Water changes in BIG tanks

[Natty Bumppo]

I enjoy watching the show Tanked on Animal Planet. I did have a question about maintenance: My only experience is with 20, 29 and 55 gallon tanks. We try to change out 25-30% of the water weekly (sometimes it goes 2 weeks). But if you've got a 600 gallon tank, I'm guessing folks aren't changing out 200 gallons every week. What to they do with these large tanks? Do large, public aquariums circulate water through algae or plant tanks to remove nitrates?

And yeah, I get that the people buying huge, custom made aquariums don't worry about these details, but just write a check to the maintenance contractor who handles it.

 

[JK47]

Have a look into a drip system. That's what most of us with large tanks do. I couldn't keep up with large tanks without one. It's a means of constantly dropping a certain gallons per hour of fresh water into the tank. The same amount of water including nitrate and other dissolved organics exits, via an overflow. At the end of the week, the equivalent of a water change has been done. That's the short description of the concept.

 

[freak78]

I know with my 220 the largest I can do is a 50% cause that's all the hot water I can get out of my hot water heater. If I did a larger one it would have to be in stages while I waited for the got water tank to heat back up.

 

[duanes]

I had over 1000 gals in tanks, and was doing 30% water changes every other day.
I collected rain water, when available, but that was a drop in the bucket.
It was in an area where water was plentiful, and relatively inexpensive, although all old water was used for the garden and lawn in spring thru fall whenever possible,
and often used old tank water to flush toilets.
In fact I put permanent irrigation lines for quick hookup to the out fall from tanks to the gardens.

 

[jsodwi]

I have an auto changer that does 80gpd on my biggest tank. The old water gets pumped out to a hose that I waster my lawn with

 

[Dixon81]

Same here, drip system on my 180. It changes about 15 gallons a day. The water drips from my tank, into a 35 or so gallon trash can in the basement. In the trash can is a pump with a float switch. When the bucket fills the pumps turns on and waters my garden or landscaping.....In the winter i flip a valve and the water goes into my septic system to avoid freezing.

 

[PDRed302]

At my old place with my 345 I was doing roughly 40% water changes weekly using a python.

Now I'm doing right about 50% weekly with my auto drip, plus an extra 5 or 10% when I do a substrate vacuum.

...good news is: now my waste water is put to use; I'm on an aerobic system, so it just waters my lawn

 

[Drstrangelove]

Similar... I had 320 gallons of tanks and did 50-60% WC per week at with just a bucket. So that's a change of 160 gallons a week. Took well under 2 hours. Later I used a hose which was much easier and faster.

From my personal experience, one can easily replace much more. A 5/8" garden hose will provide 2,640 gph at 25 feet. And a 1" flexible tube under siphon can drain 2,300 gph.

From that, one can see if one had a 5,000 gallon tank, a 30% WC would be easy if the plumbing were set up to do so (a drain and hose outlet close by.) If one had to use buckets, this would never work.

Of course, auto changers make it much easier and reliable, so I wouldn't recommend a manual process to anyone with that much water.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I have a 220, 29 and 10 gallon aquariums. Every weekend I do about 85-95% water change on each one.

My 220 is in a main room of the house, and is located near the door that leads to my garage. I use a Rio 20HF and 1" vinyl tubing to pump as much water as I can out to the driveway. I then have two 55 gallon barrels that I age and preheat water in. I pump these into to tank with the same pump and vinyl tubing. The remaining water comes straight from the hose. Here's a picture of my 220 during a water change:



My 29 and 10 are in our pet room and I have a 55 gallon barrel in the closet of that room. I pump the water out the window with a 600gph pump and 5/8" tubing. I then use the same pump to pump new water from the barrel into the tanks. Once done, I run the hose through my front door and use it to refill all of my water barrels.

The whole process takes about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on if it's time to clean out any of the filters.

I'm going to pick up a large 275-330 gallon plastic tote sometime this summer to use for my 220. They sell for about $70 here on Craigslist.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Yeah, that all makes it sound much easier than the bucket method.