Monster water changes???

[Miles]

I'm lucky. We have no chlorine here and have a high alkalinity.

I can change 300 gallons out of my 375g with no dechlor or conditioners.. Sometimes I might toss a few handfuls of salt in the overflow boxes.

I also have a high quality 120g hot water heater.. If I trickle over a 3-4 hour period, I don't have to worry about temperature drop. That's usually in the winter though, as the fish room tanks run in the mid 80s in the Summer.. I just trickle cold water. Fish don't seem to mind, but I don't keep alot of sensitive fish either. I've filled it on full blast in a hurry before too, dropped the temp a bunch with no ill effects, but it's always a gamble.

Key thought: Make sure you hold your python above the water level so it can have gas release and create gas exchange. If you hold it below the water level back pressure can build up and leech toxic gases into your tank. If everything gets covered in microbubbles, that's bad. Many of the chlorines and other toxins will be released during gas exchange from what I understand, it's similiar to the effects of aged distilled water?

 

[cvermeulen]

I have a DIY PVC Overflow set up about 1/2 way down the aquarium. The pipe runs through 1 wall into my back yard.

I turn the ball valve open and walk away. I can shut it at any level. The most I will get with this is about a 50% water change.

I still need to run some piping to get water back into the tank.

Buckets for now.

I'll try and find pics.

Hook your hose up to a three way valve in the yard... position one drains the tank, position two fills the tank!

 

[jus1time]

I just run the drain hose into the toilet to drain. refill from a 55 gal garbage can as was suggested.

 

[mcox3]

Hook your hose up to a three way valve in the yard... position one drains the tank, position two fills the tank!

Well, i've got the draining taken care of, but i'll look into something like this for filling.

 

[stevebussard]

I don't have a 200 gallon tank, but I do have a 110 gallon tank. I usually do about 50 - 60% water changes. I can't run it out the window or anything cool like that, so what I do is use a 20 gallon trash can that I use ONLY for the fish tank. I bought a fairly in-expensive fountain pump for an outside pond. I hooked up 10 feet of 3/4" hose to it, and I just stick it in the tank and flip the switch. I can drain the tank down to about 25 gallons in 5 minutes. Once I drain the bulk of the water I use a standard syphon hose to actually clean the substrate. To refill the tank I just fill the trash can up with fresh water and use the pump in reverse. The only thing that sucks is waiting for the trash can to fill up from the tub.

 

[hillbilly]

Why do water changes when you can do drip?

 

[mcox3]

...its my work out...

 

[pacu mom]

How do some of you guys with 200+ gallon tanks change your water?

When we set up our 300 gal tank, my husband was adamant about making it as maintenance-free as possible. He spent about two weeks putting in the plumbing. We have a bare-floor tank and have extreme mechanical filtration using two spa filters run with a big Hammerhead pump (5800 gph). Besides the main uptake in the tank, there are two "poop suckers" strategically placed in the tank that quickly remove all debris and feces from the tank. In the 16 months that the tank has been running, there has been no debris to vacuum out.

When doing water changes, the pump is turned off, and the valve to the dump line is opened. We can rapidly drain out 200 gallons in a very short time. By turning various valves on/off, we can siphon water through the return nozzle, backwash the filter cartridges in the spa filters and then dump the water outside the house. (Of course, the return spray nozzle is only several inches below the waterline, so the backwashing is limited).

In our equipment room (where the mechanical filters are) we have a utility sink with a line running up to a 55 gallon tank sitting a high shelf. This tank is full of heated, conditioned water. A valve is opened, and water gravity flows into the tank. Since it only holds 55 gallons, we turn the water on at the sink which flows into the holding tank. More chemicals are added. The slowest part of the whole operation is keeping the 55 gallon tank refilled.

We change out 200 gallons on two consecutive days. (we run out of hot water the first day), and manage to keep nitrates < 20 ppm. We turn the pump on and rapidly pump in the last 100 gallons. Our fish love the turbulent water. Here's a video of them playing at the end of a water change when the last of the water is being pumped in: LARGE LOAD WARNING:




Poop Sucker:

Mechanical Filtration:

The vertical pipe on the right is the line coming from the 55 gal holding tank. Just behind it is a pipe going down through the floor, under the house, outside to the patio.

The two horizontal lines are the uptake lines from the main uptake and the two poop suckers. The oblique line at the back is the return line back to the tank. There are valves on each end of every pipe--at the filter and at the tank.

Water changes truly are a breeze with my husband's innovative system.