Aids To Water Changes

[Dave L]

Hi all,

It's going to be 2 or 3 weeks before I get my tank installed (waiting for cabinet to be built) and in the meantime I am reading like mad and gathering all the tips and advice available here. What a great forum.

For those with large tanks, doing water changes must be quite a task given the larger volumes of water. Do any of you use any pumps or other devices to help you with the task, or do you just use siphons, plastic tubs and buckets?

What other 'gadgets' do you use to help you with some of your maintenance tasks?

Thanks.

Dave.

 

[backtotropical]

I've never lifted a bucket again since reading this thread.

If you have any problems with it, i can take pics of mine to help you.

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Aquarium...769/DIY-Python/

 

[waterdrop]

Oh man, you've got to do your searches on "Python." These devices have revolutionized water changes. They (and other companies now do this too) make little brass adapters to fit many types of bathroom and kitchen sinks. Onto this adapter goes a clever Tee device that can serve as a suction device using the power of your sink tap to start the water siphoning out of your tank, or, with the switch in the other position, can allow water to flow from the sink to the tank. So its like a long extension of your sink faucet and drain to your tank!

The part I like about the particular company is that they sell many different lengths of tubing (to fit distance from your tank to your desired sink (bathrooms are better because tubs are very, very useful when doing fishtank activities.) They sell many different lengths and widths of gravel cleaners to fit on the tank end of the tube. With a long one you don't even have to get your arm wet (but they can get more awkward.)

My own habit is to not use these quite as intended. It is so easy to start a siphon by mouth that I just do that at my intended draining location (sometimes the garden, although depending on your fish, you might want to use a bucket so you don't send a fish to the garden or the tub drain! (usually not a problem though) I then don't use the tee device but just the adapter for a direct hookup to the sink (although, the suction tee device is great when the hose is filled with tank water and you've accidently lost the siphon column!)

Note that despite how great these devices are, buckets are still a very important tool for all sorts of things.

Also, there are more exotic approaches for those who are very picky. One fancy approach is to buy a new giant plastic garbage pail on wheels, those big gray things.. Then you buy a submersable powerhead pump and a long tube to go with it. You fill it in your utility room or whereever and put in conditioner and get the temp just right, leave it etc., do all those picky things you want to do to make perfect water, then you roll it to the tank, plug in the pump and transfer it into the tank (for the fill half of the operation, the removal part earlier is obvious.)

[The coolest thing I've ever seen though was in my Jr. High school biology class in the 1960's where all the aquariums (there were 4 or 5 big ones!) had standard metal building plumbing coming up through the tanks with hot & cold mixing taps right there over the tank, and of course drains on the tanks too, can you believe that?]

~~waterdrop~~

 

[doresy]

Hi

As my largest is a 155ltr I am a gravel vac and carbouy sort of guy.

A carbouy is just (in my case) a 30ltr plastic water container with a screw top and handle.

I have 2 of these, one for clean and one for (ok, you are ahead of me here) dirty.

I fill one with dechlorinised and plant fertilised water and leave in the room to temperature stabalise over night or longer.

I suck out the water using a gravel vac into the marked dirty container. I decant some into a specially kept bucket to rinse part of my filter media in (to preserve the benificial bacteria while cleaning away the muck. Ask if you need to know more about this)

I then haul the container of fresh water up to the platform of my step ladder and secure with a bungie. This takes it above the tank so I can slowly syphon the water back into the tank with minimal distubance. In fact the fish love to 'play' in the steam of fresh water!

It's worked for me for over 5 years now and no 'gadget' is gonna change me now

Oh, while you are waiting for your cabinet to be made you could check out the pinned topic on fishless cycle HERE

 

[iihay]

Another for the python. I picked one one last time I was in the US and it is such a great bit of kit. I set the water temp running through it to tank temp suck out some water flick it over to flow some in, a quick squirt of Prime and the jobs done

Iain

 

[Dave L]

Many thanks for the replies once again.

Very interesting and a bit of research needed I think.

I'm a bit of a gadget man and see these things as a bit of a challenge, building one idea on another. These are all interesting ideas. Of coarse to many of you guys/gals that have been fish keeping a long time, you have seen it all before and have since developed your own way of doing things that works for you.

Hey backtotropical, a couple of pics of your Python would be great. Seems any links to picture from old threads are no longer available. Interesting thread and thanks for finding it for me.

Had to have a chuckle at the thought of waterdrops biology class tanks, buy I guess it did what it was supposed to Thanks again for the thoughts.

