Any tips for water changes?

[GoGuppy]

G'day all

I just want to know if anyone has any special tips on making the weekly (or fortnightly) chore of water changes any easier?

I have a 260 L tank and try to change about 20% to 25% every week. When I set up the tank last year, I managed to buy 10 plastic buckets at wooolies for $9.90 and am still using most of these, as I find it faster to fill all the buckets, then empty them on the garden, rather than one bucket at a time. BTW, I generally do about 6 buckets at 9L each which is 54L, or about a 20% WC.
With the 20% water removed, I generally do a bit of cleaning and trim the greens.
Then I put the six or so MT buckets all in the bath, set the gas heater water thermostat at its lowest setting of 37degC, mix some cold water in to get about 29 degC and fill all the buckets. This gives me a bit of time to fill the tank as I lose about 2 deg by the time I've finished filling the tank. Of course, I add chlorine and chloramine remover, as well as any plant fertilisers to the buckets before adding to the tank.

For the water removal I use a self priming syphon which works great, no sucking up mouthfulls of tank water anymore. Just a few shakes and away she flows!!

Does anyone have a more efficient way of carrying out WCs? There MUST be an easier way to do this..:)...Maybe plumbed in systems, or gravity feed from a tank in the ceiling? With a permanent drain with valve attached perhaps?

I'd love to hear how others on the forum do the WCs. Cheers.

[wombat1100]

WOW , I must be doing it all wrong, I have 2 , 15lt buckets and a gravel siphon, I do the gravel and the solid waste (poo and leaves) all at once, into the 2 buckets, i do about 4 buckets usually. then i put one bucket full of water on the top of the tanks and siphon back into the tanks with tap water, i just feel the water with my hands and guess the temp!
i then just keep topping the bucket up thats on the top of the tank till the tanks full. I add the dechlorinisor to the buckets as they are filling and fertilizer.
Thats it!
never have any trouble with temp changes effecting my fish or anything!
I know ppl are going to disagree with me , but wen i spent all my time on the tanks doing regular water changes and the like i had nothing but trouble
now i do changes wen i feel like it, about once a month!
tanks are stable and fish are healthy generally
Dazz

[Woodsy]

At work I have a 1000L storage vat in the roof that is hooked up to the mains water, and has a heat coil (for heating large volumes quickly). As for draining them for water changes, the trickle systems have plumbed drains for the rear recesses and I use a gravel syphon to take the water out, regardless of whether I'm vacuuming the gravel or not, to prevent fish getting sucked out (important if you're not using buckets). Then I just use a hose connected to the refill vat which works on gravity.
For marine tanks (where the fresh salt water comes in drums), I have a 200L plastic vat that I pour the water into first, then use a wet/dry pump to get it up into the tank.
If you have a fish room though, you might consider getting holes pre-drilled into them so that you can hook up an auto-drainage system combined with a flushing system. More appropriate for breeders though that one, where water changes are more frequent, and you just want a clean and organised bank of tanks.
Auto-refill systems using a sump and float valve system are also done routinely for evaporation compensation on medium to large marine tanks, and can be adapted to freshwater tanks, but usually involves overflow boxes and/or drilling holes in the glass.

[GoGuppy]

Thanks guys

I guess anything else other than buckets involves a fair bit of plumbing and in the case of roof/attic mounted tanks presents a risk of water damage due to tank leakage or overflow (altho' this is probably a small risk and could be overcome by providing a decent size spill/drip tray).

Also, I think drilling holes in existing tank set ups may be asking for probs...

Oh well bucket changes it stays then...:)

My tip of the day (FWIW) is try an auto primer type gravel cleaner. Mine came with a valve at the free end of the hose, a great little improvement!!! I can't remember the brand of the one I got, but it is similar to the following offered by Age of Aquariums:
""AquarWorld XL ( 24inch) Gravel Cleaner, *Automatic start *Outflow adjustment valve *Perfect for deep aquarium *3 year replacement warranty
$ 19.50 ""

Cheers

[joz]

For years now I have had my tanks plumbed into the drainage.
The water overflows from the trickle filter inlet (which has been disconnected now).
the water enters the tank via a chemical filter which is set by a garden tap timer.
About 20ltrs aday trickles into my 1000+litre tank /day.
At this rate there are no temp problems.
Also I have not done any water paramter tests for years now,all because it got boring and never changing.

