No More Buckets To Change Water!

[goldfinger]

Since commissioning a 300 litre tank I was dreading the water changes as doing 50% water change meant I would need quite a few containers.
So I set out and started to look for a Water Butt around 150litre capacity.
I'm not sure why these things are expensive after all they are made from plastic and all it does is hold rain water for the garden in drought periods.
I'm from the UK and the cheapest I could find (£20) was a company called Wilkinson’s usually located in every high street as going online yielded me some funny results especially when you type Butt LOL. I'm sure in the states there are local hardware depot places that are cheap also?
So anyways here she is not too bad as I can move this in my utility room where washing clothes takes place.
I'm going to build a four roller caster base for it when I have time, so I can be completely mobile when I need too, as I have other tanks that need water changes around the house.

 
I'm using my spare pipe its about 9-12mm inner diameter hose and about 3 meters long.
This fits nicely onto my Ehiem 1046 outlet which is a submersable pump, you can shop around for any pump, but I like this one as I had it lying around doing nothing. 
I have two spare pumps but @ 5litres per min the rate which it fills up the tank is nice and steady flow rate.


Did a 10% water change just to check everything was running fine and work as expected allways measure the distance from the bottom of the butt to the top of the tank to gauge how much hose you need to use.



This method saves me loads of time as I premix de-chlorinator leave it over night to climatise and then do the water changes!
One word of warning just check and make sure the tap fittings are secure and not leaking as sometimes they weep unless it been tightened up. You can buy plugs that can fully block the lower holes, but bear in mind all manufacturers are different some are 1" to 1-3/8".
A good tip is to mark the outside roughly where water lines are to estimate the amount of water so top to bottom is 150 litres (50%) half is 75litres (25%).
Best thing is if your area has good air quality and no acid rain you can leave it outside to collect free rain water, but be careful bugs and contaminates might get into the water butt! 

 

[Brilly91]

This is a good idea, theres a company that makes a similar product for marine tanks. It heats and mixes the water and does the water change aswell.

 

[goldfinger]

Thanks Brilly!
The other advantages is I will be sticking some fishes as a temp home (few hours) when my substrate arrives!
All you need is an airstone and a heater if you are running tropical, but as I'm running cold water fancies its even quicker!
Nothing stopping me from taking the pump to the tank with a bit of sponge on the inlet so fishes don't get sucked in and reuse the tank water into the water butt.
For £20 its the best bit of kit I've invested this year!

 

[NickAu]

Thanks goldfinger
Following your guide I got a 100 lt drum for $ 60 AUD ( It is brand new, I did not want to risk second hand because I dont know what it was used for) great idea.
 
I notice the pump you use has threaded intake and outlet, Have you seen the gravel vac idea I found online?

How To Make: Diy Gravel Vacuum (Aquarium Gravel Cleaner)

 

[goldfinger]

Hello Nick Cool doing so many water changes on large tanks is no fun plus gravity takes too long aswell. £30 odd pounds is good and yes secondhand ones might have been treated with chemicals to keep Algae out or heavy metals from cuttering can cause issues with shrimps. TBF I've seen people use blood worms to determine rain water if they die once sticking them in then the water is bad if they live and are active its good to go from a saving water prospective guessing in Aus its quite dry out there?
 
Yes I've seen the vac system and its a good idea if you have a spare pump doing nothing.
I'm lucky enough to have a HOB/gravel cleaner I'm sure there used to be a thread on it, but this forum seems to have had a bit of a data warehouse cleaning since I first joined.
The issues with people running sand in there substrate will have to be carefull depending upon how powerfull there pump is?
I think light surface skimming is good enough as there is so much benificial bacteria in the substrate it helps and acts like a filter or fertz for plants plus helps cycle Ammonia and Nitrite depending what type of bacteria is growing down there though?