# Just did the most amazingly fast water change!



## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

Recently I posted asking about 5/8" diameter fish safe hoses etc. after getting so fed up with the 1/2" python draining water so slowly, taking forever on large tanks. So I'm walking through the hardware store today to get a sheet of eggcrate and I spot something. It was a 24' sump drain hose (for a basement sump pump), flexible and didn't look like it'll kink easily. Checked the price....$8.99. Very happy with that. Checked the hose I.D. diameter...... 1 1/4". Extremely happy with that!!! Quick calculation and 24' is long enough so home it came as I was do for a WC on my 135g. Drained that sucker down 50% in about 4+ minutes! Turned the tap on with the regular 1/2" python and filled'r back up. Lickety split.

Well worth the $9 to save huge on time. My word of caution.... might not want to use this big Daddy if you've got wee little ones in your tank 'cause the draw is pretty big


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I always run out of time for vacuuming the substrate when I have to stop because the water gets too low. No vacuuming?


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

We vacuum before we pump out...I just vacuum out as much as necessary to buckets with a siphon (we have a designated siphon and bucket for EACH tank...that's like TONS of buckets and siphons...LOL...but what the heck) and then hubby comes in behind me and puts the pump in and pumps out the rest (then the pump goes into a bucket of clean water which is also pumped out before it goes onto the next tank as we are usually doing about 3-4 tanks at a time).


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

Speaking of vacuuming, I find that when you add water back to the tank with any speed, it flushes out more stuff from under the rocks and caves, which means you need to vacuum again. So I got a battery powered vacuum off ebay which has a filter bag so you don't lose any water. Great idea, but the device was not perfect, but I have made some modifications and it's pretty sweet now. If you get one like mine, the filter bag will blow out pretty quickly, but I found that a baby sock with a rubber band will make it better than new.


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

This was a bare bottomed 135g with rocks. With a hose like this a lot gets sucked out from under the rocks. Upon refilling the stuff that got blown out from under rocks settled in a couple spots and a quick vacuum with my 6' 5/8" hose into a bucket did the trick (maybe 3 gallons). Worked great.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

chiroken said:


> might not want to use this big Daddy if you've got wee little ones in your tank 'cause the draw is pretty big


I use a 3/4 hose to drain water which is large enough to remove many of my fish, so I just started using a filter sock over the end so I don't have to keep an eye in it.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I use the exact same drain hose that chiroken just got and it is fantastic for just doing a water change. As a matter of fact, I just got finished with my weekly water changes on a 125G, 220G, 75G, six 30G's, 33L, 30B, 20L and three 10G tanks. I had all the tanks drained and refilled plus a few power filters cleaned in under 3 hours.

I also do any hand siphoning into a bucket as needed a couple times monthly and usually alternate front glass cleaning as needed. As noted in my other forum posts, I use a 5/8" RV hose to refill with tempered water from the laundry room tub with well water.

I use various lengths of 1" PVC to create the length I need to remove 50% of the tank water from the different tanks and use a PVC coupler to make it longer for the deeper tanks. I also use a 1" strainer on the end to prevent sucking up fish or plants and on tanks with fry, small fish or shrimp, I add a pre-filter foam.

I did have to adapt to the sump pump hose fitting with an 1-1/4" threaded/slip 90° and then a slip reducer bushing to slip 90° to get the 1" pipe to work for my setup. It hangs on the rim of the tank so it's hands free! I just run the hose out the patio door and during the summer, the plants in the flower bed are watered with fish tank water.

Here is a pic of the contraption.


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## vann59 (Jun 20, 2011)

For water changes, I drop in a pondmaster pump (an older model with around 1200 gph max output), with the output adapted to an RV supply hose. I use a knee high nylon stocking to keep sand out of the intake. For smaller tanks, I have a couple other submersibles with appropriately sized vinyl hoses. To refill I premix the water in a brute 32 gallon barrel using the RV hose and a filling hook similar to the one Deeda uses to drain. I have a valve on the end of the RV hose to save walking back and forth to shut off the water. Then I put the filling hook onto an adapted short vinyl hose that's connected to the pondmaster pump and use that to pump the water from the barrel back into the tank. It really makes it much easier. For small tanks you can roll the barrel on casters from tank to tank.


