Welcome to the forum Zoogy.
You are in good hands with WD. I change all of my water using a 5 gallon and a 4 gallon bucket. With my largest tank at 120 gallons, that can take a while to do. A gravel vac will fill a 5 gallon bucket in just a couple of minutes so using one to remove the 5 gallons at a time takes almost no time at all. When I have new fish, they are almost always in a smaller tank so 3 or 4 of those drains with a gravel vac means there is barely enough water left to give the fish a small puddle above the gravel. In my home, the nearest toilet is only a few feet from my fish rooms so I don't carry dirty water very far. I do save at least 1 bucket of water to clean my filter before refilling. Once I have emptied a tank most of the way, or as far as I intend to, I go to the kitchen where the sink is deep enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. I start filling and get the temperature right, then add my dechlorinator. Once the bucket is full, the dechlorinator has had enough time to act. I fill both buckets at once to save trips and help balance the load I am carrying. With a bucket on each side, I tend to tip over less and it takes the strain off my back.
Once I arrive at the tank I place a simple board across the top of the tank and start my siphon again, but this time the water is going back into the tank like this.
I use the second bucket to refill the one on the top of the tank as it becomes nearly empty. That saves me having to restart the siphon on a new bucket.
You are in good hands with WD. I change all of my water using a 5 gallon and a 4 gallon bucket. With my largest tank at 120 gallons, that can take a while to do. A gravel vac will fill a 5 gallon bucket in just a couple of minutes so using one to remove the 5 gallons at a time takes almost no time at all. When I have new fish, they are almost always in a smaller tank so 3 or 4 of those drains with a gravel vac means there is barely enough water left to give the fish a small puddle above the gravel. In my home, the nearest toilet is only a few feet from my fish rooms so I don't carry dirty water very far. I do save at least 1 bucket of water to clean my filter before refilling. Once I have emptied a tank most of the way, or as far as I intend to, I go to the kitchen where the sink is deep enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. I start filling and get the temperature right, then add my dechlorinator. Once the bucket is full, the dechlorinator has had enough time to act. I fill both buckets at once to save trips and help balance the load I am carrying. With a bucket on each side, I tend to tip over less and it takes the strain off my back.
Once I arrive at the tank I place a simple board across the top of the tank and start my siphon again, but this time the water is going back into the tank like this.
I use the second bucket to refill the one on the top of the tank as it becomes nearly empty. That saves me having to restart the siphon on a new bucket.
