Stupid Question

[contrarymary]

hiya. Ive got a 2.5 foot tank second hand tank. Im new to this; how do I fill it up with water without displacing the sand/gravel/plants on the bottom. WIth my piddly little tank that I have had up till now, when I pour the water in it wooshes all the gravel all over the place. DO I just have to be slow and careful or is there a trick-of-the-trade?

 

[da7thson]

hiya. Ive got a 2.5 foot tank second hand tank. Im new to this; how do I fill it up with water without displacing the sand/gravel/plants on the bottom. WIth my piddly little tank that I have had up till now, when I pour the water in it wooshes all the gravel all over the place. DO I just have to be slow and careful or is there a trick-of-the-trade?

I have some bogwood in the bottom of my tank as a display, and pour the water onto that to disperse it without moving the gravel. You could try putting an up turned sourcer on the bottom and pour the water onto that and remove it when you are finished.

hope this helps

Andy

 

[Katch]

If you can put the bucket higher than the tank you can use a bit of hose to syphon the water in. Or just pour carefully and slowly.

 

[Mowbz]

Or you could just put a large dinnerplate on the substrate and pour onto it.

And the only stupid questions, are the ones that are not asked

 

[flip]

I either pour onto a decoration or in my small tanks I put my other hand on the top of the water and pour onto it. I use gallon jugs to fill the little tanks though.

 

[contrarymary]

Ahhh...thanks guys...such a simple solution, with the plates/hand/ornament!

 

[Miles_hot]

Alternatively use a large jug - we haven't yet sorted out a shelf higher than the tank to allow siphoning so use a 2 litre jug and it's pretty quick - fill jug from bucket, place jug in tank water and rotate the jug to let the water out (don't pour it) and the whole 2 litres is in the water in a fraction of a second. Much faster than pouring and very very little disturbance to the water. In all getting 2-3 gallons of water from the bucket probably takes 60-90 seconds which is quick enough to make water changes easy so that shelf may ever get built