Water change

[sharkfin]

hi reefer, may i ask hw often u guys change water n hw many percent 2 change? coz i hw nt change my water since i start my 4ft tank 3mths liao and wat wil happn if i did nt change e water lookin 4ward for expert point of view one more qns wat is e best salt in e market?

[cityofangels]

It's about high time to do a water change.. For a 4ft tank, I usually buy 4 bags of water from the LFS, which is equivalent to 4 pails full of water. In the long time, if you delay water changes, nitrates will build up in your tank and results could be disastrous!

When I first started my 4footer, I delayed my water changes and in its 5mth, nitrates were like 80-100ppm! Don't let that happen to you..

[sharkfin]

wow buy redli water vry expensive leh. okie wil heed ur advise 2 change, but use tap water can rite? but noe noe which salt is gd leh

[ervine]

i don't think there's such a thing as a BEST salt... but many reefers including myself have used coralife salt since the very start.. rather economical and dissolves quickly...

as for water changes, to be perfectly strict no u should not use tap water straight from the tap, but many of us still do...

How much water to change and how often depends on how effective your filtration system is and how heavy is your bio-load...

[sharkfin]

but bro R.O vry ex leh.... so which is beta? change water using tap water or continue dnt change water....

[ervine]

but bro R.O vry ex leh.... so which is beta? change water using tap water or continue dnt change water....

of course change water lah... not possible to go w/o water changes indefinitely...

[dumdum]

didnt change any water for 1 month, NO3 went to 40- 50ppm

after 4 pails of water change, NO3 drop to 10ppm ........

[andylee]

but bro R.O vry ex leh.... so which is beta? change water using tap water or continue dnt change water....

Bro, if find everything expensive, might as well sell off everything and quit this hobby rite?

Changing water is the most essential part of maintenance.

Either u buy water from LFs or use R.O

U want to use tapwater also can, convert to freshwater tank lor

[Flame-Tail]

One of the good reccomended salt in the market would be topic marine pro. But it's on the pricey side. Salt should by right be mixed with Ro-Di water and not tap water as it also contains nitrate and silicate. If budget constraint then just areate your tap water overnight before mixing in the salt.

Another alternative is that u just go and buy NSW from lfs. One bag fron Iwarna in Pasir Ris costs only $1. If you have a jerry can they will top it up for $2.

I try to do at least a 10-20% water change weekly for my 2 ft nano and everything is doing fine.

Hope it helps

[Flame-Tail]

You can check out this site for further info on tap water in Singapore.

http://www.pub.gov.sg/our_services/WaterWSHowBrought.aspx

[blueheaven]

RO/DI might be pricey and it does flush out quite a lot of water

A good recommendation is to get a DI unit

I've been using DI water and you can see the difference

The TDS from tap water is around 55ppm and after going through DI, it is 0 ppm

[Maverick77]

One of the good reccomended salt in the market would be topic marine pro. But it's on the pricey side. Salt should by right be mixed with Ro-Di water and not tap water as it also contains nitrate and silicate. If budget constraint then just areate your tap water overnight before mixing in the salt.

Another alternative is that u just go and buy NSW from lfs. One bag fron Iwarna in Pasir Ris costs only $1. If you have a jerry can they will top it up for $2.

I try to do at least a 10-20% water change weekly for my 2 ft nano and everything is doing fine.

Hope it helps

Hi bro, may I know wats the purpose of aerating the water overnite?

Will it remove the nitrate or unwanted nutrients? Or is it more for removing the chloramine?

[dominik]

does having a denitrator help to reduce number of water changes or totally forget about water change?

[ervine]

Hi bro, may I know wats the purpose of aerating the water overnite?

Will it remove the nitrate or unwanted nutrients? Or is it more for removing the chloramine?

If you are talking about newly mixed salt water then some people aerate it overnight to make sure all the salt gets dissolved.. if not it might burn your LS if you pour undissolved salt into the tank..

If you are talking about just tap water, aeration is only supposed to remove chlorine from the water... IMO no need...

but I use coralife salt which seems to dissolve just fine when I use a powerhead to "stir" the salt.. whole pail of saltwater dissolves in about 5mins...

[leochngyh]

I second on the periodic water change. But with fresh mix water and not from LFS coz we dont know what disease/parasite is in the LFS water. Normally will mix the salt with filtered water (not RO but through the home filter system, can drink directly) and left for overnight for one day or two to let the salt mix thoroughly in pill only change it.

When change, will sifon out the amount of water prepared then only pump back the new water. Everytime I change for 10 - 20% of water.

Like what other reefer says, water change is the basic yet essential for all marine tank or FW tank as well.

[sharkfin]

tks 4 all ur tips, wil go hm n change water..... any1 out there enjoy changin water mayb can help mi 2 change any1 change wif mineral water b4? i got lobang 2 get free mineral water leh

[colinsoon]

sorry for sounding dumb here, but really, what happens to the fishes when the nitrate levels are too high? they die?

[sharkfin]

those fishes wil b stress.... n wil develop white spot