Ok so ive got my aquarium set up all working well. Its a 120L tank with an external canister filter.

What i was wondering was does anyone have any tips or tricks to make the 2nd part of a water change eisier and less shocking for the fish.

Obviously the good old syphon will still be used to remove the crappy water. My issue is with introducing the new water, i dont want to buy and expensive pump to get water from the bucket to the tank, nor do i want to just pour it straight in not only does the bucket get heavy but it seems like alot of stress for a simple water change.

so heres my plan.....i attatch a T piece to the inlet of the canister filter with the inlet from the tank on one side and the other side has a hose going into my new bucket of water.using stop taps i was going to (whilst the pump is running) open the bucket line and close the tank line meaning the water that was going through the filter and into the tank was now new from the bucket topping up the water leavels.



Sorry this was long winded but i tried not to be too confusing. i would love to hear your ideas and views on my plan?

Thanks

Dave

Dave,

Sounds like quite an endeavor! I've always propped the bucket on the corner of my tank (risky, I know), and just siphoned the water in that way.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

I fill up 5 gallon buckets with tap water, treat it, then dump em into my 90 gallon, no stress no hassle. Sounds like your "eaiser" water changes are going to be much more complicated.

I know what you mean it does sound like a bit of a mission to begin with. My logic is that i already have plumbing under my cainet for the external filter. I just thought that if this works it would save a lot of time and effort and maybe help others out too.

I will be putting this masterplan into place next week so i will post some photos to see if it has worked or not.

you never know, this might be a revolution in water changing, HA HA not quite but anything for an easy life

Assuming $36 isn't that much, & you don't have a long distance to a nearby sink, I HIGHLY recommend this. When you put water back in, it streams it in a very non-high pressure way into the tank.

Def worth the money, IMO.

ANNNNNNND, there's a switch on it to stop the input of the water if your hands are messing around in the tank.

Pond Maintenance & Cleaning: No Spill Clean 'N Fill

Thanks for that, if my plan doesnt work im going to give one of these a try. though i may have to get an extension as im not close to a faucet.

Yeah i cant use one of those becuase the closest sink is in the bathroom and its a designer faucet with no way to screw that on, i would have to tap the pipe in the wall and thats no fun.

You don't have another sink that's within 50', 75', or 100'?

I'd still plunk the money down for a longer one if this method would work by any means. WCs are a HUGE pain if you don't have a siphon, if you ask me.

This thing relieves you of any & all stress for WCs if you have the means to use it.

Ive just been looking at the taps where i live and i dont think i would be able to fit one of these. (i live in a military building and cant change the taps in my bathroom)

plus i cant find the python hose thing on any UK website :(

the syphoning part wasnt the issue with my WC i actually find it theraputic, lol strange i know.

i have cut my new pipes to fit onto my filter i just need to connect it up and give it ago.

the picture should hopefully explain what i want to do.

Make sure you treat the water before you run it through your canister. Don't want chlorine running through you bacteria!

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do not pretend conclusions are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable.

I get my water from a friend who has an RO unit.

but good point to anyone reading this about protecting your filter bacteria

wow

exactly the way i do my water changes

and i think fish enjoy fresh water its not stressful for them i guess
they all swim into the new current and smile at me lol

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~ Max
29 Gallon Tall Planted and running Eheim 2217
~~ a German Blue ram pair, 9 Harlequin rasboras, 2 octilincus, 2 Dwarf neon rainbows and a honey sunset Gaurami

16 gallon Bowfront tank ~~ 3 Neon Tetras, red tailed shark, 1 angel (its a real bully), BN pleco and an albino BN pleco.

so when how do you put in your chemicals to treat the water...since everyone i've read say not to add when there are fish in the water...

I use to have a bunch of old maxi-jets power heads laying around. So what I did was took a piece of hose 5/8 ID put it on the end of the maxi-jet. When it was time to do a water change drop the maxi-jet into the tank and drain that out into a bucket on the floor. On the floor right next to that bucket was my new water. Took the maxi-jet out of the tank put it in the bucket on the floor plugged it in and pump the new water right into the tank. No muss no fuss and no holding a bucket up over the tank.

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If It Is To Be It's Up To Me!!!
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You could give the gravel/sand a quick hoover over try and not take to much water out and for the big water change empty your cannister filter and fill it back up to prime it then switch it back on, to do it that way it depends on how much your cannister filter holds, if it holds enough then you may be able to make it so you only need to pour a little water in where the fish are.

If you have sand where the rubbsh lies on top of it you could give the sand a hoover with the tube on the cannister that takes the water out that way only water from teh cannister will be replaced.

+1 to this statement. Even if you were to go out and buy one, you can get one for less than $20 which is a great investment in my opinion. You can sit back and watch it slowly pump which is easier on you.

Yea I have a bad back so lifting and holding a 30- 35lbs. bucket was out of the question. Now I don't even use the buckets. Since all my systems run off of sumps. I just drain the tanks down and pull the water right out from there. And the hose I use is long enough to pull water from the mix station and refill the sump. Kick the return pump back on and it's done. Maybe all of 15 minutes and that's with cleaning out the bottom of the sump with a shop-vac. Even if you had to buy the stuff new. A maxi-jet 1200 and 8 to 12 feet of hose $25.00 tops.

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If It Is To Be It's Up To Me!!!
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I do exactly the way trouble93 has written. Use a spare internal filter/powerhead, connect a hose and pump water back in. Even designer taps you could get sort of flexible extensions that look like a funnel, if you are lucky you can get one that exactly covers the mouth of the tap, just need to hold it there and the other end anyway will be in the tank.
A caveat on any approach, is to have a controlled pumping in of water, so that it neither makes fishes feel uncomfortable due to sudden high water current or disturb your decorations.

I personally follow both the approaches above.

Sounds like the plan would work to tap into your filter inlet side. Theory sounds good. Like the powerhead ide and maxi-jets are very cheap priced.

I move about 60gal of RO water to all my tanks weekly the old fashioned way, with a bucket, and just pour it in.

I was trying to Fit all of this using spares i already had so providing the inlet tapping works ok i will have done this. Failing that the powerhead idea sounds like a winner. I will post pics and results as soon as it is in place.