How do you do your water changes?

Hi i am sorry if this thread has been made before but just thought there may be new ways or equipment people are using.

I have a 230 liter tank which has been running around few months and first time i have ran a tank this big. I have only been doing around 15-20% water changes a week and first time i have done a 40-45% and which took me around 2hr and 30 mins. I feel like i should look for a more time efficient way.

I empty a 20 liter bucket at a time which i use to fill up with a plastic non-electrical pump. After emptying however many percentage from the tank i fill up the bucket using the showerhead with cold water and then boil kettle water to fill up and to right temp, then add dechlorinator and mix, then pour in tank with a cup until around half way of bucket then pour the rest.

I have a question: i am not using warm tap water as i thought it may not be good for the tank. That's why ive been using cold water + boiled kettle water mix. Am i wrong to think warm tap water is not good?

I want to be able to find a way to reduce time and be more energy efficient by not using the kettle so much. I have pretty much done this with all my other smaller tanks in the past but a tank this size i feel like i need to find another way.

If you can list please what you do with yours, if you use certain equipment and roughly how long it takes with the percentage of water change.

Thanks

didz04 said:

I have a question: i am not using warm tap water as i thought it may not be good for the tank. That's why ive been using cold water + boiled kettle water mix. Am i wrong to think warm tap water is not good?

Click to expand...

This depends on your boiler. If it's a combi boiler you can use hot water tap to heat the new water. But if you have a heat only boiler and the hot water comes from a cylinder in the airing cupboard, using hot tap water is not advisable (because of the header tank in the attic)

If you do have a combi boiler you can use a hose. Empty the tank by starting the siphon with a hose pipe and put the other end out of the window, or down the sink. If you have a mixer tap, use an adapter to attach the hose to the tap and use a mix of hot and cold. Add the dechlorinator to the tank before starting to refil
Some people say to dose for the entire tank volume, some say to dose for the amount of new water.

First let me say that I'm in the states (dern rebels) so my hot water tank is likely different than yours across the pond. Also, I'm in rural Central New York state, so I have a well for water (no chlorine/chloramine to deal with, although the same methos would work with conditioner).
I use an inexpensive Ecoplus 396 submersible pump to drain water from the tanks. I use a quick disconnect to attach it to Python like vinyl hose to run to the sink or out the front door to the lawn in fair weather. For the 60g in the living room, to refill, I use a simple faucet adapter and quick disconnect to use water from the kitchen sink. I indexed the faucet with a sharpie for the correct hot/cold water temperature mix. In the basement, I pre-filter and preheat water (2-300w heaters) in a 45g Brute trash can on roller stand. I empty the tanks as described above, and use the same pump type to refill tanks from the trash can...as one tank drains, another is being filled. It all works pretty well.

Ive always used buckets but just upgraded to a bigger tank.

I purchased a submersible pump with some hose and a 110 litre bin. Filled the bin up treated the water then pumped straight into tank. (You back will thank you lol)

Although i didnt realise when you turn the pump off and leave the hose end in the tank it sucks it back out the other way.

Mop bucket had a work out

Essjay said:

This depends on your boiler. If it's a combi boiler you can use hot water tap to heat the new water. But if you have a heat only boiler and the hot water comes from a cylinder in the airing cupboard, using hot tap water is not advisable (because of the header tank in the attic)

If you do have a combi boiler you can use a hose. Empty the tank by starting the siphon with a hose pipe and put the other end out of the window, or down the sink. If you have a mixer tap, use an adapter to attach the hose to the tap and use a mix of hot and cold. Add the dechlorinator to the tank before starting to refil
Some people say to dose for the entire tank volume, some say to dose for the amount of new water.

Click to expand...

I have found out that i have a combi boiler. From what it sounds am i okay to use water straight from the tap? If i run half cold and hot at same time to get right temp. When you say add dechlorinator to tank does that mean mix it in a bucket first with some water the amount needed for all the new water or whole tank volume, pour it in tank and then fill up tank straight from the tap?

Thanks

I use a siphon and a 5g bucket for my water changes, because my Pleco/snails are so messy.

I've got 2x 30L buckets, one for dirty water and one for clean water. I fill one bucket up with clean temperature matched tap water and treat it with Seachem Prime. Then i use a hose to syphon water out of the tank into the 'dirty water' bucket. Once i've taken about 30L out i use a bowl to scoop out the clean water and transfer it into the tank.

My tank is only 22g so it works well for me but if i had something as large as your tank i'd probably go down the Python system path.

use hose to hoover up dirt from sand into bucket, this water then goes out onto the lawn/flowers in front garden

i used to use a pump, but stopped as i used to just have it hanging in the tank and didnt clean any sand/gravel/plants so water quality went down

get water through tap to temp required ( i try to get it slightly cooler than the tank) add tank safe into bucket. throw into tank

if you have plotted plants around the house, water them with the waste water, they will love the nutrient rich water ( all that fish poo )

didz04 said:

I have found out that i have a combi boiler. From what it sounds am i okay to use water straight from the tap? If i run half cold and hot at same time to get right temp. When you say add dechlorinator to tank does that mean mix it in a bucket first with some water the amount needed for all the new water or whole tank volume, pour it in tank and then fill up tank straight from the tap?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Yes, you can add water from the hot tap. Combi boilers heat mains water on demand (heat only boilers use a hot water cylinder filled from a cold water header tank in the attic, and we should not drink, or use in a fish tank, water that's been stored in the header tank)


Will you still use a bucket to refill, or use a hose pipe? If it's a bucket, using hot tap water instead of water from a kettle, add the dechlorinator to each bucketful at the dose rate for the volume of the bucket. I prefer to put it in first then run the tap into the bucket as it mixes it in more efficiently.
It's when refilling with a hose that the dechlorinator has to added straight to the tank.

Late to this with not much info to provide, but I do my water changes with a ~10L bucket, a towel under the bucket and tank and an old milk jug with the top hacked off.
Emptying out my 170L meant that we had the garden house dangling out my bedroom window to syphon out the water.

You inspired me... Partial Water Changes - Fast and Easy

Python

As I've started doing bigger WC, I now trail a hose from tank to lawn, the end in the tank has rawl plugs jammed in, to save fish going on a little journey. When replacing water, I put the bucket on top of an "A"frame ladder and syphon it through into the tank

20 meters of clear plastic hose and a 2 litre plastic drink bottle as the gravel cleaner. Run the hose out onto the lawn, use bottle to gravel clean the tank. Refill tanks with water form holding tanks.

Essjay said:

Yes, you can add water from the hot tap. Combi boilers heat mains water on demand (heat only boilers use a hot water cylinder filled from a cold water header tank in the attic, and we should not drink, or use in a fish tank, water that's been stored in the header tank)


Will you still use a bucket to refill, or use a hose pipe? If it's a bucket, using hot tap water instead of water from a kettle, add the dechlorinator to each bucketful at the dose rate for the volume of the bucket. I prefer to put it in first then run the tap into the bucket as it mixes it in more efficiently.
It's when refilling with a hose that the dechlorinator has to added straight to the tank.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this. I am going to carry on with bucket route atm to see how much quicker it is. Hopefully eventually i'll get round to using pipe method. Thanks everyone for all the informative input given, you've given so many ideas of ways to make it convenient for us all. I feel like i'll be able to do much bigger water changes in quicker time.