Water changing methods

[sf108]

Hi

Just wanting to know what the experienced fish owners do to change large quantities of water.

I used to do the siphon/gravel vac to remove tank water, and then pour buckets of aged water into the tank.

How do you change water for tanks over 200L without breaking your back? I have seen LFS use their canister filter to move from one source to another, but this doesn't seem practical at home.

Suggestions?

[Hollowman]

Because I am 'sort of' in between homes, here is my small system only two tanks and sump. I have a 210L water butt with an Ehiem 1250 in the bottom. I syphon out with a large bore hose the tank water so the fish lay flat, then push the plug in for the '1250 pump and away you go, it fills without lifting a finger. My water is generated by my RO system which runs through a float valve and an auto shut-off for both the mains water and the high pressure pump, again, I do not have to lift a finger.
I mix my RO water with HMA (filtered-pre-membrane water) in the barrel until I get the right conductivity, then airate and heat ready to use for a change.

Pics below, I hope they help. Just ask any questions.

Steve

View in the top of the barrel.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg188/Discusboy123/DSC01287.jpg
RO System
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg188/Discusboy123/DSC01286.jpg
View of the system, showing the yellow filling hose
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg188/Discusboy123/DSC01284.jpg

[sf108]

wow...that looks very high-tech.

Any other methods which doesn't involve breaking the back and the bank?! :D

[ILLUSN]

I have a long (10m) 20mm hose that i can attach a gravel vac to, i simply drain the water out of my tanks to the garden, i have 2x 500L drums i use to gae water in that are hooked up to an eheim 1262 pump, the pump has a 4.5m hose attached to it with a tap to control the flow, i change 1000L a night in about 70 minutes.

[DiscusDave]

wow...that looks very high-tech.

Any other methods which doesn't involve breaking the back and the bank?! :D

You can skip the RO part and just use the pump and hose for filling the tank. Use a garden hose to fill the barrel and then use a standard airstone and heater to warm it up and airate before use.


ILLUSN, nice tidy setup. I've got a similar RO setup with float valve etc but it's a disgracefull mess at the moment :) BTW what conductivity do you aim for?

[ILLUSN]

wow...that looks very high-tech.

Any other methods which doesn't involve breaking the back and the bank?! :D

You can skip the RO part and just use the pump and hose for filling the tank. Use a garden hose to fill the barrel and then use a standard airstone and heater to warm it up and airate before use.


ILLUSN, nice tidy setup. I've got a similar RO setup with float valve etc but it's a disgracefull mess at the moment :) BTW what conductivity do you aim for?

LOL that setup is Steve's I dont use RO sydney water is more than soft enough

[Hollowman]

:lol:

Dave, my tap water is 660Us after it goes through the RO it is down to about 15Us, then I re-min with HMA to 180-200Us

[DiscusDave]

Sorry Steve :) Yeah my tap water is around 200uS to start with. I've not actually used my RO for a while because of that reason.

[mawhins]

Hey hollowman, is re-min re-mineralise and is HMA some sort of commercial product to do that? Do you have a monitor for reading micro-siemens? Do you guys add ph buffers?

[Hollowman]

Hi Maw, welcome to the forum.

I will try to explain. First, HMA stands for Heavy Metal Axe. It is a type of water filter that removes all traces of metallic compounds in our tap water and also removes the chlorine and chloromin. It leaves you with product water (with no waste) which still has the same hardness of your tap water and safe to use for your fish. No 'Prime' or other dechlorinator products are needed.
If you look at my RO system in the photos, you will see the 2 pods below the membranes, these are a sediment filter and a CBR2 carbon block which acts are the metal remover. I tap off of these to re-mineralise my pure RO water, which has no ability to buffer the ph.
The Ph of my RO is generally 6. After I re-min with the HMA product water the ph raises to about 6.8 to 7.

If you have an RO system, and want to buy expensive re-min salts that is fine. But you can get the same result with no extra cost doing it the way I do.

hth

Steve

[mawhins]

Thanks for the welcome Steve and the explanation.

I'm formulating a setup that will allow me to have a few tanks and do simple regular water changes. I've posted my plans here http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19635 Still working it out, would appreciate any feedback you might have. :)

Will have to check whether I need to remove heavy metals. Have been thinking RO might be worthwhile but not sure yet.