WEEKLY DISCUSSION : Making Saltwater

[jman785]

Do you mix your own saltwater or buy premixed from your local fish store?

What brand of salt do you use? (Tropic Marin, Instant Ocean, Corallife, Kent, etc.)
>Why did you end up using this brand of salt?

When mixing, do you use purified water? (RO, RO/DI, Distilled, etc.)

Do you hand mix or do you use a powerhead to assist you with mixing?

How long do you let your freshly made saltwater mix for?

Do you use a heater in the mixing bucket to raise the temperature for water changes?



This is a weekly discussion and will be added to a weekly discussion archive

[bigfoot]

i use ro/di water and i mix my own but i let it sit for about 1 hr with a 1200 gph pump so its pretty mixed no i dont heat it i just use a pan and boil 2gallons of water and then pour it in the bucket with cooler water till i hit my target temp +/- 1-2 degrees and ive never had a problem

I mix my own salt using Oceanic Salt. I had used Instant Ocean sense starting in the hobby but heard all kinds of reports on how good of a salt oceanic was. I decided to switch and have used it sense.

I use RO/DI water made by a Typhoon III unit.

When preparing the water I transfer water from the holding container to mixing containers. I put in a water pump (RIO 2100 & Maxi 900) and two heaters and let the water circulate and heat for a few hours. I then slowly add salt (the salt doesn't hit the bottom of the container) until the salinity is around 30ppt. I let the water mix/ aerate and heat until the water is brought up to 80 degrees. At that point I continue to slowly add salt until it reaches 35ppt. Then it aerates overnight and I perform the water change the next day.

[funkybozu]

i dont use RO/DI but i have this filter made by Marfied,that i use to water change my FW tanks as well(it basicly only takes chlo. and iron. and other
nastys out , but its not RO) i mix my salt in 20l buket tanks, that i leave for
a day or two. i do like BF .before using i pour hot water to get the temp up
before i do the change

[Sugar Magnolia]

Do you mix your own saltwater or buy premixed from your local fish store?

I buy my saltwater premixed form a local marine only store. It's an hour drive, so I buy 10 gallons of premixed IO and 10 gallons of RO/DI for top-off.

What brand of salt do you use? (Tropic Marin, Instant Ocean, Corallife, Kent, etc.)>Why did you end up using this brand of salt?

I use Instant Ocean. When I started keeping salt tanks over three years ago, that's the salt I chose to use, and since it's performed well for me all this time, I see no reason to change. I do however have to dose magnesium since IO has a low mg level.

When mixing, do you use purified water? (RO, RO/DI, Distilled, etc.)

There have been occasions when I've run out of water before my monthly trip to the reef store, so I use bottled distilled and IO that I keep on hand. I also have a home RO/DI unit for the family's drinking water and use that occasionally for small WC's in the 2.5 gallon tank.

Do you hand mix or do you use a powerhead to assist you with mixing?

Powerhead.

How long do you let your freshly made saltwater mix for?

I usually get it going before I go to bed even when using the premixed IO that I buy.

Do you use a heater in the mixing bucket to raise the temperature for water changes?

Yes, heater and a powerhead in the bucket for about 12 hours.

[jman785]

I just had to remove a post from this discussion. The weekly discussion is a discussion and not for off-topic items...lets stick to the topic of Making saltwater.

Something else I'd like to point out, if you respond to the questions, it would make it a lot easier if you'd answer them like Sugar Magnolia has responded, it makes them easier to point out and comprehend the different parts... ;) Thanks SM.

[tinyreef]

Do you mix your own saltwater or buy premixed from your local fish store?
Mix my own.

What brand of salt do you use? (Tropic Marin, Instant Ocean, Corallife, Kent, etc.) Why did you end up using this brand of salt?
Coralife, mostly. Free t-shirt! :whistle:

When mixing, do you use purified water? (RO, RO/DI, Distilled, etc.)
distilled.

Do you hand mix or do you use a powerhead to assist you with mixing?
turkey baster.

How long do you let your freshly made saltwater mix for?
oh, about 3~4 seconds.

Do you use a heater in the mixing bucket to raise the temperature for water changes?
no, but i always dump it into the sump.

these are not recommended steps! just what i've lazy-reefed myself into.

[jman785]

How long do you let your freshly made saltwater mix for?
oh, about 3~4 seconds.

3-4 seconds? Do you mean minutes or hours? How do you dissolve the salt that fast?

[shellydp34]

I'd like to know that too. It takes forever to dissolve my salt.

