another fish room water change thread

We have a 55 gallon tank sitting on a high shelf in our equipment room. There is a line running from a utility sink to the holding tank. Our mechanical filtration is plumbed with "poop suckers", pvc pipe that comes just off the bare floor of the tank.



There are valves at the tank and at the pump. Water and debris are drawn off the bottom of the tank. There is plumbing that goes under the house to the patio. There is a valve on that line.

On water change days, we turn the pumps/filters off and open the outside valve. Water gravity flows via the poop suckers and drains out on the patio.


In the above picture, the vertical pipe in the front is the line from the 55 gallon holding tank. We just turn on the hot/cold water to fill the holding tank. Opening the valve begins the filling process of the main tank. Behind the vertical pipe, you can see another vertical pipe against the wall running down. That is the line that drains the tank. We can either just let the water flow into the main tank, or we can turn the Hammerhead pump back on to fill faster.

There is quite a current
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We really like the way the tank can be drained, and will have a similar feature on the big tank for draining.

I am in the process of building my fish room too.
I have done a few 75s and 125s so far.
I put a 1 inch bulkhead about 5-6 inches from the top. (Obviously, put a strainer on the bulkhead to keep fish out)
This lets me drain about 1/3 of the water easily. I had a bath rough in so the waste water goes into the sewer.

The same bulkhead has a loop of PVC that goes near the top of the tank, and then to the drain. This prevents overflowing.
But you need to put an air break so that it doesn't start a syphon.
I just used a "T"

crude drawing
| < T pointed at top to let air in
-----------------------
| |
bulkhead | drain

(edit, my pict did not work. Picture a letter "h" with the top open to the air, and the drain and bulkead at the bottom)

I am going to use the minidos to inject dechlorinator into my tap water (search on the board, plenty of threads about it)
Tap water have hot and cold going to a temperature regulator to keep it at 75 degrees F
Then sprinkler timers to control the water source.
So in theory, I will learn to set the sprinkler timer to fill up the tanks without supervision (and all tanks will have an overflow to prevent flooding)

Note, I tested my water. When it is aged, it is pH8. When it is out of the tap, it is also pH8. Go to a hydrophonics store and get an electric pH tester (About $30)
Some water supplies, especially in the winter.. the cold water has a lot of dissolved C02 out of the tap. Then as the CO2 leaves, there's a big pH swing that some delicate fish can't handle. So you might have to age your water. I am hoping for most/all of my fish, I won't have to.

If you do have to age your water, probably the best bet is a pump from aging barrels, or you can do the barrels overhead if you have ceiling room.
The problem I see with overhead storage is that it's a bigger pain to fill them.. But if you had it overhead, you could potentially just open a valve and have gravity fill them.
I was considering that as well, until I realized my PH does not swing. However, some fish are apparently sensitive to the dissolved gas too.

Another solution if you have to outgas your water is to have maybe a long 4" piece of PVC full of bioballs, run your water over that. In theory, it should drive out most dissolved gases. I have never tried this but others have claimed it works. With as much water changes as you do, it might be worthwhile to build that. Maybe that would work for most of your fish? Sure would cut down the amount of water you have to age (if it works)

Good luck, report back on what you end up doing and what works and what doesn't. Would love to learn from what you do.