the art of making salt water

[bonsai411]

I am having all sorts of headaches everytime I do a water change.

My local fish store tells me not to use tap water and to premix the salt in another container first. If I cannot use tap water, what alternatives do I have?

He also mentioned he could sell me salt water in 5 gal. containers for 45 cents/gal., is this worth it?

If I do premix, how do I get the water into the tank considering the tank sits high, sucking-through-tube is fine when getting water out since it's on a decline, but getting it in doesn't work.

There's got to be an easier way to tackle my water changing methods, any suggestion?

 

[phantomfe3]

i would say buying the saltwater in 5 gal containers for 45 cents a gallon is a damn good deal, because if you cant use tapwater, youd have to use distilled and de-ionized water (which is the same thing, just different name) and if you go to the grocery store look how much it is for a gallon of distilled water, i dont know right off hand but i doubt you could get one for 45 cents! not to mention the salt. i wish my LFS did that, thats how i would get all my water.

45 cents a gallon is a good deal, i say go for it

 

[aresgod]

you can also buy a reverse-osmosis machine which does the same thing, about 100-150$ on ebay but they make up t o 75 galllons a day and at 45C/gal that will eventually add up, mix, get a bunch of 5 gal buckets to premix in, they are great i have 10 of them and they make it soo much easier, there are a bunch of ways to get the water out of the bucket, pump it out using a power head or sump, you and lift the bucket up and slowly poor in(depending on how deep your tank is) or you could build a stand to hold 5 gal buckets that is higher than your tank adn just siphon it out, hope this helped
Brahm

 

[TurbineSurgeon]

Phantom-
Distilled an de-ionized water are not the same. De-ionization uses synthetic resins to remove cations and anions from water. Distillation uses heat and/or vacuum to evaporate the water into vapor, which is then cooled and returns to a liquid state. Distillation equipment often is comprised of a lot of copper tubing. The possible copper content makes distilled water a risky alternative.

I used to use bottled "Drinking Water" from the supermarket. I got it in 2.5 gallon containers for about a buck (it's been a few years since I went salty, so I'm not sure how much it is now). It was municipal water that had been treated with reverse-osmosis, ozone, and carbon.

As for mixing it, I would strongly recommend getting a single container that can handle the entire batch you have to make up. I bought 2 x 33 gallon plastic trash cans from the dollar store. One was for "clean" water, the other for "dirty" water. I put a heater, powerhead, and a couple of airstones in it and mixed it the day before a water change.

Then I would siphon water out of the tank into the "dirty" water trash can until the levels matched. I have an Otto PH1200 powerhead that I attached a length of vinyl tubing to a screw-on outlet connector that comes with it. Screw it on, plug it in, and fill it up

 

[wayne]

How big a tank? Your shopowner seems to think your tapwater is rubbish, which if you live in a large metropolitan area it probably is. It contains too much nitrate, phosphate, metals blah blah blah.
If you have a small tank and are only making changes to 5 gallons for example you might decide to do what he says. Hopefully it's guaranteed. You have to worry about getting it home (for gods sake down spill a bucket of salt water in the car!). You should also check his SG - many shops keep their SG's low, an especial problem if you have inverts. You don't have to worry about the upfront expense of an RO unit either. Also if you have a small tank stop moaning about shifting the stuff and get on with it -I use a litre pot.
If you have a big tank however, so you're regularly changing 10 gallons, 20 gallons plus it becomes more efficient to make your own water which for you might well mean getting an RO. Have you had your tapwater analysed - you might want to , or at least get a report from your water company. The RO itself is one cost, so will water be if you're metered. To get the stuff in get a small spare powerhead, add long hose, put in water storage and pump.

 

[dbacksrat]

i'm fearing i have to buy my water too---my water is full of heavy metals--the powerhead method is ingenious--try a hagen aquaclear 402 powerhead (has reverse flow) for smaller tanks, or an 802 for bigger ones, also use 5/8 inch air tubing for the transfer of water

 

[fishandchips]

thats a damm good idea wayne
had the the same problem getting the new water in my tank. i will try the powerhead next time