W/C

[Jexnell]

A tip that will help eventually.

At some point you will be refilling and totally forget that you are, and cause an overflow. Now one would think to flip the valve the other way to siphon. But sadly it won't work, the hose has to be empty for it to start siphoning.
How I clear the hose is first have the faucet valve in the drain position, next put the gravel vac in a 5gal bucket. Make an upside down u over your head, the vac side will drain into your bucket, rest of the hose to the faucet will still be full. Now walk the high part of the hose like a wave to the faucet, it will force out the water.
Now you siphon that overfilled tank to it's normal water height.

I have done it a couple times thankfully it was only a couple towels of water, could have been worse. Now to prevent that I stay near any tank I am filling

 

[Jexnell]

Another tip
As seen here I am draining down

When you refill take the vac completely out of the water so all the water in it drains out and you only have a stream of water.
Now point the stream at a rock or other solid object to diffuse the stream. The splash in helps agitated the water increasing oxygenation. Also it's a bit noisy and works as an audible signal of the tanks fullness. As the water rises it pushes up vac causing the splash in to stop becoming much quieter.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Another tip
As seen here I am draining down
View attachment 1454151
When you refill take the vac completely out of the water so all the water in it drains out and you only have a stream of water. View attachment 1454152
Now point the stream at a rock or other solid object to diffuse the stream. The splash in helps agitated the water increasing oxygenation. Also it's a bit noisy and works as an audible signal of the tanks fullness. As the water rises it pushes up vac causing the splash in to stop becoming much quieter.

I don’t trust myself not to forget, so I sit down and watch the tank until it’s full, lol

 

[Niki_up]

A tip that will help eventually.

At some point you will be refilling and totally forget that you are, and cause an overflow. Now one would think to flip the valve the other way to siphon. But sadly it won't work, the hose has to be empty for it to start siphoning.
How I clear the hose is first have the faucet valve in the drain position, next put the gravel vac in a 5gal bucket. Make an upside down u over your head, the vac side will drain into your bucket, rest of the hose to the faucet will still be full. Now walk the high part of the hose like a wave to the faucet, it will force out the water.
Now you siphon that overfilled tank to it's normal water height.

I have done it a couple times thankfully it was only a couple towels of water, could have been worse. Now to prevent that I stay near any tank I am filling

I have done this before as well.

I found if you are quick enough to disconnect the python hose from the filling faucet it will immediately start siphoning the water out of the tank. The hose does not need to be emptied to start the siphon, it just needs to be lower than the tank.

 

[Jexnell]

I have done this before as well.

I found if you are quick enough to disconnect the python hose from the filling faucet it will immediately start siphoning the water out of the tank. The hose does not need to be emptied to start the siphon, it just needs to be lower than the tank.

Never tried that, let's hope I don't have to.

 

[Niki_up]

Never tried that, let's hope I don't have to.

I hope you never do!!!

 

[esoxlucius]

I have done this before as well.

I found if you are quick enough to disconnect the python hose from the filling faucet it will immediately start siphoning the water out of the tank. The hose does not need to be emptied to start the siphon, it just needs to be lower than the tank.

Very true. I found this out the messy way, lol. If your hose is below surface level when filling, then as soon as that tap is switched off the back syphon starts simultaneously because of the higher level of the tank in comparison to the level of the hose on the floor. If it weren't for the fact that the other end of the hose is attached to the tap then your tank would empty back out to the level where your hose is!!!

Once the tank is full the trick is to break that syphon in your hose and all I do is raise the filling end of the hose up just above the surface of the water so the hose can only suck air, and not tank water!! Still got to be careful though because you have a residual amount of water in the hose that can spill out whilst winding your hose back up.

Come to think of it, you don't get none of this hassle with buckets.......just a bad back, lol.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Very true. I found this out the messy way, lol. If your hose is below surface level when filling, then as soon as that tap is switched off the back syphon starts simultaneously because of the higher level of the tank in comparison to the level of the hose on the floor. If it weren't for the fact that the other end of the hose is attached to the tap then your tank would empty back out to the level where your hose is!!!

Once the tank is full the trick is to break that syphon in your hose and all I do is raise the filling end of the hose up just above the surface of the water so the hose can only suck air, and not tank water!! Still got to be careful though because you have a residual amount of water in the hose that can spill out whilst winding your hose back up.

Come to think of it, you don't get none of this hassle with buckets.......just a bad back, lol.

I must have a new model, mine has a cut off valve by the vacuum end and I just move the lever and water starts coming out of the spigot end instead of the vacuum end. Then I switch it back over and all the water is sucked out of the hose

 

[esoxlucius]

I must have a new model, mine has a cut off valve by the vacuum end and I just move the lever and water starts coming out of the spigot end instead of the vacuum end. Then I switch it back over and all the water is sucked out of the hose

I apologise, i wasn't clear. I was referring to the hose method in general, not the python method. I'd expect with modern day pythons, as you describe, that the problem i'm referring to is eliminated. I'm not sure pythons would help me with my water changes because I have different diameter pipes for emptying and filling. Big bore for emptying, and standard hose bore for filling.

 

[HybridFinatic]

Tomorrow is water change day for me, and I was just wondering about buying a python water changer, so I can get rid of all my buckets. Do you guys recommend this since it would be straight from the tap, or should i just continue doing bucket by bucket. If i did buy a python I would of course add dechlorninator after I fill the tank back up.

I'm not sure if this has been specified but since the fish are still going to be in the tank it is very very important you put you the declorinator BEFORE you fill the tank back up with tap water. Put enough declorinator that treats atleast the entire gallonage of your tank no matter how much water you change. Too much declorinator is not a problem. It's good to conserve your declorinator but too little would be a problem. Only specifying this because you mentioned you would add declorinator only after you fill the tank back up. Also yes yes yes get one. I don't think I would be able to keep fish if something like the python didn't exist and I was left with just the bucket method. It's essential.