Stagnant water

[Docdiggy]

I'm going to start filing my 125 which only has sand. I don't have an extra PH strong enough to keep water moving. How long can the water sit while I keep making and dumping buckets? It might be as long as a couple weeks with my schedule and trying to make water.

 

[brandon429]

it wont go stagnant if you don't seal it up. let it vent/keep topped off youll be fine Ive gone that long before in between using change water or not.

many newer setups/new water RO DI units and new storage bottles don't have the living adhering/scummy organisms and contaminants that an older production system has, in the lines for example, so that's why sealing works well up front then one day the act of sealing the change water kills an entire setup when o2 demand tips without telling us, and we input stagnant smelly water (did it, I vent from now on forever)

 

[Docdiggy]

So I'm doing some water changes on my current tank and using the old tank water and new fresh sw. Just to not stray too far in parameters. It won't develop that smell like if you leave old water change water in a bucket?

 

[brandon429]

eventually yes it will if you are mixing higher organics water with zero or clean organics water and capping it, but not if you are keeping air into that mix. the waste portion of that mix requires oxygen to remain consistent as those organics break down, and without o2 from a system with a lid on it, no telling when the bad shift occurs.

it will only begin to smell bad if you cap that mixed water, it will smell like lake or ocean water if kept aerated or just left open topped