[tinyreef]

i meant after it's dissolved. i thought the question was asking how long people let it sit after dissolution. the typical wait time is 24 hrs for pH balance and blah blah blah.

but it only takes 30 secs. or so to dissolve the salt, if that's the question.

it's one of the reasons why i've always gravitated back to coralife after trying other salts. while i've tried most of the salts but i've always been comfortable with coralife. although i did find biosea was very good too (in fact, a little better results-wise imo than coralife).

i dump the salt in the bin and add the distilled water directly on top. usually 70%~80% of the salt is dissolved by the time the bin's filled (10 sec.?). then it's just squirting the baster at the undissolved salt granules until the water's clear (another 20 sec.? tops).

i then dump it into the sump, away from the return pump. nothing really empirical about it.

again, i do NOT recommend this procedure or any of the other quirky reef "techniques" i practice in the shadows of my basement. heck, it took almost four years before i even started posting about my nano. some of the stuff i do can get me lynched! :oops:

i'm just relating my procedure (i don't do that many wc's anyway). but since the discussion was there i posted. i do not want anyone trying this and then saying their tanks crashed and i'm an idiot. i'll beat you to that statement and preemptively say "i'm a idiot". :-D

you're on your own. :wink:

[tinyreef]

Do you use a heater in the mixing bucket to raise the temperature for water changes?

no, but i always dump it into the sump.

i'm a little concerned my previous comments might be taken the wrong way. so i just wanted to clarify some of my other statements.

i only use room temperature water. i buy my distilled water in 5-gal bottles and keep a couple on-hand at all times (oopsies are always waiting for you around the corner). most of the water is for top-off but when i do do my wc's the water is usually pretty close to the tank temp.

it's a basement setting for my display tank so that scenario is usually very close in temp. for my office nano i usually fingertip gauge the temp and adjust (hot/cold water fountain dispenser). both setups i dump into the sump.

to reiterate: these are not recommended steps! just what i've lazy-reefed myself into.

i dump the salt in the bin and add the distilled water directly on top.

I understand you're not recommending these steps to others but for your own benifit... when you add water to the salt, the mix will go through a precipitation event. I would switch and add the salt to the water... it's MUCH safer.

[tinyreef]

you're probably correct, travis. i've heard of that and i think it's happened once or twice (actually, once with tropic marin) when i added the water too slowly. but i usually add it en masse and seem to avoid the precipitation (or most of it).

it's just a habit i've gotten into, almost reflex when i do it. (basically 8+ years of doing it this way) again, not what i recommend but it's just how i do it.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I would switch and add the salt to the water... it's MUCH safer.
Travis, in defense of tiny's lazy reefer methods, all I can say is..."if it ain't broke don't fix it." I've actually done what he does many times over the course of the past 3+ years when doing water changes. If I happen to need to do a WC and don't have premixed IO on hand, a gallon of distilled water and a half cup of IO, swish it around for a minute or two to disolve the salt and bingo - water's ready.

Keep in mind that for the first two years I only had tanks under 7 gallons and had absolutely NO adverse affects on the tank's inhabitants by doing these quicky water changes. No sump either. Room temp water as well. It can be done, but it's really not the responsible way to do things. But then again...it works. ;) I really do try to be a responsible reefkeeper but sometimes life get's in the way and you've got to do what you've got to do. I'd rather do a quick water change on my nano's when it's time rather than skipping it altogether. That being said, I do try to keep premixed SW on hand at all times. but there are some weeks that I just don't have the time to go pick up water, so the quicky WC is always on hand. :D

As tiny mentioned...these are not recommended steps! just what i've lazy-reefed myself into.

I'm a member of the lazy reefer society and stand by the insantiy of it all.

Travis, in defense of tiny's lazy reefer methods, all I can say is..."if it ain't broke don't fix it."

Sorry but that's just not a good way to mix water. It has nothing to do with being lazy or anything else... while adding the water to the salt the salinity sky rockets and you run a MAJOR risk of some kind of precipitation. I would switch and add the salt to the water... it's MUCH safer and no more work.

[tinyreef]

agreed, travis. i'm not fighting/arguing you. i'm just presenting my procedure for discussion. is my method more likely to result in something bad if done incorrectly? sure. just like the entire concepts of nanos, hence my preference to suggest to new reefers to start big to this day even with them becoming 'mainstream'.

i actually agree with most of your opinions, travis. and i've suggested the same to others. i just happen to do differently.

it's not a protest or purposeful contrarian act, it's just something that developed as habit over a period of time. no offense, i just don't wish to change but i appreciate your comments anyway.

[actual-discussion-of-topic]

super salinity occurs in either method actually. it's a question of the speed of dilution imo.

water into salt: if the salt pile is diluted slowly, by adding water somewhat slowly, then super salinity (and precipitation) can occur. hence, my TM experience-it's very "dusty" salt so i 'sputtered/stuttered' during water addition once. i think the avoidance of precipitation comes from the avoidance of localizing the super-salinity by the massive introduction of water all at once.

salt into water: in the opposite method (travis's suggestion), the super salinity still occurs but only in the minute vicinity of where salt is being added. because the water is so much more abundant, the super salinity lasts for a very short time, like the above.

otoh, if it's not dissipated/mixed right away, the salt 'pile' can also occur (and actually have localized super-salinity longer than the dump method) and you might get the same precipitation concerns.

now that's one way to 'defend' my side but as i said, i actually suggest travis's method to others (altho i practice differently). so i'm not really trying to defend my actions.[/actual-discussion-of-topic]

btw sugar, thanks for the solidarity of laziness. :wink:

i'm not fighting/arguing you.

Nor was I, sorry if I came across like I was. My original post was meant as a helpful suggestion, I was not criticizing at all. It may have been made to look that way but it wasn't.

Now, when you add salt to the water slowly IMO no "super salinity" occurs. There is never a concentration that would cause saturation. If you were to dump in 2 cups all at once then yes, I would agree that would cause saturation. I take more time then some when mixing water but no salt hits the bottom of the mixing container... this insures no saturation.