Water Changes - from sump or display

[christyf5]

Weekly, I close the return valve and empty the sump, then refill. Midweek I siphon the barebottom into a filterbag.

[Madreefer]

Sump is in my unfinished basement. So much easier and I no longer get the ol' stink eye from the wife if I spill water on the basement floor rather than our main floor.

[JonT]

Well, for me, it is from the DT. I have 20' to get to the bathroom. I also live in an apartment. After more than one spill, I bought enough hose, and I run it right to the bathtub. So, for me, it is the DT. I let gravity, and siphons do the work for me.

One spill only with this method... Kid kicked the hose, and it didn't have the nice bracket to hold it to the tank (Bracket was made after cleaning 20' of water from the 1/2" hose that ran out on the floor) I have it setup with a T at the tank. The top of the T has a cap. Pop the cap, breaks the siphon. Let the water finish running the length of hose, wrap it up, and done.

I pump the new water into the sump.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I siphon water from my 210g reef display into my 120g fowlr's sump.

At the same time, I siphon from the 120g fowlr display down the bathtub.

At the same time, I pump from 2 or 3 55g barrels into my 210g reef's sump.

By recycling the reef water into the fowlr and dumping the fowlr water down the drain, I can do 100-150g water changes without going broke.

In general, the 210g reef will end up with 100+ g of new sw, the 120g fowlr will end up with 50g of new water and 100+g of reef-tank recycled water.

I let the water drain almost completely out of the reef's 75g sump before I start pumping in the new water.

Not for everyone, but what works for me.

I allows me to do over 100g water changes on both the 210g reef & 120g fowlr at the same time so dones in about 1 hour from the start of the first siphoning action till I'm rolling up the flexible tubing to store away at the end.

Unfortunately, tearing down the fowlr so won't be able to use this system again in the future.

On the plus side, my new 220g Starfire tank is almost set up and will be running by the weekend. Woohoo.

At that point, I will be simply draining 100g each out of the displays (again by letting the return pump suck up all the sumps' water, before adding new water in.

Anthony

[bignose]

My sump is in my utility room so I just pump it from my sump down the drain and pump the new water back into the sump. So happy I don't have to bail water anymore.

[lorenz0]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Weekly, I close the return valve and empty the sump, then refill. Midweek I siphon the barebottom into a filterbag.

umm good idea. wish i would have thought of the filterbag for siphoning

but i do all my water changes from the sump.

[Aqua Man]

I always suck it from the sumps on all my setups, I also pump it back into the sumps. I ran pex pipe from all tanks to my laundry tub and just bought a pump to sit in the sump. I also have some pumps in my mixing station/tank where it is also pumped through pex piping back to the sump.

Never lift a finger, take a look at my 375 gallon build for pics.

Thanks
Corey