another water change post

[DustinKeating]

i had some saltwater kicking around in a bucket for a long time, i tested the salinity and it was cool and i know you're supposed to let water sit with the salt and what not to let it dissolve....used it to fill the 5% of the tank in the water that had evaporated. But when i did the clownfish started swimming really erratically, they seem back to normal now though.

Should i not have used that water?

Oh and i dechlorinated it too.

 

[aresgod]

should have been fine except if you are replacing evaporated water with salt water you are raising your salinity, so that might be what freaked them out

 

[KahluaZzZ]

water evaporate quickly, not salt. Test you tank salinity, not just the bucket

 

[KahluaZzZ]

i noticed too that if you mix the water + salt....take your time, cause the hydrometer result will be very much different like 5 mn after compared to 1 hour later. I use a powerhead or a fluval 304 filter's head to be sure it's mixed. If i just pour the salt into a filled bucket where there's an hydrometer, i could read like 1.022. Once mixed, really dissolved, it could show 1.26. Huge difference that could lead to a "salt-saturated" tank. Salt that isn't mixed well can burn corals 'cause there is a lot of particules still in the bucket.
Another thing : you can use a powerhead or pump to suck your new water to the tank. This will slowly adapt inhabitant to the newly mixed water, that can have a different salinity and temperature.

 

[yamahaguy06]

I have learned a lot about water changes since I came to this sight, but I have a question on just boosting your salinity a little bit. Can you just add salt strait to your tank, not to much just a little? I think I already know the answer but I used to do this (when I had no fish). This is bad huh.

gosh a fluval 304 to spin some water around kahluazzz, I like it.....

 

[1979camaro]

if you want to bump your salinity up your best bet would be to take out a little tank water into a bucket, add some extra salt (be careful not too add too much) and then put that back in the tank. you coudl calculate by volume how much to increase to reach your ideal....but since there is a fish you do need to go really slowly when changing salinity

 

[KahluaZzZ]

never put salt directly to your tank !
Yeah a 304 head is powerful...so the salt is quickly mixed