How do you change your water?

Goodwood said:

I have a drinking water hose I hook up to the utilty sink with a this on the end.
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Waste water is drained into a bucket and distributed amongst the houseplants and garden veggies!

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Really nice! So this is set up under a sink or something a and you connect a hose every time you add water to tank?

AquaPlants said:

Really nice! So this is set up under a sink or something a and you connect a hose every time you add water to tank?

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I connect my hose to the faucet and attach pvc valve gizmo to the other end of the hose. I use the valve to turn on/off water instead of running around.

I had a threaded faucet installed under my bathroom sink for soemthing like $20. You can pretty much do it yourself - just go to home depot or similar and pick up one of those faucet like you might have on the outside of your home and the proper size hose that connects to the hoses under your sink. In my case a plumber did it but it was pretty cheap and only took a few minutes. I use a 33 gallon pail for my water change - actually two - one i fill with water the night before to allow the cold water to warm - i then siphon water out of the tank into the out pail; and pump water into the tank from in pail. I then pump water from out pail into the toilet. Pumps are cheap - hosing is more expensive - not great but it works. When i move i will have pvc pipes under the floor and not do so much pumping in and out but i have another year till that happens.

Ah ok i see! I would love it use something similar but would have to change my faucet head to accommodate a hose fitting. Do you add Prime directly into tank before or after you re fill tank? I was always curious

tombat said:

Very "vertical" house with no usable sink on the same floor as the aquarium. The resources I do have are an unused bathtub upstairs, a very long tube and a lot of gravity.
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LOL! That’s incredible!!

AquaPlants said:

Weekly maintenance isn’t that bad after all when you have the right tools. Having a 55 gallon drum on a dolly with an electric pump makes life so much easier! Unfortunately my Faucet doesn’t have any threads so I cannot connect a python. What is your method of water changes look like?
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Your tank is gorgeous!

Personally I use a pond pump and 50 ft vinyl tubing from home depot. Really good system for $7!

AquaPlants said:

Ah ok i see! I would love it use something similar but would have to change my faucet head to accommodate a hose fitting. Do you add Prime directly into tank before or after you re fill tank? I was always curious

LOL! That’s incredible!!

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They do make adapters so you can attach a hose to most faucets. I have bought them at my local hardware store. I add prime directly to tank while its filling up from the tap.

RO holding tanks in the basement.

Piping run up inside the wall coming out right above the tank.

One switch turns on pump in the tank sending water down the pipe inside the wall to a basement drain.

Flip another switch and RO water is pumped up from basement into the tank.

A lot of work to set up, but still gives me a grin years later.

Goodwood said:

They do make adapters so you can attach a hose to most faucets. I have bought them at my local hardware store. I add prime directly to tank while its filling up from the tap.

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I couldn’t find adapters for my sinks head. One head isn’t even round lol.

EmotionalFescue said:

We have a utility sink in the laundry room with a Python adapter on the faucet. Since that sink is pretty far from the farthest tank location, we have an in-line pump to speed up the draining (the tank below is the closest). Pump is in a plug that has a wireless remote. When I'm ready to fill, I just hit the remote, turn off the ball valve at the faucet end, open the Python adapter, and start running the water to get the temperature right. Then open the ball valve and close the adapter to start the fill.

We have nice, clean rocky mountain water with <50 TDS out of the tap, so no real need for RO. Prime right into the tank during the fill.

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I love this! What kind of pump is that?

AquaPlants said:

I couldn’t find adapters for my sinks head. One head isn’t even round lol.

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Well thats no good! Adding a spigot under my sink like @jake21 seems like my next logical step since the hose lives under the sink anyhow.
Are you using tap water? Or reverse osmosis water?

AquaPlants said:

I love this! What kind of pump is that?

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It's an EHEIM universal 1262. It used to be the return pump on the pictured tank before I replaced it with a DC model.

Goodwood said:

Well thats no good! Adding a spigot under my sink like @jake21 seems like my next logical step since the hose lives under the sink anyhow.
Are you using tap water? Or reverse osmosis water?

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I'm using tap - i connected it to the cold line by adding a T. I live in a condo right now and did't want to mess with ro but when i move next summer i will 100% have ro and filtered water as a lot of the fishes i want to raise/breed really need softer water. Our water isn't horrible kh 3/gh 7/tds 120 but it isn't great when you want kh 1/tds 40.... anyway more details than you asked.

jake21 said:

I'm using tap - i connected it to the cold line by adding a T. I live in a condo right now and did't want to mess with ro but when i move next summer i will 100% have ro and filtered water as a lot of the fishes i want to raise/breed really need softer water. Our water isn't horrible kh 3/gh 7/tds 120 but it isn't great when you want kh 1/tds 40.... anyway more details than you asked.

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I love details! I have an ro system, but strictly use it for topping off. I have had good sucess with my tap water and minimal algea issues. My tap is at about 200 tds. Do you completely drain the hose you use to fill your tank everytime? I have had bacteria blooms from using the hose from the garden. Just curious.

Goodwood said:

I love details! I have an ro system, but strictly use it for topping off. I have had good sucess with my tap water and minimal algea issues. My tap is at about 200 tds. Do you completely drain the hose you use to fill your tank everytime? I have had bacteria blooms from using the hose from the garden. Just curious.

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Well I use a python to drain the tank - i drain it into a 30 gallon pail and then pump the water from the pail to the toilet - the python is short so it is easy to drain 100%.

IScapedAThing said:

Wow, I love your planted tank!!!!

I came up with a system that works pretty well for me. I connect an RO filter to my sink faucet once per week and filter 20 gallons of water. I then siphon 10 gallons into my holding tub under my aquarium and let it get the right temperature and add a little Seachem Equilibrium. When I'm ready to to a water change I use a gravel siphon if i want to remove debris or more commonly I just open a valve on the filter return and that fills a 5 gallon bucket. Then I turn on the pump that is in the clean water holding tub and it fills the aquarium up through the lily pipe. It makes water changes really fast and easy.

One question for all of you. Doesn't it hurt your plants and fish to run tap water directly into your tank from the tap?

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Wow that is a bad ass system! My tank is 65 gal and I would need a larger holding tank however I’m Getting some ideas based off of what you got going on there. I always add prime directly to my 55 gallon barrel before I add water back into tank.

LOL, I just have to add my ridiculous low tech solution to this thread. I have a tiny broom closet full of one gallon jugs. I call it the water closet (which I find hilarious and my husband just rolls his eyes when I crack myself up). I date the jugs when I fill them so I know if they've been sitting long enough (we only have chlorine in our water, no chloramine). This is probably why I stick with smaller tanks.