Fresh Top-off Water

[djmatthewblack]

I got a new tank and it seems important to keep freshwater in it so the filter keeps working. I just use tap water during changes and throw in some prime or whatever. But should I buy jug of water, how should I go about getting fresh top-off water? For some reason I can't figure this out.

[PhishPhreek]

Houston Tap water hardness is 200+
when the water evaporates, only the water leaves, the hardness and the Nitrates remain in the tank and continue to build up.
It is better to do partial water changes than to just top off the tank.

I prefer to put the tap water in a storage tank (trash can / barrel etc) add dechlor and polish it (run a circulating pump air pump or filter) for a day or two untill the temp, pH ect. is the same as the tank I plan on doing a water change with.

[morphlizard]

I never top off. A tank that needs to be topped off probably needs a water change. I installed an RO unit under my kitchen sink.. and I don't think that I could get by without it!

[djmatthewblack]

Installing an RO unit isn't an option being a renter. My tank is 90 gal running understocked and over filtered. I was doing water changes on my 35 gal. bi-weekly, so once this is stabilized I am hoping to only have to change the water monthly. I am just worried that if water stops going over the top of the bulkhead, that the filter could go dry. I've never worked with this kind of setup and I don't want any, at least minimal hard lessons learned. The light is pretty high powered and I am wondering if enough water will evaporate to stop the flow.

[Zulaab]

What kind of fish do you keep ?
You are saying water line below the bulkhead ? You are using a wet/dry ?
If its a wet/dry then shut down the pump, pull 50% of the water out, fill it back up and once you are close to the topping off the tank, start the wet/dry again and let it fill the rest of the tank up. Then watch the wet/dry and as water level rises to the "water fill line" in the wet/dry stop putting water in.

If you keep African's they like hard water, so it not such a big deal to top off the water, but if you keep south american's then you are better off with doing water changes, because they like the softer water. Now understand that most SA's can and will live in the Houston Tap water, so this is only something you have to deal with if you have really sensitive fish.

[eklikewhoa]

You could easily run a gravity feed top-off if you are using a wet/dry.

I do 2x 100% water change a week and cannot agree with the others about not needing topping off in between. I lose about 3g between water changes due to open top, lighting and massive surface agitation and I use carbon filtered water or RO/DI which I keep in 5g square water containers.

Also depending on what kind of return pump you are running you could get an elbow for the pumps intake (if submerged) and have it draw water closer to the bottom of the wet/dry to give it a bit more margin of error. With this I am able to let my PC300 run down to about a gallon of water and still function properly.

[djmatthewblack]

The bulkhead draws water off 3 levels. It will probably be fine cause the inside chamber is at about half the tank water level. I am sure I am going to get bored at how ridiculously low the maintenance is on this one than running 3 tanks. I am using a can filter pump, Rena Xp4. Could I run an RO filter externally or through hoses? That would be convenient and I can take it with me when I move. It is mostly South American, tetra, angels, cories.

[eklikewhoa]

You can have the RO/DI set up either tapped through the sink and just leave the fittings blocked off when you leave or you can have it set up where it hooks up to the spout of the sink.

[Bogdan]

In my 90G I don't change water at all only top it off with RO water (about 4G/week).

[djmatthewblack]

Is that much evaporating Bogdan?
Ek - Do they sell those type of RO filters at Home Depot? I think I've seen them before.

[eklikewhoa]

They sell them there but you can find much cheaper on ebay or online.

You don't need a super fancy one.