# DIY water change pump



## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Dont know if this is really a DIY, but I thought this would be the best place to post it.

So here is the story. I have a 95g tank that I am cycling right now, and I am at the stage of doing water changes every day to help keep the nitrites down. I am doing about a 30% (roughly 30g) water changes. Now mind you I have never done a water change on such a large tank (my other tank is only 36g), so I thought I would use my water changer/gravel vac that I used on my small tank. Well as you can probably imagine, I used a ton of water doing it this way. So no more of that. So the next day I went the old fashioned way and just used a 5g bucket. Well since it is 5 ft to the top of my tank I had to use a step ladder (Im only 5ft 9in  ) to even be able to get up there to get the bucket in! Then of course I had to lift the full bucket up and over the top of the tank (all the while sloshing water everywhere  ) then lug the bucket through the house to dump in the yard. So after two days of doing this I told myself there had to be a better way to get the water out without all the manual labor, mess, and wasted water.

After a little brainstorming I cam up with this:










That is the water pump from my swamp cooler hooked to my gravel vac (amazingly enough it fit the gravel vac hose perfectly  ). I was then able to run the vac hose out a window into the grass (water didnt go to waste :thumb: ) and then hold the pump in the tank (pump is not submersible) and then just pump out my roughly 30g (it took about 10 minutes) with no mess and no wasted water  .

These pumps can be purchased at most big name home improvement stores or online for as little as $25, and all the all the large retail pet stors carry the gravel vacs.

So anyways, there is my little DIY/quick water change trick. Not sure what everyone will thin of it, but I thought it was pretty nifty and saved me a whole lot of time, mess, and water.


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## Dieselfool (Aug 11, 2010)

Cool idea, but a couple of concerns. With a non-submersable pump, I would gather that your just holding it suspended in the water with the motor above the waterline, yes? Electricity and water= disaster. Should you loose your balance, this could really hurt....or worse. Also doing it this way your not able to vacuum the gravel clean of fish waste. Just a thought.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Dieselfool said:


> I would gather that your just holding it suspended in the water with the motor above the waterline, yes? Electricity and water= disaster. Should you loose your balance, this could really hurt....or worse.


Already thought of that, as I have had a few encounters with electrical shocks through work and other various ventures :lol: I actully tied a length of rope to the top of the motor and then dangled it in the tank that way. That way i kept myself away from the pump, and since I did that I didnt have to use the step ladder anymore, so very little chance of losing my balance, that is unless we have one of our famous California earthquakes while I am doing this  . The pump is plugged into a GFI outlet, so in theory if the pump did happen to fall into the tank the GFI circuit should trip and interrupt the power.



> Also doing it this way your not able to vacuum the gravel clean of fish waste. Just a thought.


This was more so just to aid me in removing water from my tank for water changes during the time my tank is cycling. In the future when I have fish and need to vaccum I will just remove the pump and put the attachment back on so I can use it as a vaccum.

Thanks for the concern for my well being and the inputs :thumb:


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