I'm looking at getting a 100ishL container for mixing ASW in in the next few days, and when I was looking at things it occurred to me... Should the container be opaque so as not to let the sun on the water?

Also.. Gloves. Everything I've read says you should always use gloves in marine tanks, which makes sense. Does anyone have a recommendation of decent gloves and where to get them from?

Danke muchly in advance

Container colour is not really an issue unless you are storing the water long term in a light area. One thing to consider is do you need to move the container when it is full? If so 100 litres will be a little heavy. 50 litre home brew barrels are excellent. Big screw on lid so you can get in there and clean it out if need be. Get a heater and a powerhead for stirring.

As for gloves, a lot of books recommend them but I don't think many people use them. My pearl bubbles sting the bajeeezus out of my hand everytime I clean the glass so gloves would stop that but since I am not soft I can take it.

Well the container is going to be on the balcony, so will get sun.. plans are to mix 100L at a time (100L container, go figure ), and use it from there, topping up/re mixing when needed.

The powerhead I have for mixing it will easily pump water from the container to the tank (I've used it for such before ), so that's all good in terms of not having to move the container.

Temperature wise, I found that changing 10% in that tank when it was freshwater straight out of the hose dropped the tank temp maybe 0.5 of a degree.. is this a big issue for saltwater - I'm happy to run a heater in the container before changing if it is.

Thoughts?

Half a degree, I wouldn't worry about it.

is this a big issue for saltwater -

No problem at all, sometime a water change will change my tank by 2C.

You will have problems if your tank is not in good shape as any more stress could cause whitespot,

Cool..

So.. no gloves (be a man lol), and temp is cool..

And I shall find an opaque container just to be safe

unless you have pasty girlie "anglo saxon" skin :lol: , then you shouldn't have a prob with salt .... or stings either..... 8)

The gloves are not for you dude! They're to stop your hands contaminating the water, and keep the livestock happy :lol:

Think about all that deoderant, food residue, fly spray, grease, or whatever you've been touching.

The gloves are not for you dude! They're to stop your hands contaminating the water,

whatever you've been touching.

hmmmm .....ok :lol:

one of my mates was getting nuissance algae in hi tank, from an opaque storage (approx 100L) of DI water, the container was in the garage and got very little sunlight.

Just put a black rubbish bag over it, this will warm it up aswell

Ben

Why would putting a black rubbish bag over an opaque container make a difference? There's no light getting in anyway.