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Saltwater Water Changes


kiwis

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Hi,

So I'm looking at starting a new 400-600 Litre salt water reef aquarium. I'll have a sump with this aquarium and a protein skimmer.

I know how much salt I'll need to get started from looking at the salt buckets at my local pet store.

I have what may possibly be a really stupid question.

How often will I need to do a water change?

On my tropical freshwater I do a weekly water change of 1/4. If it's the same that'll be a lot of salt and cost.

Thanks

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that'll be a lot of salt and cost.

Which is why many people collect water from the sea (boat ramps etc.)

I'm no expert on saltwater setups but in my experience with a good protein skimmer in your setup and no overfeeding then you can get away with less water changes than a freshwater setup.

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Waiwera / Hatfields/ Wenderholm :thup:

So do I need to do anything to do the water? I've read stuff from offshore forums around chlorinating the water then dechlorinating it... Is this true?

Can I keep the tropical salt water guys with this method?

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Collect from Hatfields, as Waiwera and Wenderholm have rivers right there with a lot of sediment and nutrients.

You'll need to bring down the salinity a bit with RODI water, countdown has 10L bottles called Pure Dew.

Don't bother with the chlorination, it's just another step you don't really need to take.

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Just a question. Do you, need to dose calcium, magnesium ect.. to the ocean water?

As with the salt mix you get cal and mg and trace elements in the salt so you dont need to spend as much on supplements.

If ocean water has all this I have wasted alot of time and money in the past haha :rolfl:

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on internationals forums am I hit with a big no no

Less pollution in New Zealand. People have been doing this for years

as to do you still need to if Natural salt water contains the correct amount of calcium, magnesium etc. In my opinion yes you do because the corals take up those elements as they grow and they need replacing so in order to get the best growth you need to dose to replace those lost elements.

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Just a question. Do you, need to dose calcium, magnesium ect.. to the ocean water?

As with the salt mix you get cal and mg and trace elements in the salt so you dont need to spend as much on supplements.

If ocean water has all this I have wasted alot of time and money in the past haha :rolfl:

yes you have :smln:

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  • 7 years later...

After reading a blog about how to make saltwater for aquariums, I made my own saltwater for my reef tank right away. For future or emergency use, I can store a 5 gallon or even a 100 gallon saltwater tank. When I want to add the saltwater, I just add a heater prior to using the salt water to bring the water up to a suitable temperature.

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