Water Change Procedure

[Baldy]

Hello All,

I just finished my first water change on my first SW tank. yay! anyways, I was a little confused as to how I had such "cloudy" water from what i mixed up. 3 days ago i got 20g of RODI water (75g tank, no sump), and got a heater into it, a maxijet 1200, and fired it all up in a 30g rubbermaid container. bit of messing with the heater to get it at the right temp, mixed the salt up to 1.026 last night, and it was the same today. pH was nearly identical, dKH was the same at 9, but the water had a white haze do it. im 99% sure it was just excess calcium, as the H2Ocean i use mixed up to have 480ppm calcium when i initially set up the tank.

I added the water, it made the tank a little hazy, which has now cleared up. but it appears that all the tiny algae filaments have had calcium precipitate out and stick to them, and on the LR. Im thinking that i just didnt let it circulate and mix up enough.

My question is this, what is YOUR procedure for mixing WC water. do you mix it a week before? what steps do you take?

I always prepare my water at the same time i did my last water change so the Water is sitting for the week, I have a powerhead and my transfer pump always running in the mixing container. My mixing container definitely has some calcium percipitating out in it. The powerhead is almost white from the calcium.

I have heard if you add magnesium to the mixing tank you wont get all the calcium percipitation. Maybe someone else can confirm this?

I always add my new water into the sump and not the tank and add it slowly through the transfer pumps so I dont shock my tank with the waterchange.

I have definitely seen the cloudiness when adding PH Buffer to the tank but not so much with new saltwater.

[mark]

Run the ro/di until I get 20g, add heater and pump plus salt, supplementing (Ca and Mg) as necessary. Used to keep it in the barrel for about a week before a water change, lately will do the day after mixing.

[Baldy]

mark, do you find the calcium precipitates out of the water while in the barrel? im thinking the salt im using is really high in calcium or i didnt roll it enough.

[mattdean]

How do you start mixing? Do you just dump the salt in and expect the powerhead to do the work? I think you need a more powerful powerhead - or additional powerheads would be even better. i mix my saltwater in 5 gallon pails and use Maxijet 1200's in each pail to mix, once I mix it by hand to get it started.

I used H2Ocean for a year and NEVER had could water, even after 10 minutes, it was crystal clear. Also, never had slime or residue or anything else but clear saltwater.

So try throwing 2 or 3 more powerheads in there and see if that helps.

[mark]

Find I'll get a little pcp in the mixing barrel, never noticed once added to the tank. I don't roll the salt pails but will test each pail when I open it then again 1/2 way down. Never seen any difference in Ca or Mg with IO mix.

With adding salt I just dump it in then let the 300gph PH do the mixing.

[Baldy]

i find that even if i slowly pour the salt in, it will start collecting on the bottom instead of dissolving. i have a couple koralia 750s that i might try next time. i also stirred a couple times over the last day, so the only thing i could think of was that something (calcium?) became saturated.

this is also my first wc =S. so its not like its happened on a regular basis, and this didnt happen when i mixed the salt in the tank the first time.

[mark]

since I dump in the salt as quick as I scoop it out of the pail it collects as well on the bottom but still dissolves probably within a hour and definitely by the time I'll do the next day water change.

[abcha0s]

Get a paint mixing attachment for a drill. Works great.

[reefan]

Originally Posted by TheNewGuy

Hello All,

I just finished my first water change on my first SW tank. yay! anyways, I was a little confused as to how I had such "cloudy" water from what i mixed up. 3 days ago i got 20g of RODI water (75g tank, no sump), and got a heater into it, a maxijet 1200, and fired it all up in a 30g rubbermaid container. bit of messing with the heater to get it at the right temp, mixed the salt up to 1.026 last night, and it was the same today. pH was nearly identical, dKH was the same at 9, but the water had a white haze do it. im 99% sure it was just excess calcium, as the H2Ocean i use mixed up to have 480ppm calcium when i initially set up the tank.

I added the water, it made the tank a little hazy, which has now cleared up. but it appears that all the tiny algae filaments have had calcium precipitate out and stick to them, and on the LR. Im thinking that i just didnt let it circulate and mix up enough.

My question is this, what is YOUR procedure for mixing WC water. do you mix it a week before? what steps do you take?

Maybe try a better salt like Royal Nature, it mixes super clean and much faster than H2Ocean. I mix mine at the time I want to do the WC and when the salt is disolved the water is clear and I'm good to go.