Most defiantly it’s cold water and should always be hooked up to cold water,the best thing to do his get a brand new container or a few clean buckets,most of us have trash and with storage water y and store a few gallons so it will be room temp and that won’t affect anything when you topoff
to keep it simple, you’re going to make water in to a 5g bucket. Put a small heater in the bucket after you get an inch of water. Leave the heater in the bucket while you add and mix your salt. After 24 hours you can remove the heater and the water should me close to what’s in your tank. Because you’re only adding a small quantity of water to the tank it doesn’t have to match perfectly, just get it close.
i am assuming you are referring to an aquarium heater? That will be ok in a plastic bucket?
Yes, an aquarium heater, just a small one. They will be fine in a plastic bucket, they won’t get hot enough to melt it or anything.
Are you going to be able to make the meeting this month? Might be good for you to be able to meet some people and discuss some of your questions in more detail. Not to mention free food and raffle goodies (including a gift certificate to AWI)
Here’s a good article:
http://successfulreefkeeping.com/learn/salinity-mixing-saltwater/
and a good video on how to install an RO/DI unit:
not sure if I will be able to make it to the meeting or not. It would be nice to. I will see if I can swing it. I am really in to setting up the RO/DI system. Nitrates are high in my tap water and I really wasnt looking to haul buckets back and forth from the LFS. Just not sure how I want to set it up.
Your idea with the 5 gal bucket and small heater, how well does that work for doing water changes? Dont you have to take out 20% for a monthly water change?
Get a trash can on wheels from depot and its easy,put however much water you need if its more then a bucket or 2,and mix water that way,I also use a small powerhead to mix the water and it also heats the water some,I normally mix my water the day before the water change