our new way to do water changes

We are in the process of building an inwall system downstairs with a fishroom right there that will give us access to all our tanks from one spot. However right now we have our RO/DI access downstairs and our tanks upstairs.

I hate lugging buckets of water around, so a few years ago I got a ton of 1.5" tubing and a gigantic pump and ran that tubing through our floor so we just had to plug the pump on and the water ran upstairs. (not the prettiest thing I have done, but it hides well)

However what we had to do to do water changes was to siphon the old water into buckets and carry them out to dump them. Then we would turn on the switch to the pump and fill up the tanks directly.

Well tonight I hooked up 15 feet of 1" tubing to an extra marineland return pump that we had and ran the tubing directly to the sink to drain. So I just did a 50g water change by myself without lifting more then a hose!: Much easier then the old way....I still cant wait until we get the fish room done though!

 

I thought every one did it this way. On freshwater tanks I don't even go to the drain, just right out the window.;D

 

I am a little bit slower! LOL!!!

 

it took me some time too lol

 

Man, now I feel silly for lugging up 2-1 gallon jugs of water upstairs 5 times to do a 10 gallon water change. I need to get some clean water buckets.

Seriously, a great idea though. When I set up that big dream tank I will look into doing something similar to this if I don't get my fish room.

 

i set up my tank with a hole drilled in the bottom back which is connected to 1 1/4" tubing on a tap which runs directly into the drain then to refill i just turn off the outlet tap and turn on the inlet pump and it fills right back up. so all the while water is emptying/filling i can clean the skimmer and glass quick and easy no buckets any more

 

Aquarist ingenuity at its finest...LOL

 

Aquarist ingenuity at its finest...LOL

 

so I was introduced to reef keeping from a friend in Tahoe about 5 years ago. He had been keeping reefs for over 10 years at that point and was sorta superstitious about it. He would only use gallon jugs of water from the store (they cost over 2$ a gal!) until I started getting the 5g jugs from the big water filters out front of the stores. He watched my tank for 6months before he switched over lol! Now he has a rodi unit and I don't

 

I personally do not trust a lot of the LFS around my area for their RO/DI. Membranes and filters are expensive and I knew one place (they are out of business) that NEVER changed anything, not even their resins, so you were getting straight tap water.