Is tank water nasty to you?

[jeaninel]

In my 20+ years of keeping fish, I've only sucked in tank water once. Yeah, it's gross. I use a Python on most of my tanks but on the real small ones (10 gallon, 3 gallon, etc) I still just use a piece hose and suck on it. It doesn't bother me to do that. I've got it down to a science lol.

As for syphoning gas....one of my brothers, when he was a kid, got the bright idea of syphoning gas out of our parents car using a vacuum cleaner and nearly blew himself up. He was wrapped up like a mummy for awhile. And yes, it was for gas for his dirt bike. Dumb teenager! Lol!

 

[Skalper666]

There is no need to suck on a hose...

For a short length 4' (use with bucket) - put the hose in the tank, let the air come out, put your thumb over the small end opening, and pull that end out of the tank, remove thumb, pours in bucket. Done.

Python 25' - hook up to tap, place end in tank, turn on water, put end in tank upside down (to remove air in end of hose). Then turn off water, bend end of hose, unscrew from tap, put in toilet (between toilet seats to hold it).

This way you don't need to use water pressure to drain your tank... CHEAPER water bill.

I don't mind sucking on a hose when there is a NEED for it. But it's not necessary so why bother.

 

[Betta132]

Since aquariums have a higher concentration of fish than rivers, they have a higher concentration of bacteria. You can get really nasty amoeba infections from rivers/lakes, too, and I'll bet the chance is way higher in a packed system. I wouldn't drink river water, so I absolutely won't drink tank water.
Well- maybe discus water if I really had to. It's probably cleaner than in a lot of rivers.

 

[Freshwater4Life]

In my 20+ years of keeping fish, I've only sucked in tank water once. Yeah, it's gross. I use a Python on most of my tanks but on the real small ones (10 gallon, 3 gallon, etc) I still just use a piece hose and suck on it. It doesn't bother me to do that. I've got it down to a science lol.

As for syphoning gas....one of my brothers, when he was a kid, got the bright idea of syphoning gas out of our parents car using a vacuum cleaner and nearly blew himself up. He was wrapped up like a mummy for awhile. And yes, it was for gas for his dirt bike. Dumb teenager! Lol!

Hah damn. I never did anything that bad but being a dumb young kid myself I thought you siphoned by sucking on it . Needless to say after coughing my ass off I walked around feeling woozy for a couple hours. But yea theres about a half dozen ways besides sucking on a hose to start a siphon lol.

 

[warhawk]

I was going comment on that myself. Why start the syphon with your mouth? I usually just fill up the hose with water from the sink to start syphon.

For me it is faster to start it with my mouth it takes 1-2 secs to get it started, when you won't do a few tanks it might not seem like much but doing a lot of tanks the extra time adds up.


Looks like it is a mixed group I do so many water changes on my tanks they don't have a odor or anything and for the most part I don't get any water in my mouth but it does happen. With all the nastiness in the water I do see a good reason to be careful so I might have to rethink how I have been doing it.

I would like to add my water source and drain isn't in my fish room so I have to turn my water in one room than go to where my tanks are, I do have a valve on the hose so I can start and top the water. My water drains to a central pipe I have plumbed to my main drain in another room so no buckets to carry. When I was doing just a few tanks I was much more careful about siphoning water.

 

[warhawk]

What y'all never siphoned gas before lol

Growing up my dad always carried a hose in the back of his truck just to take out a few gallons for the ATVs, mowers, or what ever else we needed. He told me he was too old to be sucking in gas so if I wanted to ride the ATV I better learn to siphon gas. You learn pretty quick a clear hose is the best and how to do it right the first time.

 

[esoxlucius]

Everytime my missus makes me a brew i'm sure i'm drinking tank water, and don't get me started on her cooking!

 

[Skalper666]

Growing up my dad always carried a hose in the back of his truck just to take out a few gallons for the ATVs, mowers, or what ever else we needed. He told me he was too old to be sucking in gas so if I wanted to ride the ATV I better learn to siphon gas. You learn pretty quick a clear hose is the best and how to do it right the first time.

Yeah you don't want to get into one of those spit or swallow situations...

 

[Drstrangelove]

I've sucked in water from time to time. Nothing bad came of it (although I didn't know it was chock full of germs.) Our ancestors drank river and pond water as they evolved so our bodies should be capable of dealing with some (not a huge amount of course.)

Our immune system has lots of defenses from the saliva and pH in our mouth to the acid in our stomach to our antibodies. Of course when I grew up people didn't seem to worry about germs that much, so it's just my upbringing.

 

[warhawk]

Yeah you don't want to get into one of those spit or swallow situations...

you had to go there.