Water Changes

How do You do yours????

Im a bucket guy, but am looking for alternative methods and was just curious

450l tank

Pump dropped into tank and attached to a hose leading to a drain outside

Same pump is then cleaned and dropped into Rainwater butt outside and the 4m long hose clipped to side of tank.

Takes less than 30 min for a 450l tank (50% water change) - every weekend

Smaller tanks circa 90l:

Siphon Water out into a 25l bucket.

Bring Freshwater back to tank in bucket.

Attach Inlet of canister filter to the bucket.

Tank re-filled in no time.

Tigger,
As the winter kicks in, do you not worry about the drop in temp from the water butt outside to the tank inside?

Gavin

Syphon water into drain then fill with hose via mixer taps.

I like the rain water bunt idea especially with water charges comming in soon, but would worry about temp. and lack of hardness. I also like the idea of the syphon into the drain. I was looking at the python on youtube earlier. Anybody know if we can get a system like this here?

@lawrenceog Give David a call at Aquatics Online
www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/pyth...-5m-p1544-1192-x.asp

Thanks dude

That sure would make my life easier with water changes

Gavin

The capacity of the water butt is only 250 l so its not too bad. I have a spare 300 W heater suitable for the purpose.

At times on summer evenings, I have cheated and taken water directly from the Garden tap but the temp was around 17 deg C - nearly a 10 deg C difference between tap and tank.

Cheers

Abe

I use a big pump and a big wheelie bin

How i do it is i bring the bin in side turn on my RO unit and fill the big to the level i want

I then add my salt and power head and let mix for 48H

I then on the night off my water change put my big pump into my tank connected to a hose and bring out the back down the shore when this is finished i then start to refill

How i do my refill is i tale the hose off the pump leave that back outside i then bring my bin to the tank and add a different bit off hose and then pump into the bin and hose in the tank and turn on

Very easy and takes very little time best way to do it if you ask me

I was also a bucket man before i started this way and would never go back

Sean

to those who put the pump into the tank,how does that syphon the waste off the substrate??

i'm a bucket man and do a tank a night and do each tank at least once a week. when i get sorted i'll have a water resivoir to refill tanks.
on the big tank i'm gonna have a bulkhead and tap a few inches below water level that i can connect a hose to the inside also. because its below water level the syphon process will auto start and the inside hose will keep it going when water level drops below the bulkhead.. i can also use the inner hose to syphon the crap off the substrate... well thats the theory behind it anyways but i'll also be getting a 1000L rainwater catch tank for collecting rain water for this baby.

davey_c wrote:

to those who put the pump into the tank,how does that syphon the waste off the substrate??

i'm a bucket man and do a tank a night and do each tank at least once a week. when i get sorted i'll have a water resivoir to refill tanks.
on the big tank i'm gonna have a bulkhead and tap a few inches below water level that i can connect a hose to the inside also. because its below water level the syphon process will auto start and the inside hose will keep it going when water level drops below the bulkhead.. i can also use the inner hose to syphon the crap off the substrate... well thats the theory behind it anyways but i'll also be getting a 1000L rainwater catch tank for collecting rain water for this baby.

I can only speck for myself here Davey

But i have no need to as i have a lot off clean up crew in the tank that dose a good bit off that for me and also when i am doing it i move a powerhead lightly over all the sand just to get what the clean up crew didn't into the water column and then in the pump and out the back

Never had a issue by doing this and my sand is also spotless

Sean

450L: Weekly
I have a 5m length of 16/22mm hose (same as the hose on my jbl filter). I stick this out the window into a drain and siphon out the water to a mark on the side of my tank indicating a 33% change. As i use a sand substrate, i agitate the the stuff which causes all the gick to settle on the top while releasing any gasses built up under the sand. I then use the siphonic action of the hose to clean the substrate.
Then, I use a 1500/lph submersible pump in a water butt out the back containing pre treated water to refill the tank.

100L / 60L: Weekly
Using a standard gravel cleaner I remove about 30-40% of the water into buckets. Then i use the buckets to refill the tanks from the water butt out the back.

Jobs a good un.

aquaman what about the water temp dropping in your tank when you add water from water butt? Why and how do you treat rain water?
jim

Firstly, I get my OH to do as many water changes as I get her to do......saves me some time.

The method depends on the tank.

For smaller tanks or ones with fry, I use a simple scoop system using plastic tubs etc to scoop water and then replenished with newer water.
Siphoning would not be an option on most of these tanks as most have a peat substrate.

For larger tanks, it is simply buckets, a siphon, and then refill from a bucket.

For larger tanks still, the emptying is via siphon then newer water is pumped upwards into the tank using a powerhead due to the amount of water in the larger tanks or tanks needing massive water changes.

For Discus, however, where I have a substrate on the tank I have a modified method......firstly, I use a power gravel cleaning system (it hangs on the side of the tank and acts as an external filter as well) that cleans the gravel first before removing water.
That remains running whilst siphoning out water and when adding new water.
After the new water is added, I use the power cleaner to hoover up the gravel yet again......that removes any debris that discus are likely to chump upon.

The same goes for doing a major water change (ie with external power-filter cleaning) on tanks with grazers or predatory fish......ie the gravel is cleaned after the water change and floating crap from external filters is chased by the power vacuum cleaner.

