questions from a beginner

[spardoin]

I did my first water change last week and it is time to do another. My tank is not 10 weeks old and all readings from the LFS have been perfect. My nitrates were a tiny bit elevated during the last visit so it was recommended that I do my first water change and begin doing so regularly now. A few questions in regards to this and other things.
1) Do I need to heat the water that I am placing into the tank?
2) Before taking water out, should I stir up the bottom sand in order to get rid of more waste?
3) I have a zoanthid up fairly high in the tank, will it be okay if it goes beneath the water line?
4) My tank is still pretty sparse in regards to coral and I was wondering if anyone new of a frag trade that would be going on that I might be able to attend and purchase some from people who know what they are doing, but offer frags at a lower price than I purchase them at LFS.

Thank you for the advice. Reading these forums are helping me to become a bit more knowledgeable although I still obviously know next to nothing.

 

[stacy22]

1) New water should be the same as the temp of the old that you are removing from the tank. This is especially true for smaller volume tanks.
2) Do not stir up your sand bed. This could release some nasties. Some people do use the vacuum hoses and remove detritus from the substrate without putting so much in the water column.
3) The zoanthid should be ok out of water for a few minutes. People take them out all the time to frag them.
4) The ARC's annual frag meet will be next month. Look for a thread around the end of January with details. Also, you can find "for sale" threads here regularly where people are selling what they trim. Check out forum post count requirements to see how you can participate in these threads.

Welcome to ARC!

 

[spardoin]

so what do most people do to ensure the same water temperature. Do you stick a heater in the water to be added? Could I just remove the heater from the tank and place it in the replacement water before taking the old water out?

 

[rdnelson]

Not sure what your tank size is but here is what I do on mine. I have a 45 gal tank with about 12 gal in the sump. I mix a 5 gal bucket of salt water at least one day in advance. I have a very small cheap heater and a cheap power head that I put in the bucket and leave it over night. That mixes the salt completely and brings the water up to temp. By the way, the salinity will change based on the temp so if you mix it to say 1.024 in cold water than bring the water up to temp you may actually have a much higher specific gravity. Hope that helps.

 

[cr500_af]

spardoin;721475 wrote: so what do most people do to ensure the same water temperature. Do you stick a heater in the water to be added? Could I just remove the heater from the tank and place it in the replacement water before taking the old water out?

Pick up a spare heater and use it... it can take a couple of hours to heat water, and you don't want to let your reef's temp fall for that long. Stability is super important, not only in water parameters but in temperature. Swings are tolerable, but they need to be as slow as possible... if you let the tank cool, and then add the warm, new water to it then you could be warming your tank up fairly quickly depending on a few factors... the ambient temp, the size of the water change you're doing and so on.

Plus, I've learned the hard way that you always want a spare working heater on hand... you don't get advance notice when one is going to quit on you, and Murphy told me that it will always be at the time when you aren't able to run out and buy one on the spot.

 

[basscyn]

stacy22;721474 wrote: 1) New water should be the same as the temp of the old that you are removing from the tank. This is especially true for smaller volume tanks.
2) Do not stir up your sand bed. This could release some nasties. Some people do use the vacuum hoses and remove detritus from the substrate without putting so much in the water column.
3) The zoanthid should be ok out of water for a few minutes. People take them out all the time to frag them.
4) The ARC's annual frag meet will be next month. Look for a thread around the end of January with details. Also, you can find "for sale" threads here regularly where people are selling what they trim. Check out forum post count requirements to see how you can participate in these threads.

Welcome to ARC!

Yep +1
What he said.

Welcome:up:

Edit:

BASSCYN;721513 wrote: Yep +1
What he said.

Welcome:up:

I mean...SHE said