DarkReefer
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone has some tips/advice about making the waterchange process easier.
I only have a 2ft cube tank approx, I know this is relatively small, however changing 50-100L can be a bit tedious every weekend so I'm wondering what people are doing to make their lives easier / water changes quicker/easier or if I'm just doing too much and making it harder than it needs to be ?
Currently my method is as follows;
-NSW purchased from LFS Usually around 50L on hand (75L if I'm doing a larger change) which is kept in 25L containers (a bit of weight to lug around).
-Either the night before or just before I do the change. I test salinity of both tank and the container water & pour a small amount out of the containers into a small bucket.
-I then get the RO water and add this back into the container (not any measurement particularly, just eyeball/guess it) close container, give it a shake and retest salinity to see if it's closer to 1.025 (LFS NSW seems to always be about 1.027-9), sometimes I overcook it and its under, sometimes it's a little over, sometimes its about right. I just adjust on the next container when I do the process again.
-I then have been getting into the habit of testing alk of both the tank (sometimes day before) and a container of the NSW, I then dose the container to try and get it up to around the 8.5 or so mark (usually retesting before I add into the tank).
-I siphon out the tank taking about 50L (this usually means all my corals are still under water - 75L means some are out of water, I did this once last weekend and my Alveopora hasn't been happy since, and looks like my Blue digi looks a bit bleached around the base (not sure if this was the case before or if it was a result of the water change and being exposed to the light without water - though not 100% sure I did have the lights on for it). When I siphon I'm taking 25L out at a time to match what's in the containers, which is a heavy load to take and tip into the laundry sink.
-After that I'll add the water back in. Instead of lifting 25L container to the DT, I've started filling a smaller bucket with 5-10L and adding that in, this usually is a slow/annoying process because I can't dump it straight in because it'll blow sand everywhere so I have to find a spot to pour it in whilst trying not to have it go everywhere and finding the right amount of flow so as not to disrupt corals/sand. Once it's light enough I'll pick up the container and add that in, again slowly whilst trying to stop it from doing the glug thing where air is trying to get into the container and water coming out so it coughs and splutters everywhere (ticks me off big time). I'll do this until it's back up to the overflow and you can start to hear it trickle down.
I can't siphon back into the DT because I don't have anywhere to put the water that's higher than the tank.
Sorry for the long story, but wanted to paint a picture of exactly what I do and if people have advice to making it quicker/easier.
Would appreciate some feedback/advice of what you do or what I could do differently to make it a more enjoyable/less hassle experience.
Cheers
Just wondering if anyone has some tips/advice about making the waterchange process easier.
I only have a 2ft cube tank approx, I know this is relatively small, however changing 50-100L can be a bit tedious every weekend so I'm wondering what people are doing to make their lives easier / water changes quicker/easier or if I'm just doing too much and making it harder than it needs to be ?
Currently my method is as follows;
-NSW purchased from LFS Usually around 50L on hand (75L if I'm doing a larger change) which is kept in 25L containers (a bit of weight to lug around).
-Either the night before or just before I do the change. I test salinity of both tank and the container water & pour a small amount out of the containers into a small bucket.
-I then get the RO water and add this back into the container (not any measurement particularly, just eyeball/guess it) close container, give it a shake and retest salinity to see if it's closer to 1.025 (LFS NSW seems to always be about 1.027-9), sometimes I overcook it and its under, sometimes it's a little over, sometimes its about right. I just adjust on the next container when I do the process again.
-I then have been getting into the habit of testing alk of both the tank (sometimes day before) and a container of the NSW, I then dose the container to try and get it up to around the 8.5 or so mark (usually retesting before I add into the tank).
-I siphon out the tank taking about 50L (this usually means all my corals are still under water - 75L means some are out of water, I did this once last weekend and my Alveopora hasn't been happy since, and looks like my Blue digi looks a bit bleached around the base (not sure if this was the case before or if it was a result of the water change and being exposed to the light without water - though not 100% sure I did have the lights on for it). When I siphon I'm taking 25L out at a time to match what's in the containers, which is a heavy load to take and tip into the laundry sink.
-After that I'll add the water back in. Instead of lifting 25L container to the DT, I've started filling a smaller bucket with 5-10L and adding that in, this usually is a slow/annoying process because I can't dump it straight in because it'll blow sand everywhere so I have to find a spot to pour it in whilst trying not to have it go everywhere and finding the right amount of flow so as not to disrupt corals/sand. Once it's light enough I'll pick up the container and add that in, again slowly whilst trying to stop it from doing the glug thing where air is trying to get into the container and water coming out so it coughs and splutters everywhere (ticks me off big time). I'll do this until it's back up to the overflow and you can start to hear it trickle down.
I can't siphon back into the DT because I don't have anywhere to put the water that's higher than the tank.
Sorry for the long story, but wanted to paint a picture of exactly what I do and if people have advice to making it quicker/easier.
Would appreciate some feedback/advice of what you do or what I could do differently to make it a more enjoyable/less hassle experience.
Cheers