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

Deeda said:


> I use the exact same drain hose that chiroken just got and it is fantastic for just doing a water change.
> I did have to adapt to the sump pump hose fitting with an 1-1/4" threaded/slip 90° and then a slip reducer bushing to slip 90° to get the 1" pipe to work for my setup. It hangs on the rim of the tank so it's hands free!


I was looking at the fittings at the store but decided to see how it worked first. I was going to run the sump hose thru 2 90's so the sump hose ran right down into the tank but I like your idea better to have a pre-determined length of pvc to drain to. Simple walk away system till the syphon breaks. This will definitely be the way I drain the 300g (whenever it actually gets set up). Vac the sand but drain from the 140g sump underneath, out the window into garden beds.


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## RV Aquascapes (Mar 19, 2013)

"I just run the hose out the patio door and during the summer, the plants in the flower bed are watered with fish tank water."

I love this idea. How do you initiate the siphoning process? Suck on the hose?
Also, have you created any contraptions that evenly disperses the tank water over your garden (rather than it pooling in one spot)?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I just suck on my cupped hand placed over the end of the hose to start the siphon. You can also pre-fill the hose with some water if you don't want to use my method.

No I haven't rigged up anyway of evenly dispersing the tank water over the garden or flowerbed. I've thought about it but most of the beds are higher than the patio.


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

Deeda said:


> I just suck on my cupped hand placed over the end of the hose to start the siphon.


Nothing quite like getting a mouth full of dirty tank water  come on, you know it happens lol. At least it's not as bad as getting a mouth full of dirty saltwater.


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## Frank H (Mar 11, 2013)

Thank you Deeda for the picture of your syphon contraption. I decided to follow you and made my own. A PVC pipe, couple Lbows, hose connector and a brass valve:



I just need to add a screen over the intake. I think some window screen with a zip tie or some hot glue should work.


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

Frank H said:


> I just need to add a screen over the intake. I think some window screen with a zip tie or some hot glue should work.


I've found hot glue doesn't seem to stick well to smooth plastic like that. I'd try to get a zip tie tight enough or even just an elastic band to hold on the screen. ONce in awhile you'll have to replace the elastic as they deteriorate over time. You could always just add a short piece of capped PVC and drill lots of holes in it so as to not impede flow too much. Could also run each side through a table saw to cut grooves/slots in the pipe to assist flow.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

Definitely some good ideas in this thread. I'm envisioning my new PVC drain attachment right now.

I liked the end cap idea with holes/slits drilled into the tubing. One of my biggest annoyances (aside from houdini fish getting inside the drain line) is refilling the tanks. It always takes a little extra care not to blow the substrate all over the tank - especially in our dirted tank where a misplaced hose could prove disasterous. It seems that I could angle the holes used to siphon upward and refill the tanks without moving the hose.

I'm also debating on some sort of sliding contraption that will allow for draining deeper tanks vs. more shallow. All this and the thought of using a larger diameter hose... Fun stuff :thumb:



b3w4r3 said:


> Deeda said:
> 
> 
> > I just suck on my cupped hand placed over the end of the hose to start the siphon.
> ...


