easy question - please chime in

[potatocouch]

re: Water Change

For those that have sump (most of you would), do you take water out and fill water in via the Sump or Display Tank?

I'm quite confident that 10% WC would probably equal 1/2 or perhaps 3/4 of your Sump capacity.

Do you see if there's a need to perform WC directly from the Display Tank?

Common diagram of DT & Sump:

 

[Pife]

Dt because I just use a siphon.

 

[DDon]

I change water from display, unless i am cleaning the sump.

 

[Crooked Reef]

Sump unless I feel the need to siphon the sand bed at all.

 

[pyithar]

display tank because i usually clean the rocks with turkey baster and then siphon the water.

 

[Dozer1one]

Dt as we'll. I like to remove as much detritus from the rock work as possible

 

[igot2gats]

From the sump. The less I'm in the DT, moving, cleaning, etc, the better if you ask me.

 

[shesacharmer]

I clean the glass and pump covers then stir the top of the sand bed and baste the rocks before throwing my little pump in there and pump out exactly 14 gallons to a nifty drain that my husband made outside the window (can't put saltwater in my septic tank so it goes to a runoff drain via conduit). Another pump for clean water goes into my mixing barrel which coincidentally holds exactly 14 gallons!

 

[ca1ore]

Unless you are combining a water change with some other husbandry chore, it makes no difference. May simply be easier for most people to siphon out of the display. Personally I employ a dual upper sump system and just 'switch' one out and one in to effect a water change.

 

[Jpugh73]

Siphon from the dt then new water in though the sump

 

[BlueFyre]

I siphon from the display cuz it's faster. Then I fill up via the sump.

 

[potatocouch]

I assume return pump is off?

How do you take out from DT and fill via Sump? Sump would still be full in this scenario.

 

[billdogg]

I usually drain from the DT and refill the sump. I leave the return pump running until just before it sucks air, then unplug it. very little backflows from the DT to the sump that way. I refill the system by using a $10 remote control to turn on a mag18 in my basement water change barrel, then open a valve on my top off line (I hard plumbed the barrel into the system so that I would NEVER have to schlepp buckets around again.) With the remote control, I just let it go until I reach the "full" line on the sump and I am done.

 

[panhandler01]

I use a Python and siphon from the DT. I turn off all the pumps and use a turkey baster to blast all of the rockwork and get detritus floating in the water so I can siphon as much of it as I can. Seems to work pretty well for me.

 

[BlueFyre]

I assume return pump is off?

How do you take out from DT and fill via Sump? Sump would still be full in this scenario.

The pump is on until the water gets too low, then I turn it off.

I do the opposite as it fills. The pump is off, once the sump starts getting too full I turn the pump back on.

 

[DoubleM 10]

i have changed water out of the dsplay for many many many years. i dotn see a problem with it. do whatever is easiest for you.

if you have a set up that allows easy removal from the sump than do that.

in my case it is mush easier from the display

 

[FDdragon]

I remove from sump. I don't like getting on a step stool to get into my DT. sump works easier for me

 

[johnike]

I built a drain valve on the closed loop manifold.
Hook up a hose, put it in the floor drain 4 feet away, done.

 

[CuzzA]

Sump. I turn my DC powerheads to 100%. Clean the glass. Grab one of the powerheads and blast the rocks and lightly kick up anything settled on the top of the sand bed. Wait about a half hour as much of the detritus has now been caught by my filter sock. Then with a pump that remains in the sump hooked to my house drain I completely empty the sump, swap the filter sock, then hit the switch for my water change container, which also has a pump and is connected to my sump and that's it. Takes about 45-60 minutes per week.

 

[Rob6311]

It's easier to change water from the sump just because it mixes the new water with the display tank water a lot better you know just in case anything is off and especially if your just topping off your tank with fresh water because of evaporation it'll mix a lot better then just dumping fresh water on your coral