How do I do water changes w/no old aquarium?

[accidentalfan]

I have some Pulex and Magna, and I need to add water desparately, but have no established aquarium water to use.
How do I go about doing a water change?
Any advice or link would be very appreciated! Thanks.

 

[peterj]

I would dechlorinate as you do for fish etc and add the water. This should be fine for topping up. I don't do changes in my daphnia tubs, but I don't feed them much either (don't need high production). I just keep them in part sun with pond snails (gives green water/infusoria + daphnia) and syphon excess solids off the bottom when it builds up a lot (rarely).

 

[accidentalfan]

I need to add quite a bit, will that hurt?

Should I let it sit out over night or anything? I also have pressurized irrigation, would that work? I'm not sure if it has any metals or anything from traveling through pipes.
Good to know I can at least add a little if I need to. (I do) I don't do water changes, I worded that wrong, I just wanted to add some water. Almost 2 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket...is that too much?

 

[Abrahm]

If you are just topping off the water your tank lost to evaporation then it is best to use distilled water. When water evaporates it leaves all the minerals and other dissolved compounds behind. This leaves you with the same amount of dissolved things but less water to hold it. If you just add more tap water you are adding even more dissolved compounds and so over time your tank water has a lot of dissolved solids, far more than your tap water.

If you replace evaporated water with distilled water you are adding no dissolved compounds as distilled water has little to nothing in it besides water. This way you don't get a slow build up of minerals and other things.

 

[Jennewt]

I would say that you should be doing partial water changes, even if it's only removal of debris from the bottom. This will limit the extent of the dissolved solids buildup that Abrahm described.

Although distilled water would be ideal for replacing evaporated water, I think an occasional addition of tap water is OK. I do not recommend adding chemical dechlorinators, as I've heard they aren't good for invertebrates. And I also do not recommend just aging the water overnight because it usually takes longer than this to get the chlorine out. I would say any of the following options would work:
distilled or RO water
rain water
tap water that has sat out for at least a week (assuming you have chlorine, not chloramine)
tap water filtered through a Brita or Pur type drinking water filter

 

[accidentalfan]

What if I dechlorinate the water with drips, then leave it out 24hs? I'm all for buying some distilled water for now, but that will get expensive over time I think.
Do you have any suggestions for the irrigation water? It is not treated with chemicals, just pressurized.
Sorry for so many questions, I killed my last cultures and am very paranoid!
Thank you so much for your help!