Adding clean water

likwid · #1 10-01-2008, 10:43 PM

Hey guys,

I have upgraded to a larger tank and am having some problems with my waterchange process.

In my smaller tanks, I would put the clean water in a small bucket and simply dump it into the tank. I now have my clean water mixed in a large bucket that holds 5 gallons. Right now, I am lifting up the bucket and slowly dumping the water into the tank, but as you can tell it is very heavy and often spills all over the place and dumps way too fast.

I use a long hose as a siphon to take out the old water during my water change, but since the tank is higher than I can lift the bucket, I cannot siphon the clean water back into the tank. Is there a product out there that can do this, or what else can I do to make this easier? I do not have any spare pumps either to pump the water back in.

slakker · #2 10-01-2008, 10:48 PM

I use a Maxijet to pump water from the bucket into the sump...

Norstar · #3 10-02-2008, 01:58 PM

I use a small water pump to mix the salt, as well as to pump it in the tank. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive as it is only use once a week

TJSlayer · #4 10-02-2008, 02:11 PM

Get a gravel vac !

I do something similar with my 75 gal...

I mix up two pails of water and when I ready I use a third pail and siphon off two pails of old water (shut my pumps off of course)

Then I stack the fresh water on top of one of the empty pails and siphon the fresh water back into sump and turn the return pump on. I do this with both pails.

The siphone has an auto start mechanism so by shaking it up and down it starts on it 's own.

Works well and takes about 10-15 minutes, siphon was about $12 at LFS.