the art of making salt water

[bonsai411]

I read the post about beach and wanted to also add to the Q and A's . . .

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.

He also mentioned he could sell me salt water in 5 gal. containers for 45 cents/gal., is this worth it? It may come from the ocean, but living in FL, the water here I imagine is pretty clean, altough I am not sure. He keeps thousands of $$ worth of merchandise (looks pretty good), so I guess the water is good.

However, 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?

At 45 cents / gal., sea water sounds pretty good, not sure if it's worth it though. Wanting some opinions. Thanks in advance.

[irabren]

[QUOTE=bonsai411]I read the post about beach and wanted to also add to the Q and A's . . .

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.

He also mentioned he could sell me salt water in 5 gal. containers for 45 cents/gal., is this worth it? It may come from the ocean, but living in FL, the water here I imagine is pretty clean, altough I am not sure. He keeps thousands of $$ worth of merchandise (looks pretty good), so I guess the water is good.

However, 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?


You can buy it pre-mixed at the LFS or mix it yourself. Keep a rubbermaid can by the tank- mix ro or distilled water with the salt ( best is oceanic salt ) Get specificgravity to 1.023-1.025 ( check it with a refractometer). Don't use tap water.
Put a powerhead and heater in the rubbermaid can. Let mix and stand for 24 hours before you add it to tank .You add it by attaching vinyl tubing to the powerhead and run tubing to the tank - and it pumps it in- or you can use a separate pump like viaqua or hagen or mag pumps. Type of pump depends on height you need to pump it up .
Hope this helps