Water Changes

[Jon]

OK I just moved to Jersey from San Francisco. I have been in the hobby for the past 5 years and have a good feel for what I am doing. That is... until I moved here...

I went to Aquarium Center in Blackwood NJ today (the closest LFS to me)and found out that they do not sell natural sea water to do water changes. In SF you could buy a gallon of natural sea water for 80 cents a gallon at any LFS which made water changes very simple.

So tell me what are my options??? Does anyone know of a LFS that does sell natural sea water at a reasonable price and if not what is the easiest way to prepare water to do 15 - 20 gallon water changes every two weeks. Do I need to buy a RO kit and if so what brand and do we do these water changes in trash cans???

Please help me with some adivce. I am going to order an Oceanic 70 gallon tech tank soon and want to get everything in place to make my whole set up simple. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[pnoyreefer]

Welcome to NJRC.

I am not sure how much LFS charge for a NSW ( if they do ,haven't seen any LFS around my area do that) .I would suggest to buy an RO unit ( I have typhoon III from AIRWATERICE.COM). and yes you can buy A BRUT trashcan for reservior . ...

Goodluck on your set up!

 

[Edwardw771]

welcome to nj and our site. you may want try the hidden reef over in pa. or get an rodi and salt and make your own water. our meetin next weekend in in your area you can get lots of ideas there.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Natural sea water can be found but it is like 2 dollars a gallon at some of the LFS. Tropiquarium makes their own salt water, they are in central NJ at 1 dollar a gallon. Then you can buy a RO/DI unit and make your own. Dr Fosters is the cheapest to get the salt shipped to you.

 

[jsantoli]

I buy my water at petco for around $11 for a 5 gallon container. That is the route I go but I also only have a 24 gallon tank and do 2.5 gallon change per week so the cost isnt bad for me. Buying 4-5 boxes of water every 2 weeks will get pricey quick

 

[DaveK]

... I am going to order an Oceanic 70 gallon tech tank soon ...

OK, let's look at it this way. You are going to need 70 gal of water just to fill it up. You are also going to need to make water changes of about 20% per month or about 15 gal. For an entire year you'll need 250 gal of water.

If you purchased this from your LFS, you'd spend $250 at $1 per gallon.

To make it yourself, you'll need a couple of 50 gal rubbermaid trash cans. Expect those to cost you about $35 each.
You'll also need an RO/DI unit which will cost about $100 - $150 and up depending upon options.
So you'll have an equipment investment of about $170 to $220.

Salt will cost you about $15 to $30 for a 50 gal package so you'll need about 5 of those, costing $75 - $150. It's somewhat less expensive if you buy larger containers.

So at the low end you'll break even after the first year. At the high end it's about two years.

Since most of us are in this for the long haul it's far less expensive to purchase salt and make our own.

 

[reeftank2510]

As long as you have to room to store a couple 50 gallon containers that would be the way to go. Although in my opinion 15-20 gallons every other week water change may not be necassary. I usually do about 20% every month and that seems to work well. If you are doing 40 gallons a month that is over 50% of water being changed.

 

[Phyl]

While you can pick up some "Natural Sea Water" (major brand packaged, not from area oceans), it isn't very commonly used. Many LFS mix their own saltwater, but most do that at closer to 1.022, last I checked. Better to pick up an RO/DI and mix it yourself. Then you know what brand of salt you're getting, what it's mixed to and what the TDS of the source water was. A small brut container or a 25g container (there's a guy on here that sells them with snap down lids from time to time) will due since you only will be doing 15g at a time. A 5g bucket for top off water (which you'd also want to be RO/DI) would be useful as well. Some of the LFS sell RO/DI for 50c/g if you need.

Good luck, and welcome to NJ!

 

[MikeNapoli]

+ 1 for the RO/DI unit and mixing it yourself.


Welcome to NJRC.

Here's some links.
RO/DI Unit - this is the same one I have and was recommended by club members a while back.


Take Your Pick - these are some examples of salt. Your LFS will have most of the popular ones. Instand Ocean, ReefCrystals, RedSeaCoralPro, and Seachem are all popular. I wouldn't bother asking which is the "best" cause you're gonna get about ten different answers. :-\ . I guess you can do the research here and figure what's best for your spacific needs.

Hope that helps.

Again, welcome.

 

[malulu]

or try a Cati-Ani unit (instead of RO/DI)... But make sure you check the water hardness reading before purchasing one...

i purchased a Cati-Ani unit and later on being annoying by the fact of my water hardness reading of 30+ (normal range less than 5), which causing the recharging of the unit more often than i expected to... so i sort of return the unit and back to the RO/DI route...

but after 2 months of being annoying with the slow drip rate of the RO/DI... i just re-pickup the Cati-Ani unit again (yesterday).

if you need more info for the Cati-Ani unit, check or post question here...
http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=11028.0

Welcome to NJRC!!
;D

 

[BobCReef]

Jon, where are You located. I visit Aquarium Center just about every week. Did i meet you there last week. Spoke to someone named john. Anyway the club meeting is at my house this saturday. Stop on by and meet some of the gang.
I use RO/DI. Do you have city water or a well. I have my unit hooked to a well. Don't want to pay for water i'm throwing away.

 

[Hawkeye]

OK I just moved to Jersey from San Francisco.

I had to read that twice...usually it's the other way around... ;D

I don't have much more to comment than what the others have stated - but I did want go say welcome!

 

[phish guy]

i work at the petco in Cherry Hill, we do sell premade saltwater. its like $5 for 5 gallons.

 

[onefish2fish]

i didnt see anyone touch on this so i thought id would.. make sure if your mixing your own salt water to do it in atleast a day in advance if not 2 or 3, with a powerhead and heater in the bucket as well.. sounds like common sense but i wouldnt want you dumping salt into water and adding your it to your tank if its not fully dissolved and mixed. welcome and goodluck