limited water changes... next step, overkill

[Magnum Man]

so, just water changes are working out excellent right now.... several of the tanks are hard to work on. so I currently have several "wands" right now of different diameters, lengths and shapes... a basic is 30 inches long, and round in 1.5 inches in diameter, one is 36 inches long, for reaching the opposite end, on tanks that can only be serviced from an end, and one is 1 inch square, that is 36 inches long, and that I heated one end to make it 3/4 inch round, and a transition goes to 1/2 inch hose, on all the wands , a couple more 1/2 inch garden hose barbed fitting ends, and I'll be able to change these at will to the pumped suction line...

I've not used the square one yet, but that was specifically made for scraping the pest snails off the side glass, by having flat sides to the wand, and smaller diameter, for increased suction... I just had another snail hatch out, in the one tank I have issues with, so I'm looking forward to trying that one out, once the pump line prefilter, listed previously is installed ( arriving today )

I imagine, that eventually a couple much shorter micro wands would be handy for the 4 - 10 gallons, that all have shrimp in, but more thought is needed there, I may have to reduce down to air line diameter, to have the control needed, not to suck up the shrimp...

this whole system is so nice, I should have done this long ago, it sure takes the physical work and time, out of tank maintenance

 

[Magnum Man]

the snail trap is completed for the gravel vacuum set up... this will also stop gravel or any larger particles from entering the pump.... there is a small screened filter prior to the pump, that was intended to protect the pump, but this is much larger, one of my tanks has a real pest snail issue, the goal here is to suck up as many as I can each gravel vacuum...

 

[anewbie]

the snail trap is completed for the gravel vacuum set up... this will also stop gravel or any larger particles from entering the pump.... there is a small screened filter prior to the pump, that was intended to protect the pump, but this is much larger, one of my tanks has a real pest snail issue, the goal here is to suck up as many as I can each gravel vacuum...View attachment 367369

But will it work ?

 

[Magnum Man]

yea of little faith... silicone gaskets, not a friction fit, going to work like gang busters...

 

[Magnum Man]

changing over to this fiber reinforced hose on the suction side, as the regular vinyl hose is starting to suck in, when pumping on tanks next to floor, that require more suction... the top tanks syphon, so the pump doesn't doesn't have to suck as hard on those...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SHBWT44/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=A2SKS0AXRFT77I&th=1

 

[Magnum Man]

so, something I've started doing (it takes an extra 10-12 minutes for all my water changes ), isI've started setting a timer for 60 seconds and run 1 minute's worth of hard well water from a 1/4 inch line, into each tank... it's roughly 1 gallon, on a 30-35 gallon RO water change... hard water into my sterile RO soft water...

that percentage is higher on my 10 gallon tanks, that have the shrimp and live bearers in...that ends up about 1/5 had water, as I change 5 gallons out of those tanks...

everything seems quite stable at those rates...

 

[Oldspartan]

Magnum has an amazingly creative mind!

 

[Magnum Man]

water change day... did between 30 and 40% water change on a dozen tanks, in 16.5 minutes, set a timer, so I could time 1 minute each tank of hard well water through a 1/4 inch line, into each tank... I needed extra fittings for the canister pump pre screen, pictured above, so I'm working on that again today, so no gravel vacuum today... I think I've got a good routine for the 10 gallon shrimp tanks, and all those have been doing terrific... though no proof I'm not sucking up shrimp or Endler fry, but I put the suction screen up against the front glass, and bang it against the glass a couple times to chase everyone away, and it seems to work, as quickly as I can suck out 5 gallons of water... I haven't been worried about the RO tank water temperature, as it's about 74 degrees F., the same temps, as my cool water tanks, if I fill it on change day, and give it a week to get room temperature...

so with the hard water added, plus a full 100 gallons of RO water, I'm changing out about 105 gallons of water once a week right now...

I'm doing enough changes, that there is no clouding at all, in the tanks, except the 10 gallons, that I've only been doing real percentages of water changes, for a month or two, and they were really full of mulm, with only having sponge filters... but they are significantly cleaner each week...

 

[Magnum Man]

well, the RO unit is a little slower than advertised, but the 100 gallon holding tank. went from completely empty, to full again in 14 hours, so in the "real world" the unit does just under 200 gallons per day... it was rated at 300 gallons per day

 

[anewbie]

well, the RO unit is a little slower than advertised, but the 100 gallon holding tank. went from completely empty, to full again in 14 hours, so in the "real world" the unit does just under 200 gallons per day... it was rated at 300 gallons per day

One day you might want to test how much waste water and ro water it produces - easy enough just see how long it takes to fill gallon jug with waste water and with ro water.

 

[Magnum Man]

finally did a water change with the screened canister... I was having trouble getting suction, with the canister mounted on the ceiling, so I moved it close to the floor, mounted on one of the double 10 gallon stands... still didn't ant to suck, found the canister was too loose, as it started dripping, when I primed the line... I may have been OK with it still mounted on the ceiling, if the canister was tight enough???

I'll be replacing the vinyl line, with fiber reinforced line, twice as much suction line, any bend with suction, causes the line to collapse, but otherwise, it's working great