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50 % water changes

Joined
26 Oct 2008
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1,649
Location
Cheshire
Gang@UKaps

Once a week it is recomended that we do 50% water change, removing the old water is easy, has anybody an good idea of refilling the tanks that make life easy - rather than using a bucket. It takes we 2-3 hours changing / refilling 100 litres, my sympathy goes out to you all who have bigger tanks.

Regards
Paul.
 
Thx for the replies - is it ok to use hot water from heating system (not from the radiators) straight from the hot tap via the water cylinder, i was told to boil the kettle and add to the cold water.

Regards
Paul.
 
Flyfisherman said:
Thx for the replies - is it ok to use hot water from heating system (not from the radiators) straight from the hot tap via the water cylinder, i was told to boil the kettle and add to the cold water.

Regards
Paul.

I mix hot and cold to the right temp and then into the tank, don't have any problems. Shrimp however can be sensitive to that. I do the same thing in my shrimp tank with Cherries, Amanos and Crystals and no problems for me.
 
i do the same, just chuck in a bit of hot and cold from the taps until it feels right to the touch. i doun't actually check the temp before putting the water into the tank, which is quite bad but i've never had any problems.
 
i do the same, i have a bucket that holds 16 litres so i takes me less time than the 10 litre 'little' buckets. i can do both my tanks in about (total W/C of about 120 litres) 40 minutes.
 
Thx guys for the solution - one more questions @ what point do you add the water dechlorinator.

Regards
Paul.
 
I chuck my water conditioner straight into the tank just before I put the water in, near the output of my hose pipe.

I have a 100gal, luckily it's next to the bathroom, so to empty it I run a hose into the bath. When I need to clean the filters (every other week) I put the plug in the bath, so the water coming out of the tank fills the bath and I clean the filters in there while the tank is still draining.

To put water back in I run a hose pipe from the tap in the kitchen. Also a pump and a hose pipe from my RO water butt outside. (I use half and half tap and RO).

Then I make sure I clean the bath or my other half complains.
 
Flyfisherman said:
Thx guys for the solution - one more questions @ what point do you add the water dechlorinator.

Regards
Paul.

Don't use any in my main planted tank, in the shrimp tank as I add a little as the water is pouring in, but most of the times forget to do it, they do fine anyway.
 
im thinking about taking a pump out of our conservatory water feature thats not in use, put the bucket below the tank then put the pump in the bucket, swich the pump(which has a long tube coming of it going in to the tank) on and introduce the water in the tank slowly with out disturbing the plants and causing uprooting or stress to fish.

and on the dechlorinator front i put it in the bucket befor i fill the bucket up so its mixing with the new water for as long as possible befor it goes in the tank.
 
Yeah, I do it more or less like hellohefalump, except I skip the RO (unless the tank is a soft water setup) and I skip the water conditioner 'cause I can get away with it (not recommended in high chlorine areas, check your local water report :!: ).

If you are not a DIYer and can't fabricate Paulo's awesome design, and if you don't have an adapter for the bathtub tap (or are using a water butt), then just get a section of sufficient length hose/tubing and a powerhead (or submersible pump) and pump the new water from the filled bathtub/water butt to the tank. Buckets are so "yesterday" mate. :D


Cheers,
 
If you want to use RO water because of the fish or plants you keep or through choice then you can still get rid of the buckets by using one of these pump systems in conjunction with a RO reservoir of water.

My RO system feeds into a 100l slimline barrel fitted with an automatic shut-off kit. It has a ball-valve tap near the bottom so I can fill my containers with water quickly rather than waiting for the RO unit to fill it drip-by-drip. The unit then refills the barrel and then shuts itself off preventing me flooding the garage if I forget about it! :lol:

With a little bit of work and some long tubing I could actually set up a pump in the barrel and a very long tube to simply pump this water straight into my tanks but as three of them are upstairs and the other is in the lounge at the front of the house it would be a very long piece of tubing (and if it leaked I'd be for it!) So I use some large 25l water containers with taps on them. These are then filled and sat on top of the tank hood with the tap open to trickle the new water back in. In this way I can change 50l on my 180l tank (my usual fortnightly or so water change) within an hour. I also use another 25l water container without a tap to syphon my waste water into so I'm not constantly filling small 10l buckets and then having to carry them to the sink or garden (waste water from tanks is perfect for watering plants). Instead I make just two trips with the larger container.
 
Thx boys for the replies - I have bought a hoze pipe + fittings and the tank is being filled via the sink mixer tap tonight.

Regards
Paul.
 
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