I suppose its not something to recommend but it works for me.

Oh and I have never actually cleaned my tank now for years either except for the odd filter clean and plant trim.
Automation is a beautiful thing :)

[wombat1100]

how often do u have to change the chemical filter Joz?
and what type of filter is it? ie what does it remove?
Dazz

[bad inferno]

I'm New here however stumbled over your thread....
I have an auto water cycle, you can see the cycles completed on the web site.

Under the album you can also see the solenoids and pump I use for the water changes in some of the last pic's. I change about 100-200 litres per week by a press of a button.

www.rjconway.homeip.net


cheers

rob

[joz]

how often do u have to change the chemical filter Joz?
and what type of filter is it? ie what does it remove?
Dazz


Its called a KDF which I bought from Crystalline Filters in Melb.
It actually has quite a long life,can't really remember how long ???
But our existing one has been in for years now.
We also use one for our drinking water.

http://www.crystalline.com.au/


for KDF and aother filters click below.

http://www.crystalline.com.au/page61b.php

[GoGuppy]

I'm New here however stumbled over your thread....
I have an auto water cycle, you can see the cycles completed on the web site.
Under the album you can also see the solenoids and pump I use for the water changes in some of the last pic's. I change about 100-200 litres per week by a press of a button.
www.rjconway.homeip.net (http://www.rjconway.homeip.net)
cheers
rob

Rob mate,

Where can I buy that kind of button??:)

Gadgets heaven....

Cheers

[bad inferno]

Guppy,
its a DIY job....however if you have an external filter, acouple of valves and a small pump you could do the same thing by running a single tube tee'd from the filter outlet to outside the house. by use of the valves, Open the tube and you drain the tank, or pump water back in with a small pump. Either way you use a single tube.

[wombat1100]

I'm New here however stumbled over your thread....
I have an auto water cycle, you can see the cycles completed on the web site.

Under the album you can also see the solenoids and pump I use for the water changes in some of the last pic's. I change about 100-200 litres per week by a press of a button.

www.rjconway.homeip.net (http://www.rjconway.homeip.net)


cheers

rob


Hi Rob, can you tell me how you control the temp of the water that you are putting into the tank? is the water from a settling tank? or from mains water?
yours looks pretty high tech.

[bad inferno]

I have a 110litre tank outside, where I age the water before use. (prime & kh up) As I only change 50 litres in 400 litre tank and pump it back into the tank at ~2 litres / min I do not have to heat the water. I think the temp may drop 1.5 degree max. In the middle of winter when its really cold I throw a bucket of hot water in the setlling tank before pumping it in. I monitor the temperature of the setlling tank so I know when its really cold. As its a gradual change in temp over 30-40 minutes, the fish do not get stressed.

rob

[wombat1100]

Thanks Rob, food for thought there. do u find it necessary to treat the water? i thought the idea of the tank was to let the chlorine dissipate?

[Woodsy]

That was my understanding of it too, Dazz, that's why I don't treat my storage vats. I'm also not a massive fan of Prime (Seachem) either, especially since the people selling it in their stores don't know exactly how it works half the time, and sell it as a substitute for Aquaplus (Nutrafin), which it definitely is not. Maybe this is a topic for another thread...

[masterid]

Filter (http://www.agritura.com/index.php/cat/c362_Technical-Components.html/category/Technical-Components)is very important thing to have one's Tank whatever size. To keep your tank & thereby fishes, you must setup best filtering mechanism for your tank that is quite seems to be an important.

You have a 260 ltr tank and have problems with water quality. You should be carrying out 30% water changes 2 - 3 times a week and all seems to have been OK.

Aquarium system (http://www.agritura.com/index.php/cat/c344_Aquariums.html/category/Aquariums) will be in the best condition, if you are gonna setup best filtration system. Is that OK? :p