Filling Your Trop Tank With A Hosepipe (basic Adaptation)

[PlecMama]

I have to fill my big tank directly from the tap, it's far to big to have buckets standing around dechlorinating, I'd need 300 bucket in my living room

So, we rigged an easy way to fill it from the bathroom. (We poke it out the bathroom window and back in the living room window).

You will need a section of hose pipe, long enough to go from the bath to the tank and a "shampoo spray" shower thingy, just one of the average rubber ones you can find in "It's a Gift" for two pound fifty.

If you plug the shower thing on both your bath taps and unscrew the shower head, there is a plastic stopper fitted in there that stops the shower head coming off. Pull it out and take of the ring that screwed the shower head on. Now the end of the rubber pipe will fit directly into the cut end of a hose pipe, with no leaks.

Make sure you have the temp mixed right before you jam it in (and that whoever is monitoring the other end has it in the tank!) and off you go.

This method fills my 6ft in about 10 minutes - which is a lot easier then having to cart 40 buckets in and mixing the water by hand every time.

Add your dechlorinator and off you go.

I got the idea of using the shampoo sprayer from when we fill my kids swimming pool, we unscrew the "fits over the tap" end of it then and we found that the threads on that fit exactly into the threads on a tap adaptor that you would screw into an outside tap to attach your hose. In doing this, I can fill Bu's pool up directly from the hot tap upstairs.

It's basic I know, but if you haven't thought of it, it's worth knowing, it saved us a whole evening of work when we figured it out.

 

[SamUK]

i jus fill straight from my outside tap now using the hose.

i used to cart buckets about but this works fine. temps drops maybe 2 degrees but to be honest the fish seem to like it, playing in the bubbles where the coldwater comes out the hose.


Pond dechlorinator, now thats a life saver!

 

[The-Wolf]

I fill mine via my power shower (bodged shower hose to garden hose),
that way I can get the temp correct first

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

Getting the temperature to match is only needed for very sensitive fish like fry for example, the fish we usually keep are hardy enough to take a drop of 2 or 3 degrees, and as Sam said the fish like it

 

[bobf]

Getting the temperature to match is only needed for very sensitive fish like fry for example, the fish we usually keep are hardy enough to take a drop of 2 or 3 degrees, and as Sam said the fish like it

Plus, a bit of a temporary drop in temp can often promote breeding behaviour

 

[anvil63]

The cool water change works like a charm on my corys. The start T-ing all over the place, unfortunately the eggs never make it.

Carl

 

[PlecMama]

I don't know what's happening with your cold water guys but ours here is to cold for the cold water fish! I have to mix in some hot when I change the goldfish or they'd be floating around in ice cubes

 

[andywg]

I doubt that Suzie, unless you are doing very large water changes.

Assuming that there are no external heating effects and all the water is dumped straight into a tank (rather than trickle fed into a tank with heat from the room, pumps, lights etc.) then a tank at 24 degrees C will only drop to 20.4 degrees when doing a 20% water change with 6 degree water (pretty much the coldest a supply will be in the middle of winter). Even if you filled up with ice cold water (0 degrees C) you would only drop the tank to 19.2 degrees with a 20% water change.

Factor in the fact the water is taking a while, and that most tropical tanks are heated, and you will see how the tank will not drop by any significant amount in a routine change. My 6x2x2 frequently has 30% changes and recently it drops an entire 2 degrees during refilling from the cold tap.

 

[Tolak]

You can buy garden hose adapters at most any hardware store that screw into a faucet after you remove the aerator. They cost a couple of bucks, I have one for my tank in the living room, the only non-fishroom tank.

Straight cold water will work, as long as you are doing smaller water changes, and run it in a little slowly, letting your heater heat it as it fills. This only works if you have a submersable heater.

I do 50% or better water changes on tanks that are for the most part 80F or better. Very large water changes are relative to what your setup is. I'll use 20% of a tank's volume filling bags for fish going out. I don't consider that a water change.

If my water is 50F out of the tap, it brings it down to 65F during a 50% change. I'm filling at 5 gallons per minute, the heater doesn't have a chance to heat the water. I adjust hot & cold, get it within a couple of degrees, & let it rip. I'm cheap, it's cheaper to heat water with my gas heater than with a tiny electric tank heater.

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

I don't know what's happening with your cold water guys but ours here is to cold for the cold water fish! I have to mix in some hot when I change the goldfish or they'd be floating around in ice cubes

If I can do it in Aberdeen, then surely it doesn't make that much difference down with you

 

[PlecMama]

lol I'll give you extra points for being cold.

Well, maybe I am more worried about burning them by dumping them in water that is to hot/cold for them, I can imagine if you're cold blooded that half a ton of freezing water doesn't make you feel good, it's not like a little Amazonian rain or anything, it's bloomin cold. And maybe my coldies are a little warm from being indoors, who knows, I just know there is a huge difference between the temp of the tank and the temp of the tap.

Anyway, I didn't post so you could all give your considered opinions on how cold my water is, it's about hose pipes. So there

 

[SamUK]

i thought the same suzie and i took my thermometer to the outside tap and was even more put off by the fact the water read 7 degrees chilly.


when i set my last tank up i had a chance to try it without fish and the temp only dropped 1.5 degrees with a 20%+ refill.


i jus put the hose behind my 2 heaters so they help i imagine and fill up slowly.

keep nearly forgetting its filling and flooding my room.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

keep nearly forgetting its filling and flooding my room.

i do that all the time when vaccing, just keep going and forget to check the bucket, soaked the floor a few times, I love my wooden floors

 

[SamUK]

keep nearly forgetting its filling and flooding my room.

i do that all the time when vaccing, just keep going and forget to check the bucket, soaked the floor a few times, I love my wooden floors

i love my concrete floor lol. its why i dont wanna move out!

ive mounted all my extension blocks on the wall a couple of feet up so if the worst ever happens ill only have a big puddle.

everything should still work.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ha ha, we want to move so we have concrete floors, then we can have bigger tanks more more more!