For Pat, Mike, Francine, Danies ... Others With Fishrooms

[Charlutz]

Pythons? Buckets? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Looks like you all have great systems for getting air, filtration and heat to your tanks, but what about water changes?

Oops. That was supposed be "Daniel" but I can't figure out how to edit the title. Owe you one, Daniel.

 

[maddog10]

I have to use a 44 gallon trashcan on wheels (I have a couple). Drain the water into the can, wheel it across the basement and dump it out the back door. Water changes take a good bit of time. Working on getting a 400 gallon storage tank that will go in my utility room. Install some pipe and a pump, put a flexible hose on the end and use to refill. That will make it easier. Then just get a long hose to run across the basement and dump it to the back yard. That is the next step for me.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I also have the 44 Gallon trash can. I use 3 partial pythons to siphon from the top and middle rows into the can. I also take a submersible pump and put into the bottom tanks. The pump is hooked to a hose that runs to my sump pump pit. From there it is pumped into the yard.
When the 44 gallon gets full, I move the pump to the trash can and drain it. While that is draining, I clean algae. When the can is empty again, I put the pump back into a bottom tank and move on.

I refill using a python. I hook it directly to the sink in the basement. I do not use the attachment for siphoning water out because it restricts the flow too much. I just hook the hose up to the end and i pump the water into the tanks and add drops while it is filling. No water storage for me. Usually I do a 50% water change on everything in the fish room in about 3 hours. 1 hour to drain and 2 to fill. I used to drain some tanks while filling others but made too many messes. Now I wait to get the fill hose out until if finish draining and put the drain hose away. I use different hoses. The drain is attached to a hose reel and it is attached to the sump pump cover so I do not accidently pull the hose out and fill the basement with the old water. Been there and Done that. The pump I use came from Home Depot and I have never sucked a fish up. Well, yet..

 

[Charlutz]

That is some dedication. I have a slop sink in my storage room and two of my tanks are higher than the drain. So I can just hook a garden hose to the faucet and run it to the tanks. Run water through it to get the air out; turn off the faucet and let it back siphon down the drain. While this is going on, I siphon the one 40g tank on the bottom into buckets. Do some water tests while I am waiting, add my buffers to the sump on the big tank. Then I refill from the tap. It's worked really well except for one time when while siphoning my 210g the hose fell out of the sink. My wife and I were watching Lost or something and I didn't hear it fall. Had about 40g of water in the basement carpet at like 1030 on a Wednesday. That was a mess. Luckily Giant was still open and I got a steam cleaner and saved the basement carpet from getting mildewed. Now, I use a clamp to clip the end of the hose to the sink.

 

[maddog10]

The only reason I use stored water, is that I want to get the temperatures to even out a bit. I have a hose attached directly to an outlet off the well tank in the basement. Water temp straight from that tank is usually in the 60-65 degree range. Tank temps are 78-81 degrees and since I heat the room and not the tanks, it takes longer to get the temps back up.

 

[longstocking]

I do the same thing as charles.

Straight from the tap. Hook it up to my bathroom sink and drain the water.... reverse to fill back up. Add declor. and baking soda right before filling up and I'm done.

If you have heated water coming from your sink... you get pretty good at matching the water temp with your hand....