Toilet issues

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Jan Cavalieri

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When I do a water change (weekly/4 tanks) the dirty water goes into the toilet. This typically includes, small snails, small gravel, excess food, fish poop, dead plamts etc. Now I have a situation where the toilet behaves strangely - it flushes but not all the way and the back tank fills up but it doesn't fill up the front tank. I don't have any other place to dump the water ( the windows are way to high and after a mini-stroke no ladders for me. I'm not strong enough to get water from the back of the house to outdoors at the front of the house. Did all this stuff destroy my toilet or is i t just time to replace the inside mechanics of the toilet? I could call my landlord but it's a "no pets allowed" duplex (my cat was grandfathered in since she lived here before he bought the place from my stepmother after my father died). He doesn't know about the fish. I'm very careful to keep the hardwoods dry and luckily I have a second bathroom that I'm now using to dump tank water. It has ceramic tile, much safer for water spills.

So I guess the question is - is it safe to dump tank water and "stuff" in the toilet? Nothing is too big but it's worried me for a long time that the tank water would cause a clog or something similar. My assistant does most of the hauling but going a longer distance is getting hard on her back. Opinions please?
 
If that is the only place you have to dump it, I guess you need to keep it up.

I personally wouldn’t do it though.

My dad knows a lot about how toilets operate, but I do not.

Maybe @Colin_T knows - after all, he knows everything.
 
Personally, I would use filter the water through something like an old pair of tights before flushing it. then throw the "stuff" into a wastebin. The water itself should be fine going down the toilet, but gravel and other bits aren't good.

Maybe close the door to the room with the tanks or throw a blanket over them before calling the landlord about the plumbing. Or pay for a plumber out of pocket to fix it this time.

Edit: I wonder if a python system would be useful for you guys for water changes. I've never had one so can't say, but have heard how brilliant it is to avoid having to haul buckets around.
 
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Could you get a long syphon hose that would reach from your tank to the outdoors? How far is it from the tank to the nearest door?
 
Do you have someone who can use a plunger on the toilet bowl? If there is a slight blockage, the plunger should push the buildup through. I wouldnt think fish waste would cause a blockage unless you are picking up gravel or sand. But excess toilet paper could cause it.
 
Considering what normally goes down toilets, a bit of aquarium water, fish poop and the odd snail is not going to block it up.

The only problem with putting aquarium water down the drain is some fish diseases might get into local waterways after going through the sewerage treatment plant. However, most plants chlorinate the treated water so it should be safe. And considering your health issues and no other place to dispose of the water, either flushing it or draining it down the shower drain is fine.
 
Thanks so much for all the quick responses. The "hide the tanks" was too funny/ covering up half of two full rooms LOL.
Sand and gravel is getting flushed but again, my thoughts were that compared to what normally goes down a toilet this is nothing to be worried about. I think I'll take my chances and call in the landord's maintenance staff. The landlord and my dad made each other millionaires - in fact this duplex is supposed to belong to me per quit claim deed that's my stepmother insists she knows nothing about - so I guess a million wasn't enough - she had to have my 100K as well. My place is clean and tidy and well kept up - I pay for regular lawn work etc so I don't think I'll be asked to get rid of the fish tanks. Thanks Colin_T I'll go with your advice.
 
Thanks so much for all the quick responses. The "hide the tanks" was too funny/ covering up half of two full rooms LOL.
Sand and gravel is getting flushed but again, my thoughts were that compared to what normally goes down a toilet this is nothing to be worried about. I think I'll take my chances and call in the landord's maintenance staff. The landlord and my dad made each other millionaires - in fact this duplex is supposed to belong to me per quit claim deed that's my stepmother insists she knows nothing about - so I guess a million wasn't enough - she had to have my 100K as well. My place is clean and tidy and well kept up - I pay for regular lawn work etc so I don't think I'll be asked to get rid of the fish tanks. Thanks Colin_T I'll go with your advice.
Lol, hide the tanks! :D To be fair, there was no way for me to know whether that would be easy or possible, since I have no idea if you're talking 5 gallons or 200gallons per tank, nor the layout of your flat, or relationship with your landlord...
In my house there are three tanks, but I could close the doors to those rooms and have a plumber check out the bathroom without them ever knowing there were fish here. Unless they discovered a load of gravel or sand in the pipes...

I'm no plumber, I was just warned against using the sink, bath or toilet for certain things like sand or gravel. Take a look at the sink in this diagram.
bathroomPlumbingDiagram.jpg


That little u shaped pipe is where a lot of things get caught and can build up and block a sink over time. Like when people pour fat down the sink, and it solidifies and starts building up in the pipes. Same process is also what leads to "fatburgs"further along in the sewage system, causing huge problems. (if anyone wants to go down a weird wiki rabbit hole, fatburgs are pretty amazing/interesting/horrifying!) Gravity makes it harder for heavier bits like gravel and sand to go up and around that u bend. Not a problem for a few bits now and then, but if I emptied the five buckets I pull from my 55 gallon each water change into the sink, with a fair bit of sand each time, it wouldn't take that long to build up and become a problem. But again, that depends on the plumbing you have and how much gravel is going down there, I would just caution people who are using indoor plumbing for disposal to maybe sieve out items like that and throw those into household waste bins instead.
 
You should never put gravel down a toilet. The gravel collects in the P trap and eventually stops it up. You will have to take the toilet off and shake it out. I learned this with a baby bottle once. :)
 
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Great replies and the drawing is awesome - I've always wondered how a toilet works. Like many of you I'm most concerned with the gravel clogging the toilet - we'll have to find some mesh we can stretch over the top of the toiled. From my assistant's perspective - it's all about getting things done quickly, so I'll try and come up with something.

In the end I just called the maintenance staff (kind of gruff old assholes - i always wonder about people who so obviously express their hate for their job - I didn't always love mine but would never let anybody know it. Anyway a good de-clogging did the trick - no mention about sand or anything.

Regarding the Python - I hate the bloody thing - it doesn't quite make it from the tank to the front door of the house and OMG what a smell that would be. I dislike the python because the one major spill I had was due to it. Since it works by suction, if the water coming out moves faster than it can go down the drain then the drain backs up and goes all over you counters and floors. That's what it did - I didn't know it needed babysitting. The other problem is getting water out of it when you're done - it gets trapped in the middle as you find somebody else to help you hold an end. Probably not a big problem with 25 ft but with 50ft it's a pain in the neck. Just chase the water back and forth until you finally have it cornered. I don't want to leave dirty water in the tube in a closet.

Thanks again - disaster averted!
 

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