Water question

[Lauramichelle]

Ok. I hope to at sometime make my own water, but for now I purchase 5 gal per wk from my local coral shop. I have a 20 gal tank and do a 5 gal change each week. What with lv rocks and all, it's almost a 50% change each time.
About 8 wks old setup. CUC and 6 corals in tank. No fish yet. I just purchased a test kit. Amon <.25 and nitrate 0. (before a water change)
My ques is how long can I store the water I buy before I actually use it? If I can by four 5 gal containers at once, It would reduce trips to the shop.
Thank you

 

[AquaRick]

You can keep the water in those containers for quite a long amount of time. Cover them with a lid and you should be fine. With 4 buckets, they will hold for a month no problem.

On a side note, any reason you're doing 50% weekly water changes? With no fish to produce nitrate, you could stand to do a bit less of a water change; or less frequent changes.

Have you tested your calcium, mag, alk yet? Depending on the corals, your levels may be fine for less frequent changes as well.

 

[carey]

Yep, you can store the water covered for awhile. I usually keep about 20g of emergency water in 5g jugs just as back up and I let them sit a week or two sometimes. But I always cycle through it just to use it, not sure how long it can stay like that.

I got a question though, how come you have an ammonia reading? Are you feeding the tank or adding anything like supplements? Did you already cycle it?

 

[Lauramichelle]

I change 5 gal at a time because it just seems the most convenient. As for the ammonia reading, it was "less" than .25. The chart color was clear as was the test water. I checked because I tried feeding plankton to my coral with a squirt feeder and thought i may have put too much. I was also afraid one of my crabs might have died. Everyone is always talking about ammonia spikes and I was worried.
I'm doing a water change tomorrow and may place a royal gramma in the aquarium on thurs or fri.

 

[Lauramichelle]

Carey, if I let the water sit for a week or 2, do I need to stick a pump in it or something for water movement a day or so before I use it? I usually put a heater in a day before its going to be used. Thx

 

[carey]

I just store regular unsalted water so I let it just sit in the jugs. If it's salt water youre storing then I would suggest a powerhead in the bucket to get the salt mixed back up when youre ready to use it.

 

[Lauramichelle]

Great. Thank you so much.