Water Replacement and Your Aquarium: Changes and Its Link to Success

A successful marine aquarium - what we wouldn't do or give to accomplish and master this feat. With so many factors needing to be considered in order to create and maintain the ultimate marine aquarium, there is nothing worse than to start off on the wrong foot. This, of course, has to do with setting up your tank, adding the water and cycling the tank. I have mentioned before in past articles, ways of going about it the right way through proper planning, allowance of time and gaining the know how. Their is one factor that will plague your tanks success and beauty time and time again and this is the use of sub-par water to replenish fresh water lost through evaporation in the form of a top-off. The other critical issue has to deal with using regular tap water for water changes. Tap water varies from town to town with some towns displaying downright terrible water. Your local water company can give you a good estimate as to what is actually in the water you are drinking and putting in your tanks. Many of these results can be frightening and leave a bad taste in your mouth literally.

The employment of regular tap water for top-offs and water changes is so critical to the overall beauty and health of a marine aquarium. So often we are behind the eight ball right from the start because we use regular tap water as a way of cutting corners and saving time. Regular tap water can wreck havoc to a tanks overall optimal water chemistry causing a glitch in the tanks symmetry through the introduction of rust, lead, chlorine, chloramine and other contaminants and pollutants spurring unwanted microalgae, silicates, diatoms and cyanobacteria growth. Then you must also comply with the harmful side effects that can rest with the livestock in your tank. Fish, invertebrates and coral are especially prone to disease, loss of color and other negative features provided by the use of regular tap water in a closed system environment.

Maintaining optimal water quality for your livestock in a closed system environment IS essential for long term success and the health of your living animals. Without proper water parameters, I can assure you that your tank will flounder. I don't know how, more appropriately, I can convey this to you, the importance of optimal water parameters, other than to take my word for it based on past experiences and that of notable and professional marine aquarists, so pertinent to the hobby, such as Fenner, Calfo, Borneman and Michael. It starts with water quality and trickles down to the various other components that affords us to sustain life in a captive environment successfully to be able to enjoy and appreciate this wonderful hobby.

The best way of achieving optimal water quality is to employ the use of a RO/DI filtration device, that can be attached to most sink or kitchen faucets. This reverse osmosis/ de-ionization device is ideal for human consumption as well as that of topping off tanks and performing water changes. Removal of iron, fluoride, nitrates, phosphates, contaminants and other impurities are brought about through the employment of an RO/DI filtration device.

Their are many suitable brands and types of RO/DI filtration devices on the market. The price associated with a particular unit is based on the GPD(gallon per day) and number of stages the unit contains. Most aquarists do not need a unit that makes more than 25-50 GPD, which will help you to save some money. The fact that water is very conducive to absorbing contaminants and other negative pollutants from the ambient atmosphere, care must be addressed when storing RO/DI water for any length of time. Proper storage of pure DE-ionized water should be in air tight containers for best success and a longer time period. Hi-S membranes, that coincide with the other filter media, adds to the removal of phosphates, silicates and heavy metals found in regular tap water.

The use of tap water without employing a RO/DI filter, which I do not advice, should be done with the use of a chlorine and chloramine remover as a way of riding unwanted elements from regular water. A phosphate reactor, use of carbon , and a fluidized sand bed all can aid in increasing optimal water levels.

You will feel that the removal of contaminants before they are introduced in to you main tank, thus allowed to be able to wreck havoc on tank water and its inhabitants. Think about it and truly, make the decision to add the best possible water to your tank and the living population within it. The few minutes of absurdity in adding water quickly without having to do anything other than fill a bucket of tap water from the sink and add it to the main tank, will cost somewhere down the line. So take these two issues and debate and try to balance these variables to correctly seek out the right choice.

Water, is so popular and makes up the largest volume in your aquariums so try to make it work right from the get go by filtering your water initially before adding it to your aquarium. Once the water has been added, carbon,and other filtration devices will help to maintain proper water levels, which if combined with a underpopulated tank can make your water, second to none, which your living animals will definitely appreciate and in full circle come back to bringing success that you will reap as a result of good water quality and clarity.