changing water and salt

[mildew]

I'm switching from tap to RO/DI water (finally bought a unit - Spectra Pure) and from Oceanic salt to Reef Crystals. I'm thinking of changing 5 gallons of tank water per day for about 14 consecutive days and then going back to my regular 5g/week. 65g reef with mostly softies. Is this too rapid a change for fish and corals, or what would you experts recommend? TIA

[NaCl lady]

I wish I could tell you where but someplace on here (in past RK articles) there was a scale about how much H2O you change with H2O changes. If your tank has been fine till now, I would just start putting in the RO/DI water. You might do an extra one or so but I really wouldn't do water changes every day. Just my opinion.

[bertoni]

A 5g water change per day should be okay, but I agree that it's probably not needed if the tank is doing well.

[mildew]

Must admit I'm a little surprised at the lack of response to my questions; thanks to the 2 who did reply, but where are all the RO/DI water and Reef Crystal enthusiasts or tap water and Oceanic salt detractors? As I recall from reading RC threads for the past year or so, I came to believe that tap water is almost always a guaranteed failure and I don't recall reading praises for the salt I was using. I was kind of expecting a rush of hurry up and get the bad out of your tank and the good in. How could my tank be doing well, it has tap water? I know it doesn't look like those picture perfect show tanks on RC that draw all the praise and "awesome" remarks; the kind of tank I'd like to have. And, I know that the money spent on corals that have died is greater than the value of those which are still alive. In an earlier thread I shared that my LFS totally discouraged me from going RO/DI saying it would totally mess things up. Respondents to that thread went so far to say any LFS that opposed RO/DI should be shut down. So now that I've spent the money the tone seems to be - no big hurry if the tank is doing well. Let's assume it isn't doing well - that why I upgraded skimmers, lights and water circulation over the past 2 years. This is another upgrade in an effort to get things right. I really want to go as fast as I can with this water/salt change over without hurting anything. All you 20 and 30 year old young, hot shots out there have a life time to get things right, but I'm at the other end of the scale and time limited. Note that under occupation is says, "retired." That's an age related condition. Hey, I'm not angry, just awfully confused and a little discouraged - an acquired senior citizen state of mind.

[HowardW]

<<< I'm switching from tap to RO/DI water (finally bought a unit - Spectra Pure) and from Oceanic salt to Reef Crystals. I'm thinking of changing 5 gallons of tank water per day for about 14 consecutive days >>>


Smart move on buying the Spectrapure RO/DI unit

The most basic rule of thumb is all changes should happen slowly, even if they are for the better. Why do you feel there is an urgent need to replace all your tank water in the next two weeks? While 5g per day isn't huge on your size tank, I personally would take it just a bit slower and change maybe 3 - 5g every other day and monitor how your tank inhabitants adjust to the new pure water and different salt mix.

[ek9vboi]

Originally posted by HowardW

The most basic rule of thumb is all changes should happen slowly, even if they are for the better. Why do you feel there is an urgent need to replace all your tank water in the next two weeks? While 5g per day isn't huge on your size tank, I personally would take it just a bit slower and change maybe 3 - 5g every other day and monitor how your tank inhabitants adjust to the new pure water and different salt mix.

agreed. the main thing i can possibly think why u would want to change so much in a little amount of time is because of pest algae. if everything is fine, just do the regular and let everything in the tank gradually get use to the new SW mix, etc. no need to rush in this hobby.

[bertoni]

Tapwater tends to cause trouble for a couple of reasons. First, it tends to contain nutrients that will feed algal and microbial problems. That effect is more of a long-term issue, and once the nutrients have been processed out of the tank, the problem's gone.

The second issue is that water quality is variable and sometimes highly toxic chemicals are added to the water in the form of anti-corrosive agents or for other purposes. That leads to sudden tank death.

So there's no rush to do water changes in your tank unless the animals are having trouble. The system will come to a new equilibrium over time. The same goes for the salt, really.

[silvrbug]

I was using TAP water and Reef Crystals.. I recently changed to RO/DI water and using Tropic Marin salt.... I do 5 gallon water changes on a 120 gallon system per week! I think that its a slow enough change over that it wont hurt anything!