Water Changes For Huge Tank

[KathyM]

Hi everyone

I've been doing water changes in my 6ft x 2ft x 2ft by emptying it via a bucket with the gravel vac, and then filling it by the bucket (so as to measure 2g increments for the Safe Guard).

Obviously this takes forever. Is it safe to do it by marking the tank somehow to measure an amount, then syphoning off water and refilling it with the hose and adding the right amount of Safe Guard afterwards?

Obviously this would mean filling with cold water, and that the fish would technically be exposed to the chlorine until the Safe Guard is in.

I know some of you do things this way - can you tell me how it works and if it's safe?

Thanks

Kathy
xx

 

[cane76]

i have a mark on the tank which i drop the water too by draining it with a hose.then fill it back up with a hose straight from the tap and add the dechlorinator as its filling.works fine for me

 

[SPLiSH]

Or you could remove the water, add the dechlorinator then the water.

 

[CFC]

As you may know i have several fairly large tanks including a 200 gallon custom build a 6x2x2 and a 5x2x2, all in all the fishroom has about 900 gallons of water of which 30% has to be changed every weekend, obviously if i used buckets this would take all day so i use hoses instead.

To drain the tanks down i start a syphon and then using a connector tap from an old external filter join it to the hose and run all the water straight into the garden to water the flower beds, who needs mirical grow when youve got fish manure fertiliser on tap.

To refill the tanks i use the same hose but reversed and attached to the outside tap, add 1/3 of the water conditioner to the tank before you start to refill, another 3rd when the tank is half full and the remaining 3rd when the tank is full. Unless you have very sensative fish there is no need to warm the water unless you are doing more than a 25% water change or the water is exceptionally cold (ie after a few nights of temperatures in the minuses) then a few kettles full of water might be needed to prevent it dropping too far, the majority of fish wont even notice a drop of 3 celcius provided it isnt instant, if you put the water back in at a fairly leisurely pace it shouldnt drop more than 2 celcius.

I have never once lost a fish due to a water change, not even when i forgot about a tank refilling and left it running for a couple of hours, the temperature had dropped to about 16c and the fish were sluggish but all recovered fairly quickly once i warmed the water back up.

 

[Pheonix]

Kathy,

I have a 5'x2'x2' and used to have similar issues what i now do makes my life a hell of a lot easier

I purchased a 250ltr water butt from my local garden centre, cost me about £20 so not too expensive, it must have a lid to stop crap getting in though

I fill this with my RO water as my 6 Stage RO is right above the Butt on the wall and added a heater to it.
When ever i need to do a water change i hose out water to about 3/4 full then run the hose from the butt to my tank and fill, job done no fuss

Well worth the expence in my opionion plus you can do all the water treatment if you dont have RO water in the butt and keep all the chemicles out of your stable tank

HTH
Andy

 

[KathyM]

Thanks very much

I'll run these ideas past the blokey to see which will work best. Thanks again for your advice - as usual you're a huge help

 

[Mako Man111]

Thanks very much

I'll run these ideas past the blokey to see which will work best. Thanks again for your advice - as usual you're a huge help

I used to have the same problems with my 105 gallon tank, until this weekend I picked up a phython It makes things so much easier! It uses the power of the tap to siphon the water out and then to refill the water. It's a great invention lol. I just add my seachem prime before I add the new water. And you don't have to worry about temp. as you can adjust your sinks temp.

 

[Tolak]

2 gallon buckets in a tank that size? We need to start an aquatics Olympics just for you. I used to use 5 gallon buckets, until I got my 5th or 6th tank.

I don't have any single big tanks larger than a 65 running ATM, if you look at my profile you'll see what I have, a buttload of 20's & 29's. If your tank is 2 feet tall, measure down 6", this will give you 25%. I just eyeball quarters & halfs, and do the math from there.

All but one of my tanks are in the basement, below ground level. I'm also a paranoid freak about cross contamination between tanks. I have a 35 gallon Rubbermaid trash can I siphon tanks into with 5/8" i.d. hoses with pvc on both ends. I have one of those emergency basement pumps that hooks up to a garden hose, it puts out 1400 gph. This sits in the bottom of the can, with the hose running to the sump pump. I siphon the tanks into the can, and hit a foot switch to turn on the pump. I have a second hose for filling, I can drain one tank while filling another this way. Separate siphon hoses for each tank eliminates contamination, the fill hose sits above the tanks for filling. Since I'm dealing with smaller fish, the can gives me a chance to retrieve any that end up going for a ride.

I use Prime to dechlor, and add it on the fly. Adding a little extra doesn't hurt anything. I add it before. during, or after depending on what I am doing while that tank is filling. It doesn't seem to make any difference. I use one of those kid's medicine droppers that's marked in ml's to measure dechlorinator.