Certain fish require a major job on every water change as the filters need cleaning each change with needing to use a tank divider during those operations.

ian

igmillichip wrote:

firstly, I use a power gravel cleaning system (it hangs on the side of the tank and acts as an external filter as well) that cleans the gravel first before removing water.

Is the power gravel cleaning system something you made yourself Ian or can you buy it? I'm intrigued, haven't heard of them before.

on the smallish tanks, 2' 3' and 4' standard sizes I just syphon out into a 25 litre bucket and refill using a garden hose through the window beside the tanks and i do it every 2-3 days on those tanks and remove about a third each time.
on the large tank with the angelfish and cupidos etc I syphon out about 10%, then start to refil using the garden hose and continue syphoning until i have removed down;eaving about 50=60 % of the tank water, then just let the tank refil from the hose, I do this every second day, i was giving that tank a 100-150 litre daily change but with it more heavily stocked now i find it better to do a larger change every second or third day, it takes about 20-25 minutes

Joemc,
When you refill with the hose how do you treat the tap water, or dont you bother?

hello Mike, sorry Ishould have mentioned that my water is supplied by a well in my garden, not mains treated water.

PompeyBill wrote:

igmillichip wrote:

firstly, I use a power gravel cleaning system (it hangs on the side of the tank and acts as an external filter as well) that cleans the gravel first before removing water.

Is the power gravel cleaning system something you made yourself Ian or can you buy it? I'm intrigued, haven't heard of them before.

I can't remember the brand, I'd have to get off my arse to look.

Gav (when at Wackers) sold these off to clear at one of the ITFS shows some years ago.....at a tenner each there was no competition. You couldn't even buy the tubing and wide gravel attachment for that.

I have found a link to a pic..... www.fish-fish-fish.com/aquarium-power-gr...aR2bMCFUqQ4QodEVwAEw

ian

Its the
AQUARIUM SYSTEMS POWER GRAVEL CLEANER
If I remember correctly Petra in Aquapaws used to have them

What are peoples thoughts on refilling from the waterbutt outside where the temp is far lower than the tank water ? Joe I know it never causes an issue for you...Id just be afraid firstly that the waterbutt water would be too cold and secondly the tap water (even if treated) would be too cold to add straight to the tanks.

Gavin

I have 2x 300W heaters in the 450 so the temp drop isnt too bad and doesnt last long. Also, i dont use rain water. I just use the water butt to store treated tap water (SeaChem Prime)

Ok but there is still the danger of the actual temperature drop on the fish.Ive added water before to a tank and lost 4 gorgeous rams within minutes of the water being introduced.It was the coldness of it..I was amazed as I only did say 20% of the tank. All other fish in the tank were fine...it was rather quick..the water been addded was fine except for the temperature.
Im curious as Im looking at doing a 500 litre tank soon and between the added cost of buying it, running it ,stocking etc..Id be happier to add from the tap instead of having to boil kettles all the time!

Gavin

Hey Fish tank folks,

There seems to be quiet a variety of methods employed by everybody, Interesting to see the different approaches keep them coming .

With regards to the python system, I have found a few alternative brands all basically the same idea but some cheaper than others

1. The Python (most expensive)

2. Aqueoun water changer

3. Marina aqua vac

4. JBL aqua in out

I Like the JBL system myself partially to do with price and partially to do with the online retailer that supplies it ( I use them from time to time 100% satisfaction plus it would be free P&P ) comes with 8 M hose that's just over 26ft. I do have a question though.

Since it would mean adding water to the tank and then conditioning it, would you A) add the required amount of conditioner just before you begin to refill, or add the required volume of conditioner in parts as it is refilling?

I had the JBL one but couldn't use it as my kitchen tap didn't had one of those screw in type ends so had to sell it. I remember from the instructions that the whole amount of tank water needs to be treated, not only the percentage of new water and I'd say is better to add the whole amount of conditioner as you start to refill.

What I do is siphon 50% of water in a bucket then let the pump from my wheelie bin do the refill. I don't treat the water, just fill the bin one night before the water change is due, the next day I let the pump running in the bin to circulate the water while I bring the water to the required temperature with boiled water.

@Fishowner

Gavin

Have you given a thought to putting a 300W heater/1 MW pond heater in the rainwater butt/tank?

That should resolve the temp difference issue.

Abe

I have a 550 litre tank and a 300 liter tank.

The 300 gets a 50% change every week and the 550 gets a 50 % and a 25% a week - have a lot of very messy fish.

I syphon out the water into buckets while cleaning the substrate and chuck this outside.

I then refill using buckets from a water butt that has been treated with Easy Life. I also place a 300W heater in the butt the night before a change.

Using buckets to refill is pretty quick but have to get my finger out and look into using a pump in the water butt.

Ski wrote:

I have a 550 litre tank and a 300 liter tank.

The 300 gets a 50% change every week and the 550 gets a 50 % and a 25% a week - have a lot of very messy fish.

I syphon out the water into buckets while cleaning the substrate and chuck this outside.

I then refill using buckets from a water butt that has been treated with Easy Life. I also place a 300W heater in the butt the night before a change.

Using buckets to refill is pretty quick but have to get my finger out and look into using a pump in the water butt.

the IMF will love you when water rates hit

Yeah I know. Will have to see what happens there

I thought this might be of interest.