My wacky water changing tools, I'm not messing around anymore.

spotfin

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MFK Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Interesting. What if you want to syphon/clean the gravel?
 

mudbuttjones

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2014
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Wisconsin
Interesting. What if you want to syphon/clean the gravel?
Before I went bare bottom I vaccumed my oscar tank every week. Now I have 2x whisper 60's and 2x fluval 406's on the 75. I have a rigorous filter maintenance schedule but nothing settles on the glass. I never vaccum this tank.

I seldom vaccum my planted tank. I've got 2 large sunsun canisters on it which gather a ton of waste before it can settle into the fine substrate., I vaccum the gravel a few times a year into a 5 gallon bucket. I've never had a nitrate issue. I've got alot of heavy root feeding crypts which I dont like disturbing with a vac.

My 90g has excellent circulation through the display. There are only a couple dead spots where waste accumulates. I used to place the end of my gravel vac into the trickle tower in the sump full of floss and vaccum from the display down into the sump. uploadfromtaptalk1425320976778.jpg
Woweeeeee look at those jets of water! These days I just stick a pvc pipe in the tank and stir the dead spots around on top of the sand, and they make their way to the overflow


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mudbuttjones

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2014
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66
Wisconsin
I made some very important updates. uploadfromtaptalk1426957378504.jpg

I built a U shaped tube of 1.25" pvc to go over the rim of the tank. The weight of the hose had a tendency to pull the pump upwards.

uploadfromtaptalk1426957402349.jpg
Its the perfect size to sit just above the sand on my 90g, and just rests on the bottom of my 75g.



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mudbuttjones

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2014
1,375
58
66
Wisconsin
Here's another one I have

uploadfromtaptalk1426995620874.jpg
32 gallon Rubbermaid garbage can with a 475gph pump with 1.25" tubing

uploadfromtaptalk1426995733311.jpg
On the other end there is a pvc U shaped attachment that hangs on the rim of the tank to refill.

I have a 75gal set up in a retail space my mother runs. I drain the tank into the barrel in a few short minutes. Then I wheel the cart around back to the utility sink. I pump the water out of the barrel into a drain.. then I refill the barrel with warm water and some dechlor. After that I wheel it back to the display tank and pump fresh back in.

It's a little time consuming it takes About 30-45 mins. But it's not bad considering the tank is so far away from any sort of water source or place to drain. 32gallon water changes on a 75g isn't too bad.... thats the equivalent to 6 standard sized buckets... or 12 round trip, I shudder to think about buckets.

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