Water Change Setup for 180g Tank *Help Needed*

[directional]

Hi RC,

I will be upgrading my tank from a 55g to a 180g in the near future and I am also planning on upgrading the way I perform my water changes to something much less back breaking.

My tank is in my living room, and my RO/DI is connected in my garage because it's my only "indoor" hose spigot. This seems problematic because of the distance between my tank and the water. It also seems like it will be an issue in the winter time when it's 50* out there and the water needs to match my tank temperature.

Here is some information on my current method and some thoughts I have for moving forward.


Current method:
- Empty tank into 5g buckets and empty into drain
- Fill 5g buckets with water, mix salt, and pump into tank using a maxi jet

New approach:
- Buy 44g/20g rubbermaid brute cans (not sure how many are needed)
- Heater needed (any recommendations on size?)
- How can I best get the water from the garage into the house? (up 2 small stairs)


I know there are many people in this forum who efficiently change water and I can use your help!

 

[iLLwiLL]

Look into water mixing stations, there's a huge thread here on them that's very informative.

I'm planning on building one for mixing water and fresh/ato storage using 2 barrels, an external pump, some apex modules and a crap load of valves/bulkheads/plumbing. My main display shares a wall with the garage, so I'll be using pass-throughs.

Draining will be done with a python like setup. Might even use quick connect fittings from BRS to use that for refilling if I can get one to reach my bedroom tank.

 

[jpitch]

Do you have an attic/crawl space above? My water container is above my tank in the den and I use gravity to feed my sump. I then plumbed a T in my return. Turn main line off. Turn another drain on to drain waster water to my main line.

 

[directional]

Update -

Figured out a way to connect the RO/DI system in my laundry room to create water into a vessel and drain into same drain as the washer machine.

This is good because my laundry room is on the same floor as my aquarium.


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[lnevo]

Directional, I do exactly that with the laundry drain

Look at heavy duty peristaltic pumps like Stenner and Masterflex (?) There's a thread here on RC called Automatic Water Change that has a lot of information on this type of setup.

The benefit is that you dont have to worry about temp matching since your doing small amounts on a more frequent basis so it has practically no effect on the tank temperature.

This is what I'm doing and I'd be happy to demo it if you're interested.

 

[James404]

Here's a shot of my old mixing station if your looking for ideas. White container was fresh rodi, brute was salt mix.

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