Blowing in a siphon hose can be just as efficient if not more so than sucking... Much less risk of fish water in your mouth too


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

jcabage said:


> I liked the end cap idea with holes/slits drilled into the tubing. One of my biggest annoyances (aside from houdini fish getting inside the drain line) is refilling the tanks. It always takes a little extra care not to blow the substrate all over the tank - especially in our dirted tank where a misplaced hose could prove disasterous. It seems that I could angle the holes used to siphon upward and refill the tanks without moving the hose.
> 
> I'm also debating on some sort of sliding contraption that will allow for draining deeper tanks vs. more shallow. All this and the thought of using a larger diameter hose... Fun stuff :thumb:
> 
> Blowing in a siphon hose can be just as efficient if not more so than sucking... Much less risk of fish water in your mouth too


Definitely can put slots on the top half of the return portion to direct water away from your substrate. For various depth tanks I'm thinking you can just dry fit different lengths into the 90 that hangs down into the tank. The rest is the same, just interchangeable internal tank parts. As long as those PVC pipes are a hand twist snug you should be good to go. Worst care scenario is it comes loose and simply breaks the syphon.

I question your suggestion of blowing being just as efficient as sucking with less risk of water in the mouth. I find it not appealing to stick my head in the tank water to get my mouth around the hose to blow and start the syphon. :lol:

The sump hose we are using is 24' long, even if you cut it down abit the risk of water in the mouth is remote. Not the same though in that 4-6' section right off the gravel vac that you're draining into a 5 gallon bucket! Easy to slurp up water with that.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

chiroken said:


> I question your suggestion of blowing being just as efficient as sucking with less risk of water in the mouth. I find it not appealing to stick my head in the tank water to get my mouth around the hose to blow and start the syphon. :lol:
> 
> The sump hose we are using is 24' long, even if you cut it down abit the risk of water in the mouth is remote. Not the same though in that 4-6' section right off the gravel vac that you're draining into a 5 gallon bucket! Easy to slurp up water with that.


You blow instead of suck - from the same end. The pressure created from blowing causes the water to start siphoning. Blow start siphons are common in other applications. This works under the same principle, just less engineering. You may have to suck a bit after you blow, but nothing more.

Zero fish water in mouth required! Try it some time :thumb:


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## jlhetrick (Mar 25, 2013)

Thanks for the info on this. I usually like to vacuum the gravel and find that my my tank (75 g) empties faster than I can get to all of the gravel. But I want to duplicate your setup for when I do want a really fast water change.

By the way can anyone tell me if water emptied from the tank is safe for yard plants and trees?


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## chiroken (Sep 25, 2007)

jlhetrick said:


> By the way can anyone tell me if water emptied from the tank is safe for yard plants and trees?


Absolutely! Consider it fertilizer, it contains nitrogen. You can use it to water your house plants too.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I second the idea of using optional 'slip on' fittings for the portion of the DIY water changer that is in the tank. I use a 90°fitting that returns the water to the tank near the top of the J. For shallow tanks, a pre-filter sponge helps to disperse the water without stirring up the sand or blowing fish around.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Deeda said:


> I just suck on my cupped hand placed over the end of the hose to start the siphon. You can also pre-fill the hose with some water if you don't want to use my method.
> 
> No I haven't rigged up anyway of evenly dispersing the tank water over the garden or flowerbed. I've thought about it but most of the beds are higher than the patio.


So with this method you have to have your drain area lower than your tank area is that correct? As its a simply gravity drain? This would work in the summer for us but in the winter it is too cold to even open the door to drain outside and our closest inside drain is either the kitchen sink. Without a pump is there a way to make this work if you have to go uphill to your drain? I guess for winter you could come up with some type of retrofit to add the pump at that base of the intake.

Showing pic to my hubby so we can figure out how to make this work. Thanks Deeda!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Yes, you need to drain lower than the tank level to use the gravity method. I open the patio door just wide enough to get the sump pump hosing through and deal with the cold air during the winter months. Just draining 12 tanks takes under 15 minutes.

You will need a separate pump if you want to drain 'uphill'.


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## jlhetrick (Mar 25, 2013)

chiroken said:


> jlhetrick said:
> 
> 
> > By the way can anyone tell me if water emptied from the tank is safe for yard plants and trees?
> ...


Thanks!


