gravel is a pain, go bare, tile or sane and dont gravel vac. i have some gravel tanks and i have an electric vac thats works well. otherwise its a pain even on a 6 ft tank
Large Tanks and Water Changes
- Thread starter kulvero
- Start date
I have around 500 gallons total of fish tanks. The rays in the 180 get ten percent daily to remmove the solid waste. And on the weekend the rays get 40 to 50 percent. i do it all with buckets hahaha. I have 6 5 gallon pails, drain with python and fill with buckets 6 at a time. Let buckets sit treated with prime for a few mins before the rays get the water. Bare tank no gravel. The weekend is thetime for my wcs
Every weekly water change is also a gravel vac. No biggie. If I'm tired, lazy or the surf is big I'll skip a day or so.
kulvero;4882771; said:
Most automatic water changers are DIY projects - I'm not sure if there are any "plug-and-play" systems available.
Most systems work by dripping water into the tank on either a constant or intermittent basis. Excess water overflows to a gravity drain or a sump-pump. My system uses a pump to remove wastewater and a float valve to replace it.
My tanks and sump add up to about 500 gallons. I change about 700 gallons per week, around 140%. I do this because I have a very high stocking levels in my 210 and a couple big cats in my 135. In order to keep nitrates under 20 ppm I have to change this much water.
People that are into salt (I used to be one of them) don't do nearly the water changes, it is just too expensive.
So i have only 150 for now would like more getting more but 1 time a week funny i do it on sunday (along with alot of people here from reading this) with a python drain/fill regular tap water 50% and then after water change add stress coat and i do my gravel every other sunday and spot clean food and other particals as i see them in the water during the week as for water consumption and price i dont notice it like someone else said i am more worried about electircity but at the same time i have 6 fish total not really dirty fish 14in under and some people stock there tanks with much more then would need to do more water changes and more often based on the stock in the tank to keep the harmfull levels down
kulvero;4882771; said:
The easiest way is to set up a constant drip system.
My set up: one gallon an hour flows into my tank from the house cold water line.
This is the easy part if you have a sink near the tank. I have a laundry room on the other side of my tanks so I added a T fitting from my cold water line with a little valve to control flow. Ran this white flexible plastic line from the T fitting along the base boards, to the back of my tank and drilled a tiny 1/4 inch hole behind my fish tank and ran the line through the wall to the top of my tank. The water just trickles into the tank constantly. The extra water overflows into the sump.
The hard part for me was the drain. I drilled a hole in my sump for a 1" bulkhead fitting right at the level I wanted the water to be at. Then I ran that line through the wall to the back yard. One gallon an hour runs out the house through a hose that I move around from tree to bush or whatever needs water that day
I dont agree that it is always good to do lots of water changes, because it depends on the quality of your tap water or were ever you get it, if it is not from the tap. I have a 300g tank and I make my water change only once every 2 months more or less, because my tap water is not that good, it has a ph of 8.0, and the gh is very high, so insted of spending money on water that is not good to put in my tank I got my self a very good filter that keeps the water in very good condition. To give you an idea of my water in the tank, I have the ph level at 6.5, the gh at 12mg/l the kh is 4 and the nitrite is less then 0.05mg/l. In my tank I have, black arowana, barbs, silver sharks ***.. just to give you an idea of what fish I keep with only one water change every 2 months. But like I sad before it depends on the water you put in the tank, if you have good tap water it might not be so bad after all Here are some pics of my fish hope you like them.
Here are some pics of my fish hope you like them.
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I did my auto changer with a lawn sprinkler timer and valve for the fill. I tapped 3/8" copper tubing into my main water line after my household water filters. Ran it under the stand and put a tee and two lines coming off with ball valves. One just goes right to the sump for emergency filling for any reason. The other goes to a 3/4" lawn sprinkler valve, which runs up to the top of the tank. Where I failed was the drain, I wanted it to work by gravity but had some problems with the baffles in my sump. So the drain is a small 300-400 gph pump hooked up to a float valve from Lowes. Once water reaches a certain height in the sump, the float valve turns the pump on and pumps water into my backyard via pvc running thru the wall.
Here is the thread with a few pics
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358513
kulvero;4882771; said:
I did my auto changer with a lawn sprinkler timer and valve for the fill. I tapped 3/8" copper tubing into my main water line after my household water filters. Ran it under the stand and put a tee and two lines coming off with ball valves. One just goes right to the sump for emergency filling for any reason. The other goes to a 3/4" lawn sprinkler valve, which runs up to the top of the tank. Where I failed was the drain, I wanted it to work by gravity but had some problems with the baffles in my sump. So the drain is a small 300-400 gph pump hooked up to a float valve from Lowes. Once water reaches a certain height in the sump, the float valve turns the pump on and pumps water into my backyard via pvc running thru the wall.
Here is the thread with a few pics
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358513
2x180g,150g+75g here. I still use the 5g bucket method. Keeps me moving 
. Gravel vac and 30% wc on each tank weekly. I split it up over my 3 day weekend. I love the fish so I don't mind the work. The water bill and electricity are the woes of having beautiful monsters 
!!!!!!
---Chris
. Gravel vac and 30% wc on each tank weekly. I split it up over my 3 day weekend. I love the fish so I don't mind the work. The water bill and electricity are the woes of having beautiful monsters !!!!!!---Chris
