The Perils Of A Larger Tank

[walkers101]

Now i usually do 25% weekly water changes but due to starting a new job and being generally lazy i have missed a few weeks. So this morning i woke up and decided to stop being so #40## lazy and to get of my backside and do a larger water change (75%). This has now put me off getting a 6ft'er as im over an hour in and only just started filling back up with the garden hose (on a trickle its cold water after all). How do you put up with doing such large changes?

 

[star4]

Wimp, come and do my weekly water changes

 

[markandhisfish]

how are you draining down? im assuming by syphoning with the hose? ive got a bigger syphon hose for water removal its 1 of those emergeny hoses and its about 1 1/2" diameter. drains the tank so much quicker , then i just refil with a normal hose from the tap . using the bigger hose it takes about 15 to 20 mins to drain about 40%

 

[Squidward]

I would have tested first to see what the Nitrates are. Might not have been neccesary to do such a large change!

 

[walkers101]

well like i said its been a few weeks and rather than test i just thought it would be better to do a larger change

oh it would fill faster mark but putting the tap on full would freeze the tank its only 1oC outside and the water is only around 2 or 3 hence trickling it into the tank

 

[Uriel]

As others have said we cheat. I have 2 pipes for syphoning. 1 that has a gravel style cleaning end and 1 that is a u bend i had spare from my eheim filter. I clean the sand in my first tank and then set the syphon going set to whatever height i want that tank drained too. I then go and clean the gravel in my second tank and then put the u bend syphon on that. I have a hose reel that i have modified so it will fit onto my shower with about £5 worth of bits from B and Q so then i just set the water to the right temperature and run it full pelt to fill my tank. I do 2 500l and 2 120l tanks in less than an hour this way. I generally do 50% water changes. Complete overkill but once i got the pipes out the difference between 20% and 50% is negligible.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

Uriel - i like it!
Does anyone use those battery powered syphons? any good?

Its a bit too far from my tank to any sink / bath, so i just go with the large bucket technique. I can clean the gravel and do a 25 - 35% water change in 2-3 bucket loads (ok, i've only got a 240L but its big enough) and just watch some TV whilst i do it

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

50% weekly water changes (because of the stocking level, quite a lot of fish, albeit none of them are adult size yet) on my garage 5-footer do seem to take an age...

Emptying is straight forward after reading a post on here a couple of months or so back, I now turn off the FX5 so I can then get its outpipe out of the tank and then turn it back on, rapidly emptying water into the drain immediately outside the garage doors.

Its the refilling that is the killer, as cold water through a hose is going to take 550W of heater in a freezing garage ages, running up horrendous electric costs! I have to carry two buckets totalling 5 imperial gallons between the bath (in our upstairs flat) and the garage around the back, with water something in the 18-22C ballpark, which takes something around 75-90 minutes.

 

[rdstars]

I manage to do my 350L+ in under an hour changing about 1/3 - 1/2 depending how energetic I am feeling and do it every 2 weeks, sometimes every week, never do it to a calender & time but my tank is mature and far from over stocked . I use 2 buckets, one filling while I go pour the other one in the tank. Always seems like forever though that is why over the past few years I have down sized from loads of tanks.
Still fancy a small crab setup though

 

[Dj-damo]

Hi All

i have a 240L tropical community tank, with lots of fish etc, i have only been doing this hobby for about 5 months so quite new.

I live in a flat so i tend to drain 40 - 45L fromt he tank with the gravel cleaning hose then refill from the mixer tap into 2 water containers and then refill the tank using a jug untill its half empty or full!! bit of a pain.

I was using RO water untill last week when we done a 50% water change and complete tank overhaul. i have an RO unit but takes 2 days at constant running to fill my 2 containers and the amount of water that is discarded is phenominal. so i decided to get some "Tap Safe" from my local pet store. seems to be ok and all my fish are still alive and well. what are your thoughts on RO water and "tap safe"

Damien

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Hi All

i have a 240L tropical community tank, with lots of fish etc, i have only been doing this hobby for about 5 months so quite new.

I live in a flat so i tend to drain 40 - 45L fromt he tank with the gravel cleaning hose then refill from the mixer tap into 2 water containers and then refill the tank using a jug untill its half empty or full!! bit of a pain.

I was using RO water untill last week when we done a 50% water change and complete tank overhaul. i have an RO unit but takes 2 days at constant running to fill my 2 containers and the amount of water that is discarded is phenominal. so i decided to get some "Tap Safe" from my local pet store. seems to be ok and all my fish are still alive and well. what are your thoughts on RO water and "tap safe"

Damien

I'd be more worried about the potentially massive change in the tank's water hardness if you added ~120l of tap water to 120l of "pure" RO, which might really stress your fish. Have your fish all behaved normally since the change?

Seachem Prime is great for a "bang for the buck" dechlorinator, costing ~£12 for 1l on Ebay. 5ml treats 200l of water, but you can strengthen the dose by upto five times to soak up ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in an emergency situation.

 

[markandhisfish]

well like i said its been a few weeks and rather than test i just thought it would be better to do a larger change

oh it would fill faster mark but putting the tap on full would freeze the tank its only 1oC outside and the water is only around 2 or 3 hence trickling it into the tank

no i dont refill with the big hose mate , just drain. i also refill with normal hosepipe on a trickle

 

[coldcazzie]

Uriel - i like it!
Does anyone use those battery powered syphons? any good?

Its a bit too far from my tank to any sink / bath, so i just go with the large bucket technique. I can clean the gravel and do a 25 - 35% water change in 2-3 bucket loads (ok, i've only got a 240L but its big enough) and just watch some TV whilst i do it

Depends how long your hose is. My tank is in my living room but I've still managed to fill it from the bathroom taps when we first moved and the kitchen tap wouldn't fit a hose connector on it. (Have since replaced tap with one that does fit a hose connector on it!) I'd rather use the internal taps so I can mix hot and cold water and that way I can refill quicker. Anyway, the hose went all the way down the stairs and round th corner into the living room - alright I had to enlist one of the kids to hold the hose in the tank while I fiddled with the temp, and turned the water off at the end, but even so.

Like Uriel's idea about the syphon with a u-bend - may have to employ that idea! Although I do have a question - how do you get the syphon started on that in the first place?

 

[Dj-damo]

Hi All

i have a 240L tropical community tank, with lots of fish etc, i have only been doing this hobby for about 5 months so quite new.

I live in a flat so i tend to drain 40 - 45L fromt he tank with the gravel cleaning hose then refill from the mixer tap into 2 water containers and then refill the tank using a jug untill its half empty or full!! bit of a pain.

I was using RO water untill last week when we done a 50% water change and complete tank overhaul. i have an RO unit but takes 2 days at constant running to fill my 2 containers and the amount of water that is discarded is phenominal. so i decided to get some "Tap Safe" from my local pet store. seems to be ok and all my fish are still alive and well. what are your thoughts on RO water and "tap safe"

Damien

I'd be more worried about the potentially massive change in the tank's water hardness if you added ~120l of tap water to 120l of "pure" RO, which might really stress your fish. Have your fish all behaved normally since the change?

Seachem Prime is great for a "bang for the buck" dechlorinator, costing ~£12 for 1l on Ebay. 5ml treats 200l of water, but you can strengthen the dose by upto five times to soak up ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in an emergency situation.

Yes there has been no change in the fish, to be honest i didnt think about that, but i will remember from now on. does this mean i have to stick with tap water or can i go back to RO. I did another water change the day after as some of the readings were quite high. and again i used tap water with Tap safe.

Damien

 

[bullit]

I use declorinater for ponds. Lasts ages