best method to do large scale water changes on BIG tanks

[nasomi]

I'm setting up an 800g and I'm going to set it up for automatic water changes. I'm putting the bulkhead for water drainage in the overflow. I'm also plumbing in a drain in the bottom area just above the substrate that will go to the sump that pumps outside. Gravity will force it out so I don't have to worry about setting up a siphon or anything like that. It'll have a cage over it to prevent anything from getting lost through the hole.

 

[Bderick67]

We do water changes utilizing the plumbing of our mechanical filtration. We have a bare floor tank and have two PVC pipes coming down just off the floor "poop suckers" that suck up all the debris on the floor. Connected to the plumbing lines is a pipe going under the house and out to the patio. To drain the tank, we just open the valve where the pipe comes out onto the patio, and the water gravity flows from the tank to the outside. Refilling the tank is easy, too. In our mechanical room behind our tank, we have a 55 gallon tank sitting on a high shelf. We have a line from a utility sink to the 55 gallon holding tank. We turn on the faucet (matching it to the water in the main tank), filling up the 55 gallon tank. We keep the faucet on when we are refilling the main tank. There is a PVC pipe in the 55 gallon tank that feeds into the mechanical filtration. We just open the valve, and the water gravity flows from the 55 gallon tank to the 300 gallon main tank.

Nice, I plan on expanding my 450g into a 1100-1200 gallon system. Plan on doing some sort of auto drip system, but in the warmer months I would like to be able to turn that off and do large water changes. I gotta water the lawn so why not take advantage of new water for the fish and poopy water for the lawn. I think you example could work just right.

 

[arowfan]

Thanks everyone for all the ideas! Attached is a picture of the tank from the side...its 8 ft long, 4 ft wide by about 2 ft tall with overflows in the corners.
So where do you guys reccommend I drain the water from the system? I will be having a sump under the tank, but I think I have to drill the back of the tank right...or am I missing something?
Thanks again everyone!

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[jsodwi]

I have a lawn sprinkler timer and solenoid valve from Home Depot. It is hooked up to my water line in my basement. It goes off everyday at 4:30 and dumps 80 gallons of water into top of tank. I neglected to have my 180g sump drilled to drain so I have a mag 9.5 hooked up to a float switch in the sump. When sump raises it pumps water onto my lawn. Ultimately having the sump drilled at desired level would be fail safe.

 

[pacu mom]

Nice, I plan on expanding my 450g into a 1100-1200 gallon system. Plan on doing some sort of auto drip system, but in the warmer months I would like to be able to turn that off and do large water changes. I gotta water the lawn so why not take advantage of new water for the fish and poopy water for the lawn. I think you example could work just right.

Here's one of the poop suckers in the 300 gallon tank (old pic)

I don't like the idea of drilling the tank, and prefer drilling the top of the tank. I had holes drilled in the top of my tank when it was being built. Here are three of the eleven holes (for 1 1/2" PVC) on the top of the tank.

Here's one of my poop sucker pipes. It still needs to be painted and then coated with clear epoxy paint.

Five of these are uptake or return pipes that still need sanding/painting. The uptake/return nozzles will fit in the "knots" where the temporary connectors are to keep the threads clean from the epoxy putty we used to sculpt our "trees".

Our plumbing is going to be very prominent in the tank. With six poop suckers just off the floor, we will be able to open a valve and drain the tank. All we will need is a drain line coming off the pipe to the pump, similar to what we have with our little 300 gallon system. It has worked so well in the last seven years, I won't consider not using poop suckers.

 

[Pontis Lebowski]

Those poop suckers look nice! I have wanted to set pvc pipe in my tank to suck up poop. I just never dared to try and paint them. Your look pretty good. Do you have bare bottom? I wont give up my sand so im trying to figure out how to make bottom drains work.

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[pacu mom]

We have bare bottom in our 300 gallon tank. We are going "semi-bare" in our large tank. We are going to put a low profile 3D rocky background on the floor. This stuff is going on the floor.