"Bucketless" water changes

[igozoom]

Anyone have an example of a down to earth plumbing design to perform water changes without dragging buckets and siphons flopping all over the place? I'm keenly interested in doing so for my new tank, but I have about 20' and a few walls I need to traverse between the tank and utility closet where I keep mixed water.

[jnguyen4007]

I'm sure someone out there can give you a much better advice than I. Since I'm no plumber, the easiest solution is to hook up something like a mag 9 or larger to a long hose.

[L8 2 RISE]

I'm in the middle of setting up my system right now. I don't have pics, but I'll try to describe. In one corner of my basement, I have an unfinished "store room" that takes up about 1/4 of the basement. Right next to it is a kitchen, and on the opposite corner of the basement is where my fish tank will be, in the "living area". I have my typhoon RO/DI hooked up to the sink pipes and hiden away under the sink. I then drilled a hole through the back of the cabinet and into the store room that is just big enough to fit the output hose of the RO/DI through. This goes to a pepsi barrel that has a small pump for circulation, and a heater. I then have a mag 5 that is on top of the pepsi barrel that has a hose going into it for the "input", and a hose going out of the pump output that's just one of those 3/4 inch clear vinyl tubes. I then drilled a hole through the top edge of the kitchen that is hidden by the "upper cabinets" that is big enough for the pipe to pass through. It then travels down the upper edge of the basement, to the corner, where I attached it to an elbow, and then it continues to the next corner where it's attached to another elbow that brings it down behind the fish tank and to the sump. I then have another mag 5 in the sump that is connected to a different vinyl hose that goes straight up to the sort of "slit windows" that basements have and when I want to do a water change, I just open the window and connect it to hard pvc piping that I have outside of the window that brings the water to the lawn...

[Almon]

I have a small pump in my 50g new saltwater container connected to a (garden) hose that runs into the sump.

 

At the same time new water is being pumped into the sump....

 

I have a siphon from the top of the tank connected to a tube that empties down into a drain.

 

They both add / remove water at the same rate, so I rurn the pump on, start the siphon, and wait .......worst case, I forget that I'm changing water, and I remove 10 gallons too much.

 

Key Points

1. Hose from new water container to sump
   
2. Hose from tank to drain
   
3. Add water at the same rate it is removed
   

[Brian Ward]

a pump that will handle the head, a storage container for the mixed saltwater, probably a uniseal through the trash can or a bulkhead in the tank (depending on the container), standard plumbing from one place to the other, and a little electrical work to place a switch by the tank to turn the pump on and off. Should be pretty straightforward depending on your handiness.

[WallyBackm]

I simply created a T controlled with a ball valve right above my return pump that sits at a right angle directly above the lip of my sump. When I want to do a water change, i twist on a 10 foot hose to this T, turn the ball valve open, turn on the return pump and pump the water directly to a drain.

 

Building in extra plumbing options directly into your return lines controlled by valves can never hurt for this application, or others as well (running a phosban, to a UV, etc.)

[Boret]

There is a thread in Reef Central about doing the water change by skimming wet and draining from the collection cup.

I am still reading through the thread to find out how to "automated" this, but if you do it manually it could be a great system. Definitely "Bucketless"!

One of the tricks is to have a holding container between the collection cup of the skimmer and the drain to know exactly how much water you are taking out.

LINK to thread in RC

[trockafella]

i DONT KNOW HOW MUCH JOSH (YAUGER) IS ON HERE ANYMORE, BUT HE HAD AN UNBELIEVABLE BUCKETLESS SYSTEM... HE WOULD BE THE MAN TO TALK TO..

[scott711]

I have a pump in my sump connected to a hose. I flip a switch to turn the pump on to start draining, I flip the switch again to stop the pump. Tank gets filled the same way out of a 55 gallon drum. Very easy.

[DonP]

I have a similar setup to Scott. 55 gal pepsi barrel in a storage room with a pump in it. The room also has a drain. Poly tubing snaked through the drop ceiling and down the wall, with John Guest valves between the pepsi barrel, sump and drain. I use the return pump in the sump to move water to the drain. Flip some values and pump premixed salt water from the pepsi barrel back to the display tank. Very easy and I can do a 30-35 gal water change in 40 min with little effort.

 

Don

[treesprite]

There is a thread in Reef Central about doing the water change by skimming wet and draining from the collection cup.

I am still reading through the thread to find out how to "automated" this, but if you do it manually it could be a great system. Definitely "Bucketless"!

One of the tricks is to have a holding container between the collection cup of the skimmer and the drain to know exactly how much water you are taking out.

LINK to thread in RC

I have airline through a hole in the lid to my skimmer cup so I turn up the dial on the skimmer while siphoning out the water for quick 1 to 2 gallon water changes a few days a week (in addition to routine water changes).

[igozoom]

Thanks. These are all great ideas. The wet skimming drain sounds like a great idea. Does it wipe out a lot of planktonic life in the process? I was planning to do hard plumbing for this, but maybe I'll just roll vinyl hose out from my utility room one a week like some of you have done. I'm really reluctant to cut a hole in the redwood paneling behind my tank!