One thing that surprises me about a lot of fellow hobbyists is the infrequency and inefficiency of water changes. I've been keeping and breeding fish long enough to know that large, frequent water changes are absolutely critical to success with more sensitive species. I literally feed pounds of food each week and my fish grow like weeds. As a bonus, my tank is always clean as algae can never get a foothold! Here's how I do 3-5 water changes/week with minimal effort.
Humnnnnn.... here's what I see when I walk into the garage. Tank looks clean, but it's been a couple days since my last water change. Note that I run a lot of flow to keep detritus off the bottom of the tank.
Walk outside and here my water change contraption. It's simple 1.25" PVC attached to 1.25" pond hose. All joints are glued except the one elbow. The water really drains through this sucker. No monster fish keeper should be without one of these.
In the tank and open the valve. Water is always in the hose so to start the siphon, I just open the ball valve. Easy Peasy Japanesy. You can also see my aquacontroller in the lower right hand corner. I'll never run another large tank without one.
I can drain about 50% of the volume in 5-6 minutes. Here we go.
In the winter, dumping 125+ gallons of tank water on the side of the house makes it look like the place is on fire. At first, the neighbors were very curious as to what the heck I was doing.
While the tank is draining/filling, I clean the pre-filters, inspect the fish, and usually drop some food in. They know water changes = food. Getting fat, as you can see.
Ok, tank is drained. Close the ball valve and put my PVC gizmo back outside. Now here is a simple tube I made after about the 2nd or 3rd time the hose fell out of the tank while filling and made a mess.
In the sump it goes. I put a shutoff valve so I don't have to run to the faucet when I finish filling.
Tiny Hystrix. Awesome little fish.
Male or Female? Sure eats a lot, as you can see.
Done. Happy fish. In all, it totals to about 5 minutes of work and 30 minutes of waiting for the tank to drain and fill. For my next tank, I'd like to completely automate this process.
Humnnnnn.... here's what I see when I walk into the garage. Tank looks clean, but it's been a couple days since my last water change. Note that I run a lot of flow to keep detritus off the bottom of the tank.
Walk outside and here my water change contraption. It's simple 1.25" PVC attached to 1.25" pond hose. All joints are glued except the one elbow. The water really drains through this sucker. No monster fish keeper should be without one of these.
In the tank and open the valve. Water is always in the hose so to start the siphon, I just open the ball valve. Easy Peasy Japanesy. You can also see my aquacontroller in the lower right hand corner. I'll never run another large tank without one.
I can drain about 50% of the volume in 5-6 minutes. Here we go.
In the winter, dumping 125+ gallons of tank water on the side of the house makes it look like the place is on fire. At first, the neighbors were very curious as to what the heck I was doing.
While the tank is draining/filling, I clean the pre-filters, inspect the fish, and usually drop some food in. They know water changes = food. Getting fat, as you can see.
Ok, tank is drained. Close the ball valve and put my PVC gizmo back outside. Now here is a simple tube I made after about the 2nd or 3rd time the hose fell out of the tank while filling and made a mess.
In the sump it goes. I put a shutoff valve so I don't have to run to the faucet when I finish filling.
Tiny Hystrix. Awesome little fish.
Male or Female? Sure eats a lot, as you can see.
Done. Happy fish. In all, it totals to about 5 minutes of work and 30 minutes of waiting for the tank to drain and fill. For my next tank, I'd like to completely automate this process.
