How do you change your water?

[Gone Fishing]

Hi All,
I think there has to be a better way to do water changes than lugging 20ltr buckets around when gravel siphoning 40% of water twice a week from a 200ltr tank and than having to siphon instant chemically treated water, balance on a high table, back into my tank.

I originally had a special siphon hose setup that connected to my laundry tub water outlet, but this was noisy, used up a lot of water and my wife and I tripped over the long hose that ran through the kitchen and in the end it broke off at the spout in the laundry and made a lovely mess.

I want to do the best thing for the discus and keep those nasty nitrate levels below 10 if I can in my planted tank.
I know from what everyone says, low nitrate is the key to growing fast and large discus, that this is what I must do, but as a husband and father of a 3 year old boy this is very taxing and time consuming

Is there an easier way to get around this problem.
PLEASE!!!
Tell me, how you cope with this chore?

Many Kindly Fishy Regards
Jason

[dwilder]

using a long hose that can reach the sink or window is really the best way imo but you can use a pump hooked to it if your worried about wasting water you just waste electricity instead

[vyberman]

Theres a fish shop close to me with an 8' reef in it.
They have a couple of huge tanks upstairs. One with pure ro which just tops the tank up.
The other which hold exactly the amount they need for water changes.
The top up tank works automatically. The water change tank works at the push of a button. They just add the salt and other additives then hit the button.

Apparently the enitre set up take 15 mins of maintainence per week. most of which involves pushing the button.

Its an amazing thing to behold.
But its also a very expensive thing, so its buckets and syphons for me aswell :)

[TW]

I startd off with a python type water changing system (think it was "Lees" brand). Hose went from tank to sink, but unless I had the tap running, suction was weak. Sounds like this is what you had, as you mention water waste. If I didn't have water running from the tap, sure my tank water emptied, but suction wasn't strong enough to remove any debri. Some others told me that if you start off with the water running until strong suction starts, you can then turn the tap off but this didn't work for me. I gave that method up as water wasteful.

Now I have a flat bed trolley (ebay) on which I sit a 200L container (rectangular pvc type- bunnings). I have a pump in that container with a hose that reaches to my sink. Using a standard gravel vac, I empty into that container. As the container fills, I turn the pump on & the old water emptys down the sink. I've been known to gravel vac up glass shrimp & even small fry by accident. This gives me a chance to check the water in the container & rescue them, before they go straight down the sink.

In the garage, I have a large 1,000 water storage container, where the water is heated, aerated & pretreated. It has it's own water pump & hoses (so that I use different hoses to empty, from those that fill). You don't have to have a container that big. You can get 220L 2nd hand food grade storage containers on ebay. Bunnings also have something that is around that size.

Anyhow, that's my method :D

[NorCalAl]

I do twice weekly changes with a Python. My water is very nice right out of the tap and I have a lot of driftwood in the tank for ph. Usually I do about 40% on each change.

In the past, I used to "age" the water in another tank and move it in, but I found it wasn't helping and in fact, by causing so much more work for me, thus reducing the number of changes, it was hurting the fish.

I don't think straight from the tap will work for everyone in every circumstance, but where I live, the water is exceptional.

[cityguy]

I am currently changing 10% every day and 20% on weekends :-) I use a siphon to clean the gravel and remove dirt, as well as siphon out water which goes directly to the drain through a long connector pipe, and then I fill back the tank with the old method of lugging a bucket :-)

As 10% is not too much of a 60 gallon, it does not yet feels like a hassle.. :)

[rwel4809]

I do use the gravel vac - into a bucket- to suck up the uneaten food and mulm. But for water changes...

I change about 25% every other day at the moment.. I bought some 12.5 mm diameter food grade plastic tubing, which I run directly to the sink to siphon off the water from the tank.

I have a pond pump (2000 lph) in a foodgrade plastic barrel in which I heat and age prefiltered water (for 24-48 hrs). I just run the same type of tube from that to the tank and turn on the pump - all done in about 10 mins from start to finish.

HTH.

[Fishontherun]

I do same with rwel4809, however to make it flow better I put the other end down a drain hole in the laundry. to put water back I just take that end and hook into a pump in my ageing barrel.

[Gone Fishing]

Hi All,
Where do you keep your barrel with your airation and heater and your pre-filtered water? And how big is your barrel?

[Gone Fishing]

Hi All,
Where do you keep your barrel with your airation and heater and your pre-filtered water? And how big is your barrel?

Many Kindly Fishy Regards
Jason

[scott bowler]

Gone Fishing
i use barrels to mine are out side my home and i heat them with a coil heater , i use 4 of them every week they are 220 lts

[axl]

I siphon straight out the tank onto the garden and then hook up a hose and fill up straight from tap. Then i double dose seachem prime and i have never had any problems, out of the tap here the hardness is like 20ppm so it is very soft, lucky.

[rwel4809]

because I live in a unit and space is an issue I just have a 75 litre plastic drum which I bought very cheaply on ebay... It's small enough to fit in my laundry cupboard...

I heat it with a 50 watt Jaegar and another 50 watt cheapo heater... I also have a cheapo internal filter with zeolite in which aerates the water and removes other potential nasties..

HTH

Robert

[TW]

Just wondering, for those of you who use water barrels & pumps, do you leave the pump in barrel all the time, or take it out after each use? Is it a problem to leave it in the barrel?

[rwel4809]

I leave mine in....

[Fishontherun]

I leave mine in.. but after a while it gets slimey ... be careful those of you who put barrel in laundry .. some1 might spill laundry powder in the water ..

[TW]

Thanks rwel4809.

You have no issues with the tubing getting algae or going slimy? I'd like to leave mine in too, as it's just one more step eliminated.

[ILLUSN]

I leave mine in (or on), its external to the tank so nice and simple, if you keep the hose out of the light the algae builds VERY slowly.

[TW]

Thanks ILLUSN