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

Took my son to a classmate's birthday party today and had some time to kill. Headed over to Lowes. Wanted to find a way to incorporate a drain screen with "plug and play" parts so I would not have to attach mesh on the end with a zip tie. This is what I ended up with. Was not as compact as I would have liked... but I think it will work. Used a 1 1/4" by 1" 90 degree elbow. Slid the 1 1/4" side into a 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" Flexible Coupling from American Valve. Slid a 2" Oatey pvc snap in drain plug into the other end. Very tight fit for both, but very manageable. Flexible Coupling came with two metal screw-tight clamps... but fit was so tight I did not use them (plus did not want the metal in the tank). Overall size is 2 1/4" wide by 7" long (from beginning of elbow to tip of drain). Holes are too big to protect small fry, but perfect for the fish I have in the tank. $ 7.50 for all the parts. Of all the things I could have done with my free time... this is what I picked. Go figure. 

Randy


Drain1 by randifer, on Flickr


Drain2 by randifer, on Flickr


Drain3 by randifer, on Flickr


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## Blooper01 (Mar 1, 2013)

Nice! Thanks for your ideas, Chiroken and Deeda -- totally copied you yesterday! Found the same sump hose. Did Deeda's design with different "attachment" PVC assemblies for 4 different tanks.

Instead of making the PVC length correspond to 50% of the tank, I made the PVC length extend to a few inches over the sand. Then I drilled a 1/4" hole at 50% length and tested. This really did break the siphon and stop at the right place.

Instead of trying to find and fit a screen to the end, I had the smallest-sized mesh bags for filter media. (Such as for putting carbon into a fluval 305/6.) I put them over the end of the hose and rubber banded them. I am using 1" and 1.25" PVC depending on tank size and the mesh bags seemed to hold fine. If they wear out, I have some more. Note: the substrate is sand and didn't have any significant debris on it this time -- so not an issue. I never could have used this when I had gravel, which was a 100% vacuuming water change.

Thank you so much for these wonderful ideas. Soooo stolen/er, borrowed/er, adopted. This was an unbelievably fast water change.


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## Blooper01 (Mar 1, 2013)

PS, I'm not sure it's the 1/2" Python hose that makes me crazy, it may be the 1/4" (looking, anyhow) bottlenecks in the Python fittings. Anyhow, thanks to you guys I expect to use my Python for only refilling -- which means I get to cut about half of the hose length off (due to not needing as much gravity pull) which means easier! Yay!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Glad it worked well for you Blooper01! The hardest part of using the corrugated sump pump hose is rolling and unrolling the darn thing.


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## johnchor (Apr 2, 2011)

hello folks,

i am interested in python water changing system.
how do u add the anti-chlormine/chlorine? do u add tap water straight to the tank then add anti-chlormine?
wont the tap water chlormine harm the fishes and BB before u add the anti-chlormine?

i have back breaking water changing sessions now using pails...5 pails each week... phew!!!
shagged.


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

johnchor said:


> hello folks,
> 
> i am interested in python water changing system.
> how do u add the anti-chlormine/chlorine? do u add tap water straight to the tank then add anti-chlormine?
> ...


I am relatively new to Cichlids... but seems that many folks seem to have their own way of doing it.

I measure out the amount of Prime I need (which is enough to treat the entire aquarium since I will be adding the water straight to the tank from the tap). I put a small splash of what I measured into the tank. Then I start the water running. If I have the time, I continue to add a small splash of what I measured to the tank every time the water rises about 3 inches or so. But if I am busy doing other things, I completely fill the tank and then add the remaining Prime I have left. I have had no problems that I know of doing it this way.

I have seen other members post that they add all of their prime to the tank and then add the water from the tap. I think I have even seen a few that add the water first and then add the Prime.

I'm not sure there is a wrong way of doing it.... BUT, I am sure that the most important thing is to make sure you don't forget to add the anti-chlormine at all. You probably won't realize you forgot until a couple of fish die. So pick the routine that you are most likely not to forget.

Randy


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## Randifer (Nov 4, 2012)

I finally got around to finishing the siphon. Very easy after reading through the posts on here, so not sure why I waited so long.
Here is a video of it in action:


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