Water changes

[finestbeast]

So sometime next week I plan on adding my 1st fish after the cycle (only had some snails and crabs so far) to my 35 gal hex...with that I know i will need to do a water change. I have purchased two orange buckets from home depot and was planning on removing 3-4 gallons. The nite before I was going to pre-mix 3-4 gallons in the other bucket and let it sit over nite? Is this a good idea or do you suggest something else?

 

[Aquarian]

If by letting it sit you mean with a power head and a heater then that is fine

 

[finestbeast]

So you need both or is there a way to change without it? I havent purchased extra ones as of yet...or would you suggest that I pre-mix the day of...

 

[Klavis]

In my opinion you could get away with not having the heater for only a 10% change as long as your room temperature isnt drastically lower or higher than the tank but I would not go without a powerhead in the bucket. The power head does a number of things for the water... it keeps it oxygenated and will help to mix the salt more evenly. Though not required for a lot of salt mixes id recommend mixing the salt and leaving the power head running for at least 12 hours preferably 24. In that time frame your salt will have mixed well to get an accurate reading from your refractometer and the salt will have had plenty of time to bring the ph of the water to a safe level. Though rare it is possible for salt to not balance out the ph properly which will result jn a drastic change in your display tanks ph which could be catastrophic to your tank inhabitants. I learned this the hard way so dont make the same mistake!

 

[finestbeast]

So at minimun your saying move one of my powerheads to the transfer bucket the day prior the water change...makes sense...the temp should be around the some especially now (its almost may and my house is out 76-79 anyone on normal days)....

 

[Klavis]

Correct that would be fine. And you can look at getting a cheap powerhead to use strcitly for water changes in the future so you dont have to remove on from your display especially since you wont want to at all once you have fish in it. I recommend the Marineland maxi jets personally. Very cheap and quite reliable.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4586+23760&pcatid=23760