Changing water in a big tank -- how do YOU do it?

[Bent]

I have a pump in my sump plumbed to the mop sink. I have a pump in the salt mix bucket.

I drain the RO holding container into the salt mix container, I mix the salt in the salt mix container and bring the water up to temp. Equipment is on a DJ switch panel.

I flip off the skimmer.
I flip off the return pump and fill the sump
I flip off the ATO
I flip a switch and activate the sump pump, it drains to the mop sink.
After a set amount of time (about a gallon every five seconds), I switch the sump pump off.
I switch the pump on in the salt mix container and pump the new saltwater to the sump.

I turn everything back on.

Done

 

[MeghanisradxD]

I'm with everyone on Brute trashcans for storing water. I have one for fresh and one to mix salt.

As far as water changes go, I drilled a 3/4" hole in the bottom of my tank and it drains down into a ball valve that I can hook my python water changer to. Open the ball valve to drain water. Then take that end of the python and clamp it onto the tank, put the other end on the mag drive and pump water into the tank to refill. Quick and easy. I just keep the mag drive in the salt trash can, so I can mix water when I need to.

 

[saf1]

Right now with my 40 breeder I just use two home depot buckets, 5 gallon. I toss in 2 2 gallon distilled water, salt, mix to SG, let it sit over night with power head. Morning I toss in a power head with a hose, pump out the 2nd bucket full, then dump in utility sink. Rinse it out, then put pump with hose in 5 gallon bucket with new water, and let it go.

New tank will have use a 55 gallon drum with NSW. Under the stand I will plumb in a drain / hose bib. Attach, let it drain. From the storage in garage will let gravity feed it into the sump. Should go pretty smooth.

 

[jccaclimber]

Back when I had a basement (I miss basements) I did my 300 by putting a port in the wall and running a garden hose (kink free) to the basement floor drain. The rest stayed coiled up under the stand. Once I had drained reverse the process and use the same hose to pump water back up. For RO storage I found some cheap food safe 55 gallon plastic drums, put uniseals in the bottom of each one and merged them all together with a pump to bring the water back up.

Now that I have a house on slab the process is similar but includes putting out hoses in the house to pump/drain through then cleaning up afterwards.

The freshwater tank drains through a 3" hose to the grass and moves 250 gallons of water out at an extraordinary rate, pump and smaller hose to refill.

 

[oseymour]

I have a 75 gallon tank in an small nyc apartment. I tried to get my tank to a place where I do one large water change per month.

I now have it there. I dose vinegar and vodka which keeps my nitrates under 5 and I do a 27 gallon water change one a month which is about half of the water in the display tank.

I keep a large container from HomeDepot on my fire escape and bring it in once a month, hookup my RODI and fill the container on a Friday and have it mix overnight and getup early Saturday and make the water change. I have a long enough hose and use a Sicce 3.0 that pumps directly into my bathroom - about 25 feet.

 

[64Ivy]

Step 1: Draw outgoing water from tank to floor drain (handiest invention since the wheel).

Step 2: Pump new water from 125g mixing tank back to sump.

Step 3: Repeat once a week.

 

[Green Chromis]

:fish1: Hi all, I just go out in the boat, collect about 110 to 120 gallons of NSW into two semi clear containers, come home wash the boat, put in garage, pump out and clean the sump, and finally pump the water from the boat containers into the sump. This process usually take about 3 or so hours, including washing the boat. One more thing, you do need to turn off all your pumps that connect to the sump, and I also clean my skimmer at this time. I try to do water changes a least twice per month. One of the side benefits to collecting your own water is, I usually catch a few fish for dinner after I collect the water, and live shrimp are abundant in the Sargasso Grass, act as a nice supplement for feeding your fish. :fish1:

 

[Breadman03]

I use the Neptune DOS, a kind of peristaltic pump. One head goes from new water to my display, the second from display to QT, and the third from QT to waste. All I do is turn them off when I refill my Brute and mix water.

 

[morgank]

I put my sump in the basement, best decision ever and a super fun project. Water changes are breeze now, I have two brutes down there, rodi, and a floor drain. Pump from sump to drain, then from brute to sump.

Everything is super quiet upstairs too, kind of eerie considering the amount of flow.


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[seamonster124]