All we need to do now for doresy is a motorised lift to get your water up your step ladder Seriously though, thanks for the info. I am finding it really interesting.

Thanks again everyone.

Dave.

 

[backtotropical]

Ok Dave. Here goes.

Ok,

well I read all these posts on how good pythons were and that they were brill, yada yada yada, and I thought got to get us one of these. So hunting high and low, looking for one, and then discover they are US only and when you can get them over here they are quite expensive.

After reading peoples experiences of them and looking at the website I realised that it shouldn't be that hard to make your own and customise it to your own length.

So, off I trotted to B&Q (although I am sure all reputable, decent DIY shops sell the required merchandise).

I bought

1 Hose (50m, but length to suit)

1 Tap fitting (again to suit, we have a mixer tap in the kitchen, so I got a multi tap connector)

3 standard hose connectors

1 stop end connector
These bad boys are the key - unless they are connected to something they stop the water flow

1 'Y' connector

Ok, the way a python works is by utilising the pressure of the mains water to create a suction force to start the syphoning process - akin to when we suck the water from the tank into a bucket. However, what makes it more than that is that it conviently does this in the place where the water needs to be disposed (sink) and with the added benefit of then easily allowing you to refill!

Pic 1 - this is how it works when you are emptying
Empty

Pic 2 - this is how it works when you are filling.
Fill

Note that the above 2 diagrams, 'Empty' and 'Fill', are the wrong way round in the pinned topic. I have corrected this for this post.

Ok, so how to make,

Have a cup of tea, make some space and get everything together.
This drawing (excuse my basic paint skills ) labels up the parts.
Here
A - hose pipe from spliter to tank,
B - hose pipe from tap to spliter
C - pipe from spliter to sink
D - 'y' shaped connector.

How to make each bit

A - Cut hosepipe to required length (from tank(s) to sink and a bit more - just in case). Can be left longer if will serve more than one tank, but longer the pipe there is a small reduction in effectivenes.
At one end attach normal hose conector and leave other end free (fit gravel filter if attaches for when emptying)
Note that i have attached a standard connector to both ends. I will explain why later.

B - Cut small bit of hose - short enough from tap to sink. On one end attach tap connector, on other end fit standard connector
Note that i needed a standard connector to connect the tap connector to the hose.

C- Cut short bit of hose to sit in sink, on one end attach standard connector, on other end fit stop end connector

D - erm, should be the same.

Admire no doubt brill workmanship.

How to assemble

attach all standard end connectors to 'y' connector.

Attach tap connector to tap.

Put bare end in tank.
As above, standard connector will be explained later.

Stop, have cup of tea. (very important that bit).

How to use

Before you use, do your usual tank maintenance regime, i.e heater, filter, lights off.

Emptying

When emptying do not attach part C to the 'y' shaped connector. Only A and B should be attached and the third 'arm' should be bare - aim it into the sink.

Put the bare end into the tank to be syphoned, fit the gravel vac/filter if you can.
This is why the extra standard connector was fitted to the hose, to attach the gravel cleaner.

Ensure that it won't move for the first bit (you won't be by the tank!).
I personally use the clip supplied with my gravel cleaner. Very handy.

The hardest bit I found was judging what pressure was needed to suck the water up without blowing air down tube A. With a bit of experimentation, and a flooden kitchen later (sorry dear) I found that if you turn the tap on full welly, wait about 5 seconds, then almost off thats all you need to start the process. With a bit of practice I discovered that I could turn the tap off and the water would still come out.
The only prob with this is that the force of the water isn't too great (the higher the tank above the sink the better it will be). This would be more suited to emptying the water or changing it rather thank cleaning the gravel.
Anyway, so long as the bare part of the 'y' connector is aimed at the sink and not the floor, you are cooking with gas.
When done, just take the bare end out of the tank - hold it upright as there will prob still be some water in there.

Filling

When filling, attach part C back to the connector - this is the equivelent of turning the valve or whatever it is on the real Python. However, before you do this, turn on the taps and use the water coming out of the empty 'y' shaped end to get the temp right of the water going into the tank.

Make sure you have your declorinator handy as this will need to go in before or during the water.

Put the bare end of A back in the tank - make sure its secure as the water coming out can make it kick and come out of the tank.

Quickly connect part C -

if you do it smoothly then there should be no need for turning the water supply off. Make sure the normal connector connects to the 'y' otherwise it wont work.

Viola. Assuming you have put the stop end on the right way round the water will have no where to flow other than down the pipe into the tank.
Stop, congratulate yourself and have another cup of tea.



