Sidebar: Water Changes and Top Offs
Small and steady wins the race.
....or now I know how to make tequlia.
1. Top Off: Evaporation, we know what it is but can we fully articulate the process in plain Inglush. You are in New Yawk city during the Monday morning rush hour in a metro train. Packed in like sardines, the people in the back still have a while before they hit their stop.They are more relaxed or cooler then the people who are by the doors whose stop is next. There is a lot of bumping and grinding as train transport is not the smoothest ride in the world.
The train comes to a stop and the doors open. You know what happens, a bunch of people get off the train, yet today no one is getting on the train at this particular stop. Leaving the train less full then it was and its occupants cooler as a result. This also explains the cooling process of evaporation. Well when salt water evaporates, only water (the people) vaporizes (gets off) from the tank (the train). Salt stays in solution, but since there now is less water, it's concentration becomes larger. Yes, there is saltcreep, but not enough to keep the balance of the sg in regards to evaporation. What it all means to us is that we need to add fresh water into our tanks to keep our tank's sg to remain stable. I buffer my fresh water. Thats just me, some do some don't. I use only R/O for top off's. It's good enough for gub'nit work. Some use a kalkwasser drip as they're top off during the night to stabilize both their pH and calcium levels. If you never used Kalkwasser I implore you to read up and talk to salty dogs on this particular subject. You could seriously turn your tank into the Frankenstein monster if this process is mismanaged.
How you top off is up to you. If you have a constent amount of evap everyday, You could invest in auto top off system, or DIY one. Kent makes a low-tech doser that looks like a hospital drip bag. Set it up at night with the known amount of FW and go with a slow drip. I have about 16-32 oz's of evap so I take my plastic cup, fill it up and pour it in the sump. If you have a sump, it makes for good husbandry to always do water changes and top offs in there.
2. Water Changes: If I were the supreme ruler of the universe I would have 3 commandments for my meek followers I. Be nice to the police. II. Though shalt not view The View III. Water Change, Water Change and Water Change. Why most excellent one, shall we change water? The nano as stated in this piece quite a few times before is subject to quick disaster, less water volume= less stability. In order for you to err on the side of your marine inhabitants safety it's vital that we take out some of the old and "refresh" the tank with an equal part of new SW. Serves a twofold purpose: Taking out some of the old, we export some of the nutrients that if left to compound would bring about a horrible, suffering and painful death to your critters. By adding the new we replenish essential major, minor and trace elements that are used by your tank mates. Plus you end up diluting nutrients. A cheap example, my uncle espoused healthy eating habits and since he did not have his on kids til later on in life, he chose to torture my sister and I. My favorite chicken soup is Mrs.' Grass. Yeah the one w/the golden egg. Well it has a "chicken flavoring" packet that is basically made up entirely of salt. The directions clearly state boil four cups of water and add egg, noodles and the entire contents of the packet. Well, my uncle in retrospect was right, but only using a half packet was criminal. It tasted like my grandma's borscht. Meaning no taste what so ever. We keep this up and we will lower our NO3 levels over the course of a year. I am of the camp who like a little 'trate in my tank. As of today, it'll be a month ago I bought a xenia frag, single-stalk with 6 polyps. Now it's 6 STALKS w/numerous polyps. Anyone on the NW side of Chicago need xenia????
Our overall goal in the nano tank for amount of water changed in a month is 30% of total water volume. 10 gallon tank, 3 gallons. Unlike the big kahuna tanks that could get away w/a monthly change, the schedule is 10% a week. Wait that would be 40% a month....have courage Willow, better to err on the side of caution. This can be done on say the same day every week knocking out two hours that day. With that amount changed you want the parameters equal to what your tank is. I say, too much work. I'm doing 2% percent daily and taking the weekends off. Once you get into a routine it'll take you less then 10 minutes a day. The best thing is that w/such a smaller volume added, pH and temp are no worries. Yes, according to article by Randy Holmes-Farley, the smaller changes get rid of nitrate just about as well as larger monthly changes. And you are replenshing elements that are used by the critters or taken out of the picture by carbon and/or skimming.
The polish/ukranian or "pukie" method of the jiffy change. A. 5 gallon container of premade sw. shake it up like your having a seizure for a minute, set down. B. Taking your two plastic "beer" cups make sure to do your FW top off if needed. Use the wet cup after the top-off and take out predetermined amount of tank water. In my case 32 ozs. C. Take the unused cup and siphon or pour the new water and dump in da sump. Close up all containers and clean out (rinse only) your cups. Wallah, all done, no stress to the fishies and you do tend to see them with a lil mo' pep in their step.
If you need to change the sg gravity for any reason, the smaller amounts will do it safely. Need to increase it, Use sw as 1/2 of your top off. Need to lower do your top off and with the water change add FW as1/4-1/2 of your new SW. Have fun kiddies, the Cubbies are up 4-1 in the bottom of the 7th. Mike.
