Water Change: Saltwater Aqaurium Guide
- Feb 13, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 386 0 0
In this saltwater aquarium guide, we are going to learn how to do a good water change to make it easier and most effective, tools needed.
It's time to do a water change. The challenge here is all kinds of pollutants build up in the water, some measurable, some less so. Some contaminants also build up in areas like the sand, and this is just a good time to reduce those as well.
Major but trace elements also get depleted from the salt water, and they also need to be replaced.
Importance of Water changes
So, there are a variety of functions that a water change serves. But, understanding this one thing will dramatically change your success rates.
Newer reefers who perform regular water changes have dramatically higher long-term success rates than those who don't. Furthermore, reefers with a one-inch sand bed and clean them as part of their water changes also have a much higher success rate.
Success means lesser algae, fewer corals and fish mortalities, and the water looks and smells cleaner. But, most important, those who do the water changes and maintain their sand would not only make it to 12 months at a much higher rate, but they will also make it to the three and five-plus years.
After two to three years, a tank becomes less dependent on water changes and export methods, and there are advanced systems and methods to reduce the reliance on them. But, this is something that you grow into, not a starting point.
Water Change
The entire purpose of water change is to improve water quality. The effectiveness of that is 100% real to the quality of the new saltwater we produce, as to how much and how often, 10% a week is what we call best.
This means scooping five gallons of water into a bucket and replacing it with five gallons of fresh saltwater. This can be a five-minute tank.
Alternatively, you can do 20% every other week in two five gallons buckets which become ten or so minute tanks every other week.
Both strategies produce about the same result. You can go larger than 20%, and then you need to start thinking about heating the saltwater first and making sure the parameters are all close. For newer reefers, stick to something about 10% weekly or 20% every other week.
Cleaning the Sand
Over what you are doing, your tank will greatly benefit from cleaning the sand simultaneously. To do that, we suggest a one-inch gravel washer. When draining 4- to 10-gallon into a bucket, put it in the sand and tumble it to clean it.
You can do it in an area of the tank each time. It doesn't have to be the entire sand bed.
Tumbling can be controlled by kinking one end of the tube while the siphon, with the other hand, is close to slowing it down, open to making it down open to making it go faster. At the same time, you can sport a tuft of algae, pinch it between the siphon and your thumb, pull it off, and it will get sucked up right into the bucket rather than into the tank.
If you will do more than a single bucket water change, the no-spill water change system from Python also makes it a lot easier. In this case, you can turn on the faucet, and it creates a siphon that sucks the water right out of the tank and down the drain.
Automated Water Change
With larger water changes, systems like Python take something that was a pain and messy and make it easier and cleaner. We want to plant the seed that water change can be automated entirely somewhere down the road.
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