Hose will no longer siphon.

[DIZ]

Might be a silly question. But I’ve been doing my water changes with a hose the past few weeks without issue. Run the hose from the tank to a close by walk-in shower, it’s a breeze. As of last night I’m having a scientific troubling. Water will no longer flow through the hose. I checked the obvious, kinks, nothing. Hooked it back up to the spout and ran water through it, runs through just fine, no clogs. Tried a whole different hose, same thing. Literally the only thing I’ve done since the last time I did this technique was install a water heater, my water is now 3° warmer - surely temperature cannot affect this. I’m at an utterly confused loss, ha. Any ideas?

 

[Silencedogood]

Might be a silly question. But I’ve been doing my water changes with a hose the past few weeks without issue. Run the hose from the tank to a close by walk-in shower, it’s a breeze. As of last night I’m having a scientific troubling. Water will no longer flow through the hose. I checked the obvious, kinks, nothing. Hooked it back up to the spout and ran water through it, runs through just fine, no clogs. Tried a whole different hose, same thing. Literally the only thing I’ve done since the last time I did this technique was install a water heater, my water is now 3° warmer - surely temperature cannot affect this. I’m at an utterly confused loss, ha. Any ideas?

Neat way to siphon a tank. I'm not sure what it could be as you said there are no clogs or kinks. Hopefully one of the more experienced members comments soon. Good luck!
@Colin_T @Byron @Deanasue

 

[Colin_T]

It probably has air in it. Put one end of the hose in the bottom of the shower and hold the other end up. Then walk along the hose raising it up as you go. This should get all the water out of the hose.

After you have done that you should be able to use a gravel cleaner to get the syphon going and drain the tank.

You can try turning the hose around and plugging the opposite end into the tap and turning it on. Sometimes you get gunk stuck in the hose and it lets water flow one way but not the other.

Some hose connectors have a similar feature in them and allow water to flow in one direction only. Make sure you don't have anything like that on the hose.

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Temperature won't stop water flowing. The only thing hot water does is soften the hose so it's more likely to kink.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Either the new heater has less pressure or something is stuck. If your syphon a Python? I often get pieces of plants stuck in my fittings and have to take them apart.

 

[Silencedogood]

Either the new heater has less pressure or something is stuck. If your symphony a Python? I often get pieces of plants stuck in my fittings and have to take them apart.

@Deanasue I believe OP is using a regular outside hose.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Oops!

 

[Silencedogood]

Oops!

An unusual but neat way to siphon a tank.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I use to drain an above ground pool that way.

 

[DIZ]

It saves an incredible amount of time! Well, when it works, ha! I felt defeated last night, me and my wife spent way too much time trying to figure it out and utterly failed. I feel as if we tried everything possible. I’ll try walking it out slowly from the shower bottom end, again, will report back.

 

[nic1]

If you're doing it that way it may be a matter of gravity..... How high up is the tank compare to the shower?

 

[Fishmanic]

Hose must be primed first by filling it totally with water. And end in tank must be higher than the end in the shower.

 

[DIZ]

If you're doing it that way it may be a matter of gravity..... How high up is the tank compare to the shower?

About 3 1/2ft I’d say. It’s just odd how it worked perfectly before, began flowing as soon as I dipped the hose into the tank.

 

[nic1]

Like fish maniac has said, the bit in the tank must be higher than the part in the shower, I also find that if there is excess hose that just coils on the floor it does tend to mess up, but if you gather most of the hose towards the shower rather than the tank that might work too..... Is it a regular hose? Because you could try and flip it around and try either end too and see if one end works.

 

[nic1]

About 3 1/2ft I’d say. It’s just odd how it worked perfectly before, began flowing as soon as I dipped the hose into the tank.

I just saw this bit, are you remivi g the hose from the tank? The bit that's in the tank must stay in the tank and not be removed at any point..... The suction is disturbed if you do, just turn the tap on wait for the water to flow into the tank, then when you see the bubbles, remove it from the tap without lifting the other end from the tank and move it to the shower, the water should then back up and into the hose out of the tank.

 

[DIZ]

Yeah, it’s about a 3 1/2ft difference in height - tank being 3 1/2ft higher than the shower floor. Regular garden hose. Used the end that screws into the spout as the shower/exit end, and that’s always worked - it’s really odd!