Thats it. Your own personal tank emptying and filling device. While writing this I have realised that this will only really work with mixer taps, if you want warm water going in your tanks.
However, cos you can adjust the rate at which the water goes into the tank, you can maybe let it trickle in and get heated by the heater.
Or, I am sure its possible to use another y connector to mix the water from two taps in part A. Theres another project for another saturday.

Cost wise, I guess it depends what you already have and where you buy things from.
I bought 50m of hose (I will have 2 part a's for different tanks) @ £15
and the fittings were about a tenner in total so it was around £25, not including the afternoon it took me to put it together, test it and so on.
That can easily be cheaper though if you use a smaller hose, or buy cheaper connectors (i got the hozelock ones, but there were B&Q own brands for a little less)

Anyway, I hope this helps some people, I know I will now find it indispensable, cos it means we only need one of us to empty the tank. If anyone has any questions, feel free to put them here or PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Its a shame that real Pythons are so hard to come by here, but its not beyond our skills to improvise and make do with what we can.

Oh, if you hurry out now it can be the perfect Fathers Day Present!!!!

Nick

You will notice that my python required more connectors than recommended by Nick as i made it slightly more complicated to fit onto my gravel cleaner. How complicated you want to make yours is personal choice.

Hope this helps you.

BTT

 

[Tolak]

Ah, another gadget guy. This first pic is a look as some of the usual gear that hangs from my fishroom door, tubing, and odd pieces of pvc;

The one with the straight pvc is for cleaning the bottom of bare tanks, just need to be careful of fish, thumbs do wonders for adjusting the flow.

Here's the upside down looking J thingie in action;

It drains into a 32 gallon can that has a 1400gph pump, with a hose leading to my sump pump;

I fill straight from the tap, mix of hot & cold;

With this setup I can drain a tank without watching, as the length of the pvc determines the level it drains to. I have several different lengths, the sponge keeps fish from going on the ride of their lives. I can fill one drained tank while draining another with this setup, 5gpm both in & out.

 

[Dave L]

Hey backtotropical,

That's really interesting thank you... Looks like a trip to B&Q is in order.

Tolak, that Angel Fish looks like he's enjoying the top up. Quite a siphon with those flow rates.

Thanks for the posts

Dave

 

[OldMan47]

The detailed walk through is missing one important point of how a python works. It works by using an eductor at the place where all 3 water paths come together. A simple T fitting will work better than a Y fitting because the tap can be directed to flow past the T and create a small amount of vacuum on the side tap. That side tap then becomes the drian from a tank. By plugging the flow to the sink's drain, the water will then flow from the faucet to the tank. Even better than a simple T fitting would be an eductor like the ones they make for filling and draining a waterbed. Actually a waterbed fill and drain assembly that can be attached to you water faucet is a python without the gravel vac end. This would make for a simple DIY in places where the python is not readily available. The only DIY part at that point is fitting the gravel vac to the fill / drain kit.

 

[Ian H]

I still use a bucket with my 380L

I shall be popping down to B&Q soon though

 

[Lord Fishheart]

Ok Dave. Here goes.

Ok,

well I read all these posts on how good pythons were and that they were brill, yada yada yada, and I thought got to get us one of these. So hunting high and low, looking for one, and then discover they are US only and when you can get them over here they are quite expensive.

After reading peoples experiences of them and looking at the website I realised that it shouldn't be that hard to make your own and customise it to your own length.

So, off I trotted to B&Q (although I am sure all reputable, decent DIY shops sell the required merchandise).

I bought

1 Hose (50m, but length to suit)

1 Tap fitting (again to suit, we have a mixer tap in the kitchen, so I got a multi tap connector)

3 standard hose connectors

1 stop end connector
These bad boys are the key - unless they are connected to something they stop the water flow

1 'Y' connector

Ok, the way a python works is by utilising the pressure of the mains water to create a suction force to start the syphoning process - akin to when we suck the water from the tank into a bucket. However, what makes it more than that is that it conviently does this in the place where the water needs to be disposed (sink) and with the added benefit of then easily allowing you to refill!

Pic 1 - this is how it works when you are emptying
Empty

Pic 2 - this is how it works when you are filling.
Fill

Note that the above 2 diagrams, 'Empty' and 'Fill', are the wrong way round in the pinned topic. I have corrected this for this post.

Ok, so how to make,

Have a cup of tea, make some space and get everything together.
This drawing (excuse my basic paint skills ) labels up the parts.
Here
A - hose pipe from spliter to tank,
B - hose pipe from tap to spliter
C - pipe from spliter to sink
D - 'y' shaped connector.

