water change ..........

[tiggerbengal]

What do you all use to do water changes? Do you use a Python or do you use other methods? I have a Python that I have to hook up outback & I drag it thru the dog door into the room. Well, this really is a pain! After I'm done taking the water out, I hook the python up in the bathroom to a powerhead to put the new water in.
Does anyone else have any other suggestions for me? I thought of just buying one of those ones with the pumps you sqeeze ...... I'd like to start being more on-time with my water changes!

 

[salty guy]

Well I dont have a 125 anymore :-( but when I did I did it the same as I do mine now.
I have two buckets one for new water one for old. I drain the old water out and dump it. I would run the python out side but I live on the 3rd floor of my condo building so the people under me could get upset.
When its taken enough off I take the new water and now thanks to a sugestion use the pump that I use to stir the water to pump it into the tank.
I do a 5 - 10% water change every week it only take me about 15 min or so to do. I also use the old water to rince out my filter media.

 

[tiggerbengal]

Salty Guy,
How come you got rid of your 125? It may seem nutty of me, but I've thought of tearing it down, and putting up my 55 ...... It would be small, but then I could do a coral tank w/ some small fishes. I have it in our computer room, which is small to begin with and the 125 just takes up soooooo much room.

 

[jakob4001]

actually we have a 135 & have done no water changes; it's still under 6 months old though; it does have stock in it, including juvenile niger trigger...all that we do is add the top off due to evaporation; water params have so far been in acceptable ranges at iether zero/near zero or at minimum...depends on your bioload & filtration/skimming though; we do have q tip sponges galore; which some say might be an indication of decent water at least; this is a reef tank though w/ LS/LR

 

[bacchus_fl]

I only have a 55G but i also have 6 other smaller tanks in my house. When I change the water I use a siphon. I siphon the water into 5 gallon buckets which I dump in the backyard. I to use this water to rinse my filters. To refill I have several 5G plastic gas cans that I fill with premixed saltwater from my LFS and if they are out I fill with RO and mix myself at home. Let it dissolve well and then poor it in. the nice thing about the gas cans is they are sealable so prevent contamination, and they have handles and a spout for easy pooring. Hope this helps. tell you the truth I wish I had the problems of a 125. Maybe some day

 

[salty guy]

The story behind my 125.
I got married in 97, built a house. While building the house I built in a tank. I had some "fish expert" come in and put in all the filtration and lights. I took a trip to Key West and "borrowed" 2 Rubbermaid containers of sand the tank had 4+" the filter box had 10+" got a little to much i guess. Tank was up for several months and I got tired of working under the tank on the filters. One day when the wife was away on business I ran the pluming to the basement. I set up all the filters water make up units, and every thing there.
Well 2000 rolls around and I became a statistic. After the division of half of every thing I owned. I decided to sell the house that I helped build. The people the bought the house offered me about 3 times the amount I had in the tank to keep it so not wanting to move it I agreed.
Since that time I have bought a rather small condo in Mt. Adams (small part of Cincinnati) I searched and searched for a place to put a new big tank and started reading about these micro reefs. I though why not try. I decide to go with a all natural filtration all biological very little mechanical, and frequent water changes.
I am happy to say that I have had several chances to see my old tank and its doing very well. The new owners have added a few new fish and corals. They have talked about moving to MH lights but why fix what’s not broke right.
But I did get some of my LR and all my sand from my old tank since the new owners were nice enough to let me get some from the filter aria.
jakob4001,
Have you tested for Calcium? or other nurturance that are vital for coral, inverts, and even LR. As they are used up the only way to add them back is though addition of good home made saltwater or chemicals witch I don’t like to use. Weekly or biweekly water changes are not to lower ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates. In a emergency it can do that but they main reason for them is to add nurturance back into the tank.
Oh and if you skim, your skimmer removes nurturance that your filter feeders need so better keep up with your water changes or those daily dosings

 

[jakob4001]

nope, we still have just hte basic test kit...all corals & licro/macro life doing great...there is talk of adding calcium reactor of course...more lighting....but for now there is full polyp extension & procreatioon occurring...we do dose w/ additives & kalk...top off water adds trace items back as well...yep we know about the skimmer, but it's rated for smaller size tank..it does it's job well enough though...& depending on which side of th fence you are on, skimming is not necessary iether...but I'll stay on this side of the fence for now...anything is possible w/ enough current, lighting, LR/LS...but w/ smaller tnaks I would go w/ the regular water changes

 

[bbreaux1]

hey salty guy what size pump youuse to pump the water back up?

 

[salty guy]

Right now it’s a RINO 2100. At 6' head pressure it will do about 200 GPH witch is just fast enough to not take all day but slow enough that it does not cause too much turbulence in the tank. I went to HD and got a washer drain line. It is just the right height and has that nice hook on the end that hooks over the top of my tank and it was he right size to fit over the barb fitting on the rino.

 

[chadillac]

We use a python to syphon the water out and a 44 gallon clean trash can that is just for mixing our saltwater. We use a mag drive to pump the water from the can back into the tanks. We have 2-55 Gl, 1 60 Gl hex and a 37 Gl so we do quite a few water changes needless to say but we have found that this works the best for us.