mixed water storage

Kat

Reefing newb
I was thinking about mixing my saltwater in batches and keeping it in gallon water jugs, is it ok to store it cold with no powerhead and just warm what I need? is there a storage time limit?
 
I make all my water up at one time. I store so much in one gallon milk jugs and some in 5 gallon salt buckets. I usually have enough made up to last me two weeks. I just make sure I put the old up front and new in back. I use to use a garbage can until it got a leak. That's why I went to the gal jugs.
 
The larger the tank the less you have to worry about things like the oxygen content of the stored water used or the temperature or bacteria levels. The smaller the water the greater effect the low oxygen level water will have. Your talking about a 14 gallon tank. Unless your only talking about a half gallon or gallon at most being changed at one time I would aereate the awter and warm it slowly for at least a day before its use. Still water is not going to have a very high oxygen content and heating the water quickly will drive off what little oxygen is there. Stored water should preferably be kept with a circulating pump running in it, whether mixed with salt or not, with small containers an airsone should be dropped in for a day. If nothing else consider the water has nothing in it to inhibit bacterial growth as there is no chlorine or chloramine in it, therefore it's bacterial growth has used what ever dissolved oxygen is available to grow or to even survive. Adding this water to your tank without aereating it will mean a lowering of tank dissolved oxygen levels, a probable temporary lowering of the pH and possibly some calcium carbonate precipitation. The sooner you develop good reefing habits the quicker you can sucessfully keep corals and some of the less hardy but typically more beautiful fish.
 
Thank you very much fatman, I never thought about some of those factors. I have been reading alot of books but none of them give detailed information about storing water.
 
I do 2 gallon water changes once a week. I was considering mixing about five gallons at a time, storing it in gallon containers and the night before my water change putting two gallons in a bucket with a heater and powerhead. would this replace any oxygen loss? the five gallon batch is a gallon over two weeks supply. does this sound like a good plan? also sometimes I do a gallon water change twice a week.
 
Sounds pretty good, keeping a small power head in the five gallon container all the time would also be a good idea. Thats only talking 10 to 20 watts for a little power head..
 
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