How to make each bit

A - Cut hosepipe to required length (from tank(s) to sink and a bit more - just in case). Can be left longer if will serve more than one tank, but longer the pipe there is a small reduction in effectivenes.
At one end attach normal hose conector and leave other end free (fit gravel filter if attaches for when emptying)
Note that i have attached a standard connector to both ends. I will explain why later.

B - Cut small bit of hose - short enough from tap to sink. On one end attach tap connector, on other end fit standard connector
Note that i needed a standard connector to connect the tap connector to the hose.

C- Cut short bit of hose to sit in sink, on one end attach standard connector, on other end fit stop end connector

D - erm, should be the same.

Admire no doubt brill workmanship.

How to assemble

attach all standard end connectors to 'y' connector.

Attach tap connector to tap.

Put bare end in tank.
As above, standard connector will be explained later.

Stop, have cup of tea. (very important that bit).

How to use

Before you use, do your usual tank maintenance regime, i.e heater, filter, lights off.

Emptying

When emptying do not attach part C to the 'y' shaped connector. Only A and B should be attached and the third 'arm' should be bare - aim it into the sink.

Put the bare end into the tank to be syphoned, fit the gravel vac/filter if you can.
This is why the extra standard connector was fitted to the hose, to attach the gravel cleaner.

Ensure that it won't move for the first bit (you won't be by the tank!).
I personally use the clip supplied with my gravel cleaner. Very handy.

The hardest bit I found was judging what pressure was needed to suck the water up without blowing air down tube A. With a bit of experimentation, and a flooden kitchen later (sorry dear) I found that if you turn the tap on full welly, wait about 5 seconds, then almost off thats all you need to start the process. With a bit of practice I discovered that I could turn the tap off and the water would still come out.
The only prob with this is that the force of the water isn't too great (the higher the tank above the sink the better it will be). This would be more suited to emptying the water or changing it rather thank cleaning the gravel.
Anyway, so long as the bare part of the 'y' connector is aimed at the sink and not the floor, you are cooking with gas.
When done, just take the bare end out of the tank - hold it upright as there will prob still be some water in there.

Filling

When filling, attach part C back to the connector - this is the equivelent of turning the valve or whatever it is on the real Python. However, before you do this, turn on the taps and use the water coming out of the empty 'y' shaped end to get the temp right of the water going into the tank.

Make sure you have your declorinator handy as this will need to go in before or during the water.

Put the bare end of A back in the tank - make sure its secure as the water coming out can make it kick and come out of the tank.

Quickly connect part C -

if you do it smoothly then there should be no need for turning the water supply off. Make sure the normal connector connects to the 'y' otherwise it wont work.

Viola. Assuming you have put the stop end on the right way round the water will have no where to flow other than down the pipe into the tank.
Stop, congratulate yourself and have another cup of tea.



Thats it. Your own personal tank emptying and filling device. While writing this I have realised that this will only really work with mixer taps, if you want warm water going in your tanks.
However, cos you can adjust the rate at which the water goes into the tank, you can maybe let it trickle in and get heated by the heater.
Or, I am sure its possible to use another y connector to mix the water from two taps in part A. Theres another project for another saturday.

Cost wise, I guess it depends what you already have and where you buy things from.
I bought 50m of hose (I will have 2 part a's for different tanks) @ £15
and the fittings were about a tenner in total so it was around £25, not including the afternoon it took me to put it together, test it and so on.
That can easily be cheaper though if you use a smaller hose, or buy cheaper connectors (i got the hozelock ones, but there were B&Q own brands for a little less)

Anyway, I hope this helps some people, I know I will now find it indispensable, cos it means we only need one of us to empty the tank. If anyone has any questions, feel free to put them here or PM me and I'll see what I can do.

Its a shame that real Pythons are so hard to come by here, but its not beyond our skills to improvise and make do with what we can.

Oh, if you hurry out now it can be the perfect Fathers Day Present!!!!

Nick

You will notice that my python required more connectors than recommended by Nick as i made it slightly more complicated to fit onto my gravel cleaner. How complicated you want to make yours is personal choice.

Hope this helps you.

BTT

Thanks for the tutorial, read this today and went to B&Q today and got all the gear needed. Put it together 2nite, gonna try it tommorrow wish me luck!

 

[backtotropical]

No problem. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

BTT

 

[Lord Fishheart]

No problem. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

BTT

Went to do a water change on Friday and the bloody adapter don't fit on the tap! tap is too big! going back to the store tomorrow and try and get a bigger one