Can I Use A Drill Pump To Drain And Re-Fill Tank?

[oneblondebrow]

Hi all,


I have just got myself a Drill powered water pump for helping in water changes, now i now it won't be an issue draining the tank but can i use it to refill? The pump needs to be "primed" by adding a little lubricant to it which i why i question whether i can use it to re-fill the tank? Would it be ok if i used a water based lubricant as apposed to an oil based one or should i just re-fill with the Jug i have been using?

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

I'd just run a straight faucet-hose for the refills. WD

 

[Bala Sharker]

for the refills whats the best way to get the water up to temp before puttin it back in, is it to buy a second heater and have it in the water for a while

 

[waterdrop]

An awful lot of homes nowadays have hot water heaters that don't really add too many metals (like copper) to the water. In the US for instance, nearly all the hot water heaters are lined with fiberglass linings and just don't impart anything dangerious to the water. That may really be the case in the UK too, but I guess it is true that you have more "history" over there and there may be greater numbers of systems that do put the copper next to the hot water. It may take a more UK-hot-water-aware person than me to describe what to look for!

Assuming you decide your hot water system is safe, the next step is finding a way to attach a hose to the faucet you want to use. You want a "mixing tap" so that you can adjust the temperature at the sink. If its a utility sink it may have a faucet with a threaded lip that will fit a standard garden hose. If its a regular bathroom or kitchen faucet then it may be that you can find an adapter at a hardware store or you can consider checking the Python option. Python (has a web site) has lots and lots of adapters so that you can take off the aeration screen and screw on a little brass adapter and then fit a python hose of a length that will reach your tank for filling.

When you fill a tank with a hose, you dose the conditioner for the full volume of the tank and you can split it between the beginning and end of the fill.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[oneblondebrow]

Problem with running a hose is that it is not dechlorinated, I also do not have a mixer tap that i can use, the only hose i have is an outside garden one which is just cold water, Would it be an issue using the Drill powered pump then?

 

[waterdrop]

I would not want to put drill lubricant in my tank. Sorry, there's another thread going on simultaneously on this same subject and I guess I didn't say here that dechlor is no problem, in fact I find it easier. You just dose for the whole tank (that's why most of us use Prime in the first year or two and then potentially switch to an even cheaper pond dechlor later, because they are all so concentrated.) What I do is dose half the dechlor at the beginning of the fill and half afterwards. The hose thing was not about outdoor taps, it was about indoor. Surely you have a mixing tap indoors? (This may be one of those American things, not understanding, lol, just explain to me.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[danb]

If you dont have a mixer tap you can just use these

5 x http/www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4068394/art/draper/1-2-garden-hose-connector.html
1 x http/www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4068389/art/draper/y-shape-snap-in-garden-ho.html
2 x http/www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4026282/art/draper/multi-tap-connector.html

Add the hose in and away you go.

 

[oneblondebrow]

I have now found a connector that will fit on my kitchen sink mixer tap, So i can run this to my tank adding half of the Tetra Aqua safe i have and then adding the other half when it is full?

Also do i put the amount of aqua safe needed for the whole tank or just the amount needed for the gallons of new tap water i am adding?

 

[waterdrop]

Voila! Persistence pays off! "I don't have a mixer tap" turns into "I have a mixer tap!" This is good! You need to add the amount of conditioner that is needed to treat the entire volume of the tank. In fact as a beginner with a less than robust colony of bacteria it would be better if you dosed at 1.5x what they say to. This is why we usually use Prime, which is much more concentrated and will last for many more gallons of treatment. Also Prime is great at handling many of the problems we see cropping up for beginners.

Running a hose with the right temp going in is wonderful. You stand there watching it until it gets close to the top rim and then walk into the kitchen and turn it off! Getting the hose out and put back away is a pain but ultimately its easier than lugging buckets. BTW, the reason you dose the conditioner for the whole tank volume has to do with all the organics and other things that can lower the effectiveness of the conditioner - its not a mistake, its a thought-out thing.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Defiance]

Blagdon el-cheapo pump from lfs £15

Garden hose from wilkinsons £5

Large clean mixing tub for plaster (i keep spares as i plaster sometimes) £5 from wickes

These 3 together with declora = priceless hastle free drains/top-ups

I use the large tub to run water from the bath right into it, then pump from there after adding declora, to empty a tank i simply slowly lower the pump into it and pump direct into the bath

Job's a good'un

Tony

 

[chrisbassist]

I'm in the UK, and the house is fairly old, I find if I try and use the hot water, it's EXTREMELY cloudy. I'm sure it's all limescale.

I'm not using it is basically what it comes down to.

SoI guess the heating question still stands (at least for me)

 

[waterdrop]

That's too bad. I guess pretty good hot water is one of the few slightly better things we have over here.. which isn't much considering you guys have most of the really great small fish shops with good fish and you have Tropica with the really great plants that can be ordered and in general the hobby is just plain better over there I often feel...

Well, I have to say that I certainly have seen a whole lot of UK members write about using their "kettle" to adjust the temp of the bucket water they are going to use for the refill. So maybe that's the most popular method or maybe some have better ways...

One other minor trick I can share is that one aquarist I met said she had found that you can buy really large clean plastic trash cans (the size of a big outdoor one) that have made-to-size wheel-sets so they can be rolled around. She had rigged up one of these so that water could be filled (in fact, filled the day before so that CO2 could gas off so that BBA wouldn't be stimulated) and she had (like the one mentioned above) a simple water pump dropped to the bottom of it with a hose attached. This could all be rolled out of a mud-room over to the tank for the re-fill. Of course, some might also want to do a system where the pump was also reversed for the drain-out of the tank.

~~waterdrop~~