Most serious marine aquarists have a water mixing station. Even though we live in an age of nearly endless aquarium filtration options, water changes still rank as one of the best aquarium maintenance practices. They remove compounds like nitrate and phosphate, dilute waste and replenish trace elements absorbed by corals. Water changes are a key strategy for keeping a healthy marine aquarium. Water mixing stations make performing water changes easier and more convenient, while giving the aquarist the opportunity to have fresh saltwater on hand at all times. While water mixing stations are a necessity when keeping a marine aquarium, they can also become a hotbed for disease. Often the same utility pumps are used to move water from mixing stations into the tank, and the tools we use to help mix water (pitchers, powerheads, etc) have been exposed to both fresh saltwater and our aquarium’s water. Unless an aquarist is uber-vigilant in making sure pumps, water vats and other maintenance necessities never mix, than it’s quite possible that a water mixing station can also become a parasite and bacterial farm. Is there a simple additional step that can be taken when preparing saltwater that greatly reduces that chance that fresh saltwater may carry some very unwanted hitchhikers from a previous parasitic outbreak? Contamination:
Water mixing usually goes something like this: RODI water is created, being collected in a 32 gallon brute trashcan. Some of this water will be used to replenish that lost to evaporation, and the majority will be pumped into another vat, where it is heated and brought to appropriate salinity. In that period of time, it’s very possible that the aquarist can contaminate the newly mixed saltwater. They may dip a coral, using a pitcher to remove 1 gallon of water from the aquarium, then using the same pitcher to replenish that with a gallon of fresh saltwater from the mixing vat. If there is a parasite within the main aquarium, this is an opportunity for contamination. Often when a parasitic outbreak occurs, aquarists are in a rush to create freshwater, mix saltwater and move all infected species to a hospital tank. If you have a large reef, this can be especially chaotic as fish are removed, hospital tanks are set-up and treatments administered. Some aquarists opt for treatment with hypo-salinity, which means more chaos as it can take large amounts of freshwater to bring a marine tank into complete hypo-salinity.… More:
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