Yes, many members with larger (or even medium to small) tanks use various hose techniques rather than carry buckets. Its just as Squid and Robby said, dose for the whole tank volume and fill away, but temp becomes more important as the percentage change gets larger.
Here's what I do: Run the Python hose from the bathroom tub where the overflow bucket (this would be the bucket to clean filter media if it were filter cleaning week) is to the tank end that has the gravel cleaning cylinder on it and let it sit on the floor next to the tank. Sponge down inner glass walls, clean any algae off leaves and do any other cleaning I want to, then begin gravel cleaning by filling the gravel cleaning cylinder with tank water and lifting it up, then down, to start the siphon going. I leave my external cannister filter and external heater running during all this but there's nothing wrong with turning them off if in doubt. I deep clean all the gravel while about 50% of the water goes out of the tank into the overflow bucket in the tub way down the hall. I stop by lifting the cylinder out of the tank water and balancing the cylinder up between the tank brace and the tank lid. (I have the tank light on during all this so I can see well.)
Then, in the bathroom I fill a tall plastic cup with water from the overflow bucket and place it by the sink. I attach a brass adapter in the faucet and adjust the water temp to match that in the plastic cup using my hand as the judge. I then move the hose from the overflow bucket to the brass adapter and go back to place the gravel cleaning cylinder back in the tank in a manner that it can't fly out under force. This is when I toss in half the amount of Prime conditioner the tank calls for, right into the waterfall from the filter spraybar, so it mixes well. I then go back to the bathroom and simply lift the faucet lever (which is already adjusted to the matching temperature as my tank water) to full force. I then walk back down the hall and watch as the hose quickly fills the tank back up and then I walk back and turn it off just as the water line disappears behind the top rim. I then toss in the other half dose of Prime near the now-quiet spraybar stream. I then rescape my gravel and redose all my plant nutrients (Excel, N,P,K, micronutrients etc.), note what all has happened in my aquarium log and clean up. In the summer or good weather I simply run the siphon hose out into the garden, not the tub.
Now this is a medium small tank and I fuss over it and like to describe safe techniques to beginners but if you have a large tank and change less water then the temperature part becomes much less important (depending on your species of course.) For less than 25% in a big tank you could just pump in cold water and the overall temp wouldn't drop that much. You should measure it the first couple of times to get a feel for what's happening. For beginners I always recommend that you dose conditioner and temperature match for the first year at least as a part of lowering the risk and helping ensure you get a feel for what a well-run tank feels like before you venture off into greater risk. You can look up Python on the web. I like they way they have lots of mix and match components but its also easy to make homemade versions out of garden hose parts that work just about as well.
~~waterdrop~~ (hope you could follow all that
)
Draining water from tank, adding new conditioner then adding water from a hose? How frequent a water change/volume can i expect to have to do with my new 440L tank assuming i am keeping 'ordinary' Tropicals? any quicker way than using buckets for this?
