions on some starting fish would be great to. This is the most informative site on the web!

Thanks Again.

 

[powderbluetang]

the best thing yopu can do is age it and match the temp. and use a wet/dry for all the bio-filtration that you will get due to the exposeuire to the two enviroments. and canisters ive heard to be are very unhealthy for s/w

 

[loganj]

If you're starting the tank, there is no reason you can't mix the initial batch of water in the tank. After that, it will need to be mixed in a separate container and at least aged overnight. I keep a heater and powerhead in my mixing container. A sump is the best way to go for several reasons. It adds water volume to the system. It gives you a place to hide unsightly equipment such as heaters, skimmers, ect... It's a great place to dose additives and perform water changes. I wouldn't use a canister. Whether you need a wet/dry depends on how much rock you intend to have. If you will have at least 1.5lbs per gallon, you don't need the wet/dry. If you intend to have much less than that, you may find you need some extra biological filtration capacity...this is also dependent on the bioload in the tank.

 

[TygGer]

What are the benefits of aging RO/DI water? I thought water filtered through a RO/DI system is pure enough to use right away. What is happening to the water during the 24hr aging process?

Pardon my ingnorance...

Thanks

 

[darb2]

The aging of mixed sw is for oxygenation. When salt is mixed larger quantities of O2 are used. By allowing 24 hrs with a ph running the O2 will return to normal levels. If you were to add water immediately it would lower the O2 in the water, possibly harming livestock.

 

[Atari]

Not to mention it's pretty caustic for a while after adding the salt.

 

[ClamKnuckle]

From what I have read, though you don't see it, not all the salt will instantly dissolve, and if this lands on livestock it can be, like atari said, harmful to your livestock