water changes - how easy is yours?

ben&bobbi

ben&bobbi

New member
OK, last night it took well over 1-1/2 hrs to change 40g. I mean from starting to get the hose, pump cords, etc out, gravity syphon the water, pump it back in from 44g container, then clean everything back up.

The gravity syphon isn't too bad - just SLOW. i run the hose into the bathtub. But i switched to a garden hose because the clear ones ALWAYs twist and kink on me. BUT the grarden hose, i can't see where the water is - tastes awful!! The clear hose got moldy from not rinsing it i guess.

then i tried to pump it out, and the pump wouldn't pull it out of the tank (mag3 i think). Pumps back in from the container on the porch. probably 10' to tub, 15' to new water. Again with the problem of getting the water started to the pump. I am switching to a quiet one 5000.

so this whole mess cleaned up taking a good while - i need to fix this!

i seen a valve setup on here that i will try to make, this will eliminate switching the hoses on the pump, but still need better ideas! I plan on putting a switch in the new power center, and leave the water change pump hooked up.

somewhere on here i read one guy says his takes 15 minutes on a big tank.

so,
how do you change your water?
what do you use?
how do you get the water started?
how long does it take?
where do you store the hoses?
do you rinse them out?
 
how do you change your water?

*Turn on my R/O to fill my 150 gallon vat, takes about 3 days.
*The vat has a float valve on it to stop to R/O when it reaches 150 gallons.
*I add salt to vat, and turn on my receirc pump and heaters.
*Come back in about 6 hours later and drain 150 gallons from my system with a small pump. Takes about 10 minutes to drain 150 gallons into my sink. Then flip a 3-way vlave I have on my recirc pump that is on the vat to flow water out a 1.5" line to my tank. It takes less then 3 minutes to drain the vat into the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9899021#post9899021 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bstone
how do you change your water?

....
*Come back in about 6 hours later and drain 150 gallons from my system with a small pump. Takes about 10 minutes to drain 150 gallons into my sink. Then flip a 3-way vlave I have on my recirc pump that is on the vat to flow water out a 1.5" line to my tank. It takes less then 3 minutes to drain the vat into the tank.
Click to expand...

do you have pics by any chance of the valve? also what size hose is draining the tank? Is this something that is always hooked up?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9899064#post9899064 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ben&bobbi
do you have pics by any chance of the valve? also what size hose is draining the tank? Is this something that is always hooked up?
Click to expand...

I will post some pictures later. The drain hose from my tank tot he sink is 1". The pump and hose is not something that is hooked up perminiatly, I take it in and out as needed. I just place the sumersable pump in my sump and the hose in the sink. When I am done with it, it goes into a bucket until next time.
 
It take me about 45 minutes to do a full water change. Personally I feel it is better to use the time to siphon out detritus and clean the sump and skimmer, so I do not just dump water out and then in. I do about 35 gallon when I do a water change. Get a decent pump/powerhead. It make getting water in and out much faster. It only take me about 4-5 minutes to pump all my water back into the tank. 45 minutes is with a full cleaning of my skimmer too.

Really it's the only tank maintenance I do, so I can live with 45 minutes once every Saturday morning.
 
i agree with the cleaning part too. I wasn't counting cleaning the skimmer, this was JUST water change! I am planning for my future family growth and trying to get things done easier and faster. maybe just the bigger pump and hose will help.

which size hose do you use?

i am thinking i can use the pump and clean the sump too, then throw the hose into the display. probably make a "j-hook" out of pvc to hang on the tank and attach the hose to it.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9899357#post9899357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JB NY
It take me about 45 minutes to do a full water change. Personally I feel it is better to use the time to siphon out detritus and clean the sump and skimmer, so I do not just dump water out and then in. I do about 35 gallon when I do a water change. Get a decent pump/powerhead. It make getting water in and out much faster. It only take me about 4-5 minutes to pump all my water back into the tank. 45 minutes is with a full cleaning of my skimmer too.

Really it's the only tank maintenance I do, so I can live with 45 minutes once every Saturday morning.
Click to expand...

Joe,

So you change water every week (35g)?
 
I'm a much smaller operation [54g] total water volume [80g]: but I have a different problem: I have a refugium involved and don't want to deplete my pods in a water change.

So I put a hose in the sump downflow chamber and pump water out, never turning off the system. This means that the sump/refugium stays 'up' the entire time.

The previous day I have dumped a measured amount of salt [for 10g] into a Brute trashcan, run ro/di water in atop and tested until it reached the right salinity, mixed with a Maxijet 1200 overnight. Because the size of my sump relative to my tank is large, I never have to shut down anything but the autotopoff.

On change day, I unplug the autotopoff, pump water out, then pump new saltwater in with the same 1200 maxijet...about 10 minutes for that operation.

Now that I've added a kalk reactor to my 32g ro/di tub [I'd rather set myself afire than mess with that baby now it's running smoothly], I'll have to get another 15g tub just for wastewater.
 
I change 80 gallons every other week. I built an manifold to mix the water as well as do the water changes. I use 1 pump to fill my 100 gallon SW tank, mix salt and do the water change, which takes about 5 minutes. Very easy and simple.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9900310#post9900310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bryan89
I change 80 gallons every other week. I built an manifold to mix the water as well as do the water changes. I use 1 pump to fill my 100 gallon SW tank, mix salt and do the water change, which takes about 5 minutes. Very easy and simple.
Click to expand...

come on, you can't leave it hang like that! need more info! pics!!
80 gallons in and out and cleaned up in 5 minutes!
 
AFTER I collect the NSW, it take sme about an hour to change about 150G. I hook up a garden hoes to the outlet on my Swimming pool canister filter that sits outside the fish room and drain the tank out into the alley. When the water is down to where I want it, I shut that valve, hook up the hose to a pump and pump the water from my truck into the tank. Total time not including the drive to get teh water is about an hour. As stated by JB, while the water is draining or filling, I take that time to do other maintance and cleaning.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9901260#post9901260 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by blown63chevy
AFTER I collect the NSW, it take sme about an hour to change about 150G. I hook up a garden hoes to the outlet on my Swimming pool canister filter that sits outside the fish room and drain the tank out into the alley. When the water is down to where I want it, I shut that valve, hook up the hose to a pump and pump the water from my truck into the tank. Total time not including the drive to get teh water is about an hour. As stated by JB, while the water is draining or filling, I take that time to do other maintance and cleaning.
Click to expand...

NSW - that another thing i haven't got brave enough to try. i live pretty close to the beach, but still worried about getting something bad. I know another guy who uses it, runs it through a filter to catch the big stuff.
 
continuous water change LM3 w/water exchange module w/LLC, remote pump module. 175gal saltwater storage, at 7gal a day. 200gal ro/di water storge
 
NSW - Now that's a whole nother thread. I get mine from a locla university. They filter it down to 20 microns and use it in their own bio marine research and studys. I, and others, have been using it for years with no problems. Their facility uses it 24/7/365 as they have a constant flow thru system. They provide a garden hoes hook up for free acces to the public. :D

If you can collect in a clean area at high tide, you should be OK. Filter it if you think you need to. Worse comes to worse, you treat it with bleach. PaulB here on RC has been doing it for years, like almost 40, with water from the long island sound in NY. I know he's posted his receipie on treating NSW with bleach more than once on RC.
 
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