Tank Journal Archive

Buddy

Member
Mar 13, 2012
3,142
1,526
Water Changes
Did a water change tonight so I thought I would put up a couple of pics showing how I do them on my tank.
On my last tank I got sick of having to turn off the syphon, return pump, ATO, etc. to do a water change, so on this tank I designed the plumbing so that I could change the water with out turing anything off. I needed to do this with out the water level in the return section of the sump changing so that the ATO didn't kick in.

My IBC is outside so first of all I run a hose from the IBC to the tank.
hosein.jpg

Secondly I turn off a valve and remove a section of pipe that goes in to the sump.
This is an old pic with the pipe still attached and valve on.


Pipe removed and hose attached.
hoseout.jpg

The water level is consistent during the water change because the water is going out of my backup pipe, so any water that goes in the tank forces the same amount of water out of the tank. This leaves the sump to run at its normal operating level.
This is an old pic of the weir, the water is exiting the tank through the larger pipe on the right. I have since added strainers to both pipes.


While the water change is happening I give the sand bed a good stir up so the tank ends up looking like this for a while.
sand.jpg

After a couple hundred litres has been pumped in, I just turn off the valve and re attach the pipe, pack up and i'm done!
Doing it this way causes a little of the new water to be wasted but I will take the convenience over the small water loss.
 

Buddy

Member
Mar 13, 2012
3,142
1,526
I just stop the water change if the water drops a couple of degrees. It was 26 in Melb today so the tank temp only dropped 0.2 degrees after 200L.
 

Wrangy

Member
May 7, 2013
2,923
1,567
Research
Awesome, I love your filter sock setup :p ingenious!
Also which pipe is your intake into the sump, I'm rooting around at the moment trying to figure out how to silence my overflow as it's bloody loud lol
 

Buddy

Member
Mar 13, 2012
3,142
1,526
Haha yeah I only stick that sock on for water changes to try and catch some of the crap floating around. The pipe with the sock is the syphon, this is the shorter pipe in the weir. The larger pipe is the backup pipe and its the larger one in the weir. My overflow is silent :)
 

Wrangy

Member
May 7, 2013
2,923
1,567
Research
Yeah good idea with the sock. There so many things that some to mind but I need to figure out how I will actually do it as it just drains down and makes god awful noises lol I'll hopefully be able to try a few things tonight though :)