Making a water change easy

[dmbnpj]

Any suggestions on how to do this? I have a 75 gallon tank and use a 35 gallon trashcan to mix my new water during a water change. I am tired of lugging the water from the trashcan to the sump. Thanks for any help.

 

[K' Family Reef]

water chang'n made easy:

get a big pump, hook up a hose,
- put pump in tank to pump old water out (of course the other end of the hose in the sink) - turn it around put pump in brute trash can w/ new water in it (of course end of hose back in your tank!) - turn it back on and top off tank!... preferably you would do all of this from your sump if you have one big enuff.

depending on how much hose you buy
you could do it from your neighbors house if you chose to do so!

 

[roberts722]

fill the trash can next to you tank.

 

[papagimp]

tee of the drain line from the overflow to the sump, use a ball valve and attach some hosing, preferable with a union fitting or simlar, then when you need to change the water, turn off the sump, wait until all drainage is done, then stick a pump in your new saltwater bucket, pushing water into the diplsay and have the ballvalve on the teed off drain open so instead of draining to the sump it drains out to a whatever dirty water conatiner you use. Wa-la, easy as pie. only downside is you may have to up the ammount of water change water per week to get the same results. Some of the new water will ineviatably get pulled to the drain bucket. But it works

 

[riley290]

drill small hole in sump just above waterline or auto top-off valve. Run this to a collection bucket.

Get your saltwater bucket next to tank and insert small pump. Run line to pump water into the top of the display tank. Put the pump on a timer once a week.

Pump turns on and fills display with cooler water which sinks. water which is overflowed into sump will begin to rise and exit bulkhead into collection container.

If you can find a timer to only turn on once a week all you have to do is fill your saltwater bucket once its pumped out its water.

 

[papagimp]

oooh, I kinda like that idea better riley.

 

[Skier1]

You didn't specify whether or not your trash can and sump are on the same floor. If so, the first thing you should do is invest in some rollers for your trash can. Example: the brute series of trash cans have an optional accessory (rollers) you can purchase separately. My local Home Depot carries these.

For my system, I have a basement sump and first floor tank. There is an extra tee from the sump pump going to my utility sink. To do a water change, I simply turn off the flow to the tank and open the valve to the utility sink. This drains the sump using my return pump. Then, I turn off the pump, use a maxijet to fill the sump from the new saltwater (brute trashcan on wheels), and I'm ready to go again.

 

[Fizz71]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11083643#post11083643 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by riley290
drill small hole in sump just above waterline or auto top-off valve. Run this to a collection bucket.

Get your saltwater bucket next to tank and insert small pump. Run line to pump water into the top of the display tank. Put the pump on a timer once a week.

Pump turns on and fills display with cooler water which sinks. water which is overflowed into sump will begin to rise and exit bulkhead into collection container.

If you can find a timer to only turn on once a week all you have to do is fill your saltwater bucket once its pumped out its water.

I've been thinking about doing something like that (but without the timer)...the only thing I couldn't figure out was how I'm going to handle a power outage. If the power goes out the water will drain into the sump and into that collection container...when the power goes back on it will run dry or be topped of with freshwater. I would be concerned about this happening without my knowledge.

My current solution is to put a ball valve on the drain and fill/drain by hand. I was planning to fill right by the return pump and drain from the other end of the sump.

--Fizz

 

[an411]

I been using a power head and 2 5 gallon buckets I drain the water from the sump. and then empty it and then fill with fresh saltwater use the same powerhead you used to drain the water to fill it back up

 

[khoivo1]

dont you guy suck any dirt or junk of from sand ., don't you have to stir the sand bed a little bit on top??

 

[Fizz71]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11084779#post11084779 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by khoivo1
dont you guy suck any dirt or junk of from sand ., don't you have to stir the sand bed a little bit on top??

That's why I hire janitors.

I had a DSB in my old system...the new one will be a shallow bed (with a remote DSB in the sump) but it will still be fine sand in the tank which IMO is the key to not needing to do anything to your sandbed.

As before I'll make sure I have lots of nassarius snails..those little buggers live right in the sand and everytime I feed the tank they come crawling out like Dawn of The Dead. They do a good job of stirring stuff up...I love 'em!

--Fizz