How Does Everyone do Their Water Changes?

[terrors r us]

Automation is the answer.....you need a timer and a couple of valves,
when your timer reaches the set date the drain valve on your tank will
open and water will go into the drain(the length of time your timer stays
open is up to you) then that valve closes and another valve which is connected to your city water supply opens (and a dosing pump for prime).
the tank fills up until it reaches the level switch, which will tell the valve
to close and your water change is done.........And all this time you
are watching the football game.....

You can google "Automatic water changes" and see what you get......

 

[Zfishies]

THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to bad i have saltwater and cant do that =[

 

[Egon]

Well, why are u doing water changes...to reduce Nitrates? With a scrubber, NItrates and Ammonia stay at zero.

I add water occasionally and only cause of evaporation. Been 9 mos now and still the same parameters. Fresh tank btw.

Ya might want to look into getting a different test kit.............. What's that saying about bliss?????

 

[aclockworkorange]

Well, why are u doing water changes...to reduce Nitrates? With a scrubber, NItrates and Ammonia stay at zero.

I add water occasionally and only cause of evaporation. Been 9 mos now and still the same parameters. Fresh tank btw.

Do you mean ammonia and nitRItes stay at 0? NitRAtes aren't going to be removed without water changes.

 

[Egon]

Automation is the answer.....you need a timer and a couple of valves,
when your timer reaches the set date the drain valve on your tank will
open and water will go into the drain(the length of time your timer stays
open is up to you) then that valve closes and another valve which is connected to your city water supply opens (and a dosing pump for prime).
the tank fills up until it reaches the level switch, which will tell the valve
to close and your water change is done.........And all this time you
are watching the football game.....

You can google "Automatic water changes" and see what you get......

I have a trickle system in two of my tanks now. I set the flow to 1 or 2 gallons an hour going into the tank. An overflow on the sumps (1" pipe) goes to a drain that goes to my yard. The plants love the fishy water and I was going to water them anyway. Not really costing me extra $$$, at least that's what I tell myself

 

[vaine111]

Do you mean ammonia and nitRItes stay at 0? NitRAtes aren't going to be removed without water changes.

The algea eats the NitRAtes Kind of like a planted tank feeds off NitRAtes...
I'd still do at least a 25% WC a week even if I had a scrubber, they're are other things besides NitRAtes.

 

[goestonemoa]

i have a hose running from outside through my fresh air vent in the basement to fill it up
and i have a siphon on a switch leading to the drain also located in my basement
all of my siphon equiptment cost about 200$
and my hose about 35$
its to easy

 

[Bb66cuda]

Automation is the answer.....you need a timer and a couple of valves,
when your timer reaches the set date the drain valve on your tank will
open and water will go into the drain(the length of time your timer stays
open is up to you) then that valve closes and another valve which is connected to your city water supply opens (and a dosing pump for prime).
the tank fills up until it reaches the level switch, which will tell the valve
to close and your water change is done.........And all this time you
are watching the football game.....

You can google "Automatic water changes" and see what you get......

I agree automatic drip is the way to go. I do mine differently though, since I can't run a low water level on my wet dry. Here's my 275 gallon automatic drip system.

 

[aclockworkorange]

The algea eats the NitRAtes Kind of like a planted tank feeds off NitRAtes...
I'd still do at least a 25% WC a week even if I had a scrubber, they're are other things besides NitRAtes.

Even in a heavily planted tank you will still see nitrates with a full fish bioload, just not as much.

 

[aclockworkorange]

And sorry to get off topic, I used to use the bucket method but recently purchased a python and will never look back for large water changes!

If I had a large setup in a convenient location for a full automatic drip system, I would go that way 1000000%