storing saltwater in a sealed plastic bucket

[ibanez2k]

I have been mixing my WC water for my 10g nano in a standard 5 gallon plastic bucket. I mix 3 gallons but only use a gallon at a time (I do regular frequent WCs every week). After I use the water I'm going to for the WC I seal the bucket up with it's lid and store it. After a few days though I've noticed the water will smell pretty bad (I'm guessing a combination of the saltwater and the plastic bucket). Is this normal? Is the water OK? How long can saltwater be sealed up and stored in a bucket after it's mixed? I heat it up to 76F and stir it up real good to aerate it before I do the WC. It doesn't readily appear that any of my tank inhabitants really care. I'm using RO water and Instant Ocean Reef Crystals for the mix FYI. Any advice? Thanks!

[brandon429]

I have kept mine premixed for weeks and weeks inside the standard blue plastic bottles, so that smell may be some leachate from the plastic itself which also may be unharmful, where switching to other bottles may remove it, or it could be the gaseous form of items that precipitated or changed form upon mixing into solution and then when you put the lid on it all of it was held stagnantly until you refreshed it. I'm sure if you test your buckets by keeping one sealed and then one vented from time to time you'll know, there's no reason for that smell to keep coming back after being vented a few times, that's plastic leaching if that happens.

Cool you are from Douglas AZ. In the 90's we tore into that place, the police department of AP border zone is a mighty scary place to get into legal trouble, I really miss all that fun stuff./ we were from playas nm so douglas was like going to the big city for us country kids in about 91

[ibanez2k]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, we've been here in Douglas about 2 years now. We like it. Except there's nothing around here for saltwater aquariums. Either have to drive 2 hours to Tucson or order online. I like online mostly.

[YLChik]

can you toss a power head in there to keep things stirred up while you are waiting to use it... that might help.

[omerojs]

Hey guys... i am really new to salt water... that new that i am still looking for the tank... lol... well i am thinking on a 10 ~ 20 gallon tank with a 5 ~ 10 gallon sump... and my wife has been a bit annoying so i wanted to give her a pico reef (2.5g)with maybe a shrimp and a few corals... i think i will start with the pico first, so i was reading the forums and i noticed that there is a lot of water change involved weekely on this things, and i wanted to know about storing salt water... and i saw this post... could you guys tell me what are the main things to take care when storing salt water for the pico? and for how long can i store it?

[Reeftanker3295]

Well id only do like 1 gallon water changes a week so i dont think storing will be that hard. I think if you clean out a gallon jug then fill it to the very top and close it to prevent evaporation and put it somewhere where the plastic wont melt in the sun and you should be able to store it that way

[jenglish]

I like to keep the SW at temp and moving with either a powerhead or an airstone. It will keep quite a long time. Of course if it is in the sun it can start to grow algae... maybe other micro-organisms regardless of storage. I have actually had SW in an open container for over a month being topped off and it was still ok. I would not advise this since the chance of getting things in it like aerosols. But I did it and it was fine that instance.