"Wasting" water with large tanks

[duanes]

When my garden is saturated, a valve can be closed to redirect the tank water to the rain barrels, and if they are full, they overflow to the pond.

The rain barrels are also used to water log (soak) wood, and breed gammarus shrimp.

 

[magpie]

Love your setup!

 

[Allan01230]

well Ive been in the hobby since the late sixties I have every type of freshwater fish at one time or another, now I keep a 50 breeder with rainbows and a distichodus affinis and a bushynose pleco I get just as much enjoyement out of the hobby with this tank then large ones.. so weekly 15 gallon water change not that bad also get our water source from the Detriot river the best freshwater supply in the world also Michigan has 11.000 lakes.

 

[Fat Homer]

I live in a building so hate to say it but most of my tank water goes straight down the drain...

I have a few indoor plants, but mainly succulents that dont need much water and a few carnivourous plants that need “distilled water” so only maybe 0.5% of the water change gets used...

 

[Steve_C]

This is what I'm thinking might be a good way to go. Just thinking about logistics and how to make it work from tank to barrels and barrels to the areas that need water.

Submersible pump and hose is definitely the way to go. Screw that sucking on fish water with your mouth lol

I use a 710gph pump I get off ebay for $20. Makes very short work of WC's https://www.ebay.com/itm/53-710-GPH...18d1feb05:m:mxOp-hm2eFwSKYSc7fFhUFA:rk:2:pf:0

Then once in the barrel you can just drop the pump in the barrel and water whatever you needed to water with the hose till the barrel was pumped dry.

 

[MrsE88]

You know if it has the larger section on the end to vac with you can just dip it into the tank fill and lift to make the water run down the hose then put it back in the tank and bam! No sucking required lol

Come on now, don’t make me feel stupid

I’ll give that a try and if it works I’ll be happy that I no longer will need to risk getting fish and turtle water in my mouth. Lol

 

[BIG-G]

I’ll give that a try and if it works I’ll be happy that I no longer will need to risk getting fish and turtle water in my mouth. Lol

It works for me. As long as the tank end is high enough it should work.
Some times I have to do it a couple times to get enough water in the hose for the siphon to start.

 

[krichardson]

Come on now, don’t make me feel stupid

I’ll give that a try and if it works I’ll be happy that I no longer will need to risk getting fish and turtle water in my mouth. Lol

Yep that's the "mouthless" way to do it.Place the syphon end upside down in the tank and let it become full of water then,once the syphon is full of water hold it up above the tank to let the water drain out of it and right before all of the water has drained out of the syphon end lower it back in the tank and submerge.The hose should be draining by then.

 

[MrsE88]

BIG-G & K krichardson I think most of my tanks will work for doing that then. The water level in my turtle tanks might be too low, but I’ll try it out anyway just to see. I nearly vomited the last time I got turtle water in my mouth. I felt sick all day. I was positive that I was going to get salmonella poisoning. Haha.

 

[krichardson]

BIG-G & K krichardson I think most of my tanks will work for doing that then. The water level in my turtle tanks might be too low, but I’ll try it out anyway just to see. I nearly vomited the last time I got turtle water in my mouth. I felt sick all day. I was positive that I was going to get salmonella poisoning. Haha.

Haha...I can imagine how that must have grossed you out!