Water Change Equipment

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mike37909

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Jul 14, 2015
68
11
13
Knoxville TN
I finally have a system i like pretty well. It is a large pump with a water hose thread on the output. The weight of the pump holds the hose safely in the tank. I use a 3/4 inch garden hose 25 feet long. I had to buy a water hose coupler fitting to connect to pump.
I drop the pump with hose connected in the tank and put the other end out the window. Sometimes i water garden or fill up buckets to save the water for plants.
When it is drained i just bring the end in the house and connect to sink. It fills right through the pump (which is turned off) and i dont have to worry about the hose falling out of the tank.
I can also hook a hose to the inlet and use a homemade gravel cleaner. I have black diamond sand so its easy to suck up sand and stop the pump, so it can still be a pain in the butt.
This system drains super fast but still only fills at a couple gallons a minute. I just tried to minimize the steps and drain as fast as i can.
 
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I did something similar.

I added a T with ball valves on the outflow of an FX5; one ball valve on each point of the T.

When the ball valves at the top of the T are open and the bottom is closed, the FX5 functions as normally.

When I attach a hose to the bottom of the T and close the top ball valve, the tank drains.

With the hose still attached, I can close the top right ball valve and open the top left, and fill the tank through the filter's outflow.

Makes life SUPER easy.
 
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mike37909 said:
Oh yeah that sounds good! Can you leave the hose hooked up and under the stand? That would be one less step than i have.
Click to expand...

You know what? I probably could lol. I first made this thing in 2013 and it never occurred to me to do that lol
 
I have posted this before but I thought I'd mention it again since the subject came up. I use this little transfer pump for draining the tanks and cleaning the substrate. I use the pump in the kitchen discharging to the sink. Intake is a 50' python.
So far just changed impeller once and the brushes. It comes with replacements for both.
I don't know what I would do without this thing. It's easy to vacuum the sumps out also which I do pretty often.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CPZTEK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Wow that pump is awesome and looks really powerful. I assume it doesn't clog as easily as mine either. I like mine because it is submersible and also holds the hose in the tank, although holding the hose is not difficult I know python makes a piece to hang on the glass.

Thanks for posting. If I can't get my sand vacuming to work better I may look at this pump.
 
LBDave said:
I have posted this before but I thought I'd mention it again since the subject came up. I use this little transfer pump for draining the tanks and cleaning the substrate. I use the pump in the kitchen discharging to the sink. Intake is a 50' python.
So far just changed impeller once and the brushes. It comes with replacements for both.
I don't know what I would do without this thing. It's easy to vacuum the sumps out also which I do pretty often.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CPZTEK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Click to expand...

That thing looks like a lifesaver!
 
I found garden hose a real pain to work with, it is much too rigid. I put hose ends on 1/2" black corrugated pond tubing which is MUCH more flexible and will not kink. With a mini watering wand on the far end I just go indoor house plant to plant and water all the plants then drain the remainder of the tank down the kitchen sink. It makes BOTH tasks much faster. How often do I change the tank water?... depends on when the house plants are dry (We have MANY house plants!!!).

On the new tank, that I am slowly putting together, it will have a pretty high flowing auto top off in the sump. I will just pull the corrugated pond tubing hose out from under the stand, water all the plants, then put the hose back under the tank. I have so many extra pumps that I will just dedicate an old pump to the hose and turn it on when it is time to water the plants. The plant watering pump will go into the first chamber of the sump and the auto top off will go into the second chamber of the sump... really the only reason I will have for more than one sump chamber... but I might do a third sump chamber to facilitate a refugium in the sump.
 
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mike37909 said:
Wow that pump is awesome and looks really powerful. I assume it doesn't clog as easily as mine either. I like mine because it is submersible and also holds the hose in the tank, although holding the hose is not difficult I know python makes a piece to hang on the glass.

Thanks for posting. If I can't get my sand vacuming to work better I may look at this pump.
Click to expand...
The pump is fairly powerful but if I had tanks 250gal + I would probably opt for the larger version.
Usually I just hang the python vac in the tank after I do the cleaning to finish the water removal.. I do have the hang on part but I use that mostly for putting water back in the tank.
I tried this little pump because I have no faucets that will work with the siphon method. Its worked out great. It will suck leaves and sand through it. Impeller wore out after about 8 months.
Vacuuming out the sump with this thing is a piece of cake.
 
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