water change tips and tricks

[eitakppurk]

Hey everyone,

I was interested in hearing some of your methods for streamlining and hastening the water change process (especially those with multiple tanks). I'm leaving on a two month Arctic expedition this summer ( ) and will be leaving this fun job to my husband. I want to make it as easy as I can on him because I feel bad making him spend an hour lugging buckets around every week. I am going to be downsizing, also thinking I can get a longer tube for my siphon that I can run to my sink, but not sure on the refilling process. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Marty]

Are the tanks located in the basement or non carpeted area?

[Regalblue]

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[Ron]

If the arctic expedition is anything like an antarctic expedition, it should be a great time. I haven't gone personally, but a friends wife went and judging from the pictures and stories, it was one heck of a great experience!

I've found the following works well for me.
1. Submersible pump attached to a garden hose to remove water
2. Same garden hose attached to a threaded faucet to refill. I use a ball valve to turn the water on/off from the hose at the tank. The threaded end of an old watering wand attached to the end to disperse the flow into the tank (drill holes in the end to increase flow as needed).

[mibwb]

If you have city water, the just fill from faucet doesn't work. I know a guy that has  barrels in his basement and fills them with water. He treats the water in them and has a pump to pump water out of them in it and a heater. He uses a pump with a hose to pump water from tanks down to his drain in basement. Runs the hose with shut off valve from a barrel in basement to upstairs to fill tanks.

[eitakppurk]

Are the tanks located in the basement or non carpeted area?

Hardwood floors (first floor)

[eitakppurk]

If you have city water, the just fill from faucet doesn't work. I know a guy that has  barrels in his basement and fills them with water. He treats the water in them and has a pump to pump water out of them in it and a heater. He uses a pump with a hose to pump water from tanks down to his drain in basement. Runs the hose with shut off valve from a barrel in basement to upstairs to fill tanks.

Yeah, that was going to be my next question - how do I treat the water if it's coming straight from the tap? Looks like what you're proposing would be the best option aside from the fact that I'll have a big garbage can in the office...

[eitakppurk]

If the arctic expedition is anything like an antarctic expedition, it should be a great time. I haven't gone personally, but a friends wife went and judging from the pictures and stories, it was one heck of a great experience!

I'll be cooped up in a tiny chemistry lab on a coast guard icebreaker most of the time, but I still intend to have a phenomenal time!

[jkeeler]

If you have city water, the just fill from faucet doesn't work. I know a guy that has  barrels in his basement and fills them with water. He treats the water in them and has a pump to pump water out of them in it and a heater. He uses a pump with a hose to pump water from tanks down to his drain in basement. Runs the hose with shut off valve from a barrel in basement to upstairs to fill tanks.

Yeah, that was going to be my next question - how do I treat the water if it's coming straight from the tap? Looks like what you're proposing would be the best option aside from the fact that I'll have a big garbage can in the office...

I fill directly into tank and add prime.  I believe many people do this method. 
I also use a pump with hose to drain and second hose that i exclusively use for refilling. 

[Stan M.]

x2

[eitakppurk]

So the chlorine won't affect the fish as long as it's primed right away?

[Marty]

I wouldn't recommend doing that in small tanks, the chlorine could kill the beneficial bacteria.

If you have a way to drain your old water on the same floor as your tanks (think laundry tub) and you have a clear, non carpeted pathway, I would go to Home Depot and get a Rubbermaid 44 gallon Brute garbage can along with the wheels (this is a disc that screws onto the bottom of the can).  Then get a submersible pump, like a Mag 12 or 18, and attach about 8' of hose to the discharge side.  You can now rapidly drain your tanks into the garbage can with the pump, and drain the water out of the can into the tub without carrying buckets.

You can then refill your can with fresh water by either attaching a short garden hose to the laundry tub spigot, or have the water running into a bucket and again use the submersible pump to fill the garbage can.  This will also allow you to dechlorinate the water prior to pumping back into the tank.

[mibwb]

I've learned to use to different hoses. One to drain and one to fill. As with the same reasoning why wouldn't you use two different trash cans(barrels) the same way? One for dirty water, one clean. I do this with buckets, dirty ones, clean ones. This method would save on fish...if some thing happened in one tank (before it was noticeable) you would have spread it to other tanks by using a container for dirty and clean as well as using one hose for filling and draining. Hard lesson learned....not forgotten.
For treating water I used Prime...but the water I get lately (City of Flint River water)...on suggestion, I now use Kordon Pond AmQuel Plus and Kordon Pond NovAqua Plus. My fish are doing much better and the water tests better. I was using RO system. But with needing so much water, was too expensive to use. But may go back to RO and use waste water on garden. My Mother drinks the RO water, along with my shrimps and doing quite well. Breeding good the shrimps not Mom.

[Steve]

My WC routine is pretty much like the others have mentioned. I use a 720gph pump with a garden hose threaded onto it to pump water out of my tanks and into the wash tub. Then I use a python style (mine is Aqueon) hose attached directly to a faucet and add water to the tank after I have the temp close to what I want it. I usually add the dechlor directly to the tank the very instant the water is filling back up. I've done WC's that way for the past couple years on everything from 10g-75g with no issues and seems to be the fastest and most reliable way to do it.

I have done as Marty suggest as well, with 45g garbage cans filled with water as storage for holding water and pre mixing decholr/bring up to temp ahead of time etc etc. I did that on my 265g tank and it worked good, just takes up more room for the cans and such is all.

[jkeeler]

I have not had any issues adding Prime directly to tank while filling 10g-120g tanks.  Water changes are  typically 40-50%.  I do water changes weekly to 10 days at most.

If I had more room, filling barrels would probably be the better choice....just not practical.