what all do you have to do before you start doing waterchange?
- Thread starter livebearerfreak
- Start date
My 300 is the only tank I have to do stuff. I unplug two powerheads that sit high up near the surface. When I unplug the pump in the sump I raise the out flow tube up to stop the siphoning sooner cause it sits lower then the overflows. I have two canister I generally keep runnning if I don't go below the inlet screens. But if I decide to drain lower I have to close off the valves to them and then unplug them. I use a sump pump I to pump water out. It pumps 4500gph so it drains it quick. I pump the water out the back door into the yard. When I fill I run hose from my bathroom sink.
I stretch and have a smoke b4 I start 
seriously though I invested in a rain barrel. I pre-fill those barrels with water, toss a heater in to bring it up to temp, aerate it, make sure ph is set and all I do is toss a return pump in main tank let about 55 gallons drain out and then toss the return pump into the rain barrel and let it take all the new water in. Takes about 10min on my 240 gal.
After new water is in I just refill the rain barrel and let it sit for the next WC so its ready to go (I leave the heater off until the day before I decide to WC)
seriously though I invested in a rain barrel. I pre-fill those barrels with water, toss a heater in to bring it up to temp, aerate it, make sure ph is set and all I do is toss a return pump in main tank let about 55 gallons drain out and then toss the return pump into the rain barrel and let it take all the new water in. Takes about 10min on my 240 gal.
After new water is in I just refill the rain barrel and let it sit for the next WC so its ready to go (I leave the heater off until the day before I decide to WC)
Only got 29s right now so I just grab the 5g bucket and the grav-vac. Do some light vacuming in the open areas and fill the bucket. Dump in the bathtub, and start filling it up with water about the same temp, add prime. put the bucket up a little higher than the tank and syphon the water back into the tank. Repeat in two days, once a week move the rocks around and suck up that filth.
Well the 55 I have a large barrel I siphon water into. I do have water already in my containers. I have my plugs on the 150 labeled. I ran into a problem at some point not know what was what. Now if it needs to be turned off the plug is labeled. I am almost done taken out the gravel in the 150. I do have a siphon hose that connects to the sink. I used to just use the garden hose.
