Water changes without buckets
By Shadow
II have just installed a home made water changing system that eliminates the need for buckets. I bought a new plastic 50 gallon water tank. I bought it originally so that I could let my water stand for 24 hours before adding it to my tank. I put a pond pump also in there to eliminate supersaturated gasses.
Water changes without buckets
Changing fish water
I have 4 tanks, 132 gallon, 78 gallon, 50 gallon and a 20 gallon and as you can imagine, water changes are hard work.
Emptying the tank is easy as I use a battery powered gravel vac. I attach a hose to the outlet and feed the other end of the hose out of the window into my front garden (my flowers are doing great).
I decided to move the plastic water tank into a cupboard upstairs. The upstairs cupboard is directly above the tanks so it?s not such a hard task. I then fed plastic pipes down to my tanks with a drip valve for slow water changes. I have managed to eliminate the buckets and lots of hassle. On the plus side, the fish also get a gradual change so less stress for the fish and me.
I used a cold water feed to the plastic tank with a plastic ball valve to prevent overflows. There is also an overflow pipe just in case and a manual stop valve. I let it fill, add my water treatment leave it for 24 hours with the pond pump running. Then I operate the drip valve release it slowly into my tanks.
Water changes without buckets
I used micro bore tubing so all pipe work is hidden in the wall cavity. All shut off valves are hidden in the cupboard and the drip valve delivers about 1 cupful of water per min per tank (adjustable) I could add an automatic shut off valve for each tank so it automatically stops the flow when full, but that’s just too lazy.
Water changes without buckets
Here it the tank installed. It was a tight fit.
Water changes without buckets Water changes without buckets Water changes without buckets