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DIY Project DIY Water Changer, No more buckets!!

Re: My Water Changer

Hey guys,
The way I use to start the flow is to pump some water up the hose towards the tank,may take a couple of goes to judge it - if there are 2 of you there the first time it helps, as when the bubbles stop you've gone too far :lol: then switch off & disconnect at the tap/shower end & put yor strainer on, the water then starts flowing nicely without any messing around

Regards
Will
 
Re: My Water Changer

Oooh, now that's a good method! But as you say, would need some method not to flood the tank...
 
Re: My Water Changer

I think about using similar system, but I'd like to use my EHEIM 2022 to filter the water with active carbon before adding to aquarium, do you think it is a good idea? My concern is adding the water under pressure (from the tap) directly to the filter.
 
Re: My Water Changer

The method I use on mine is a T piece on the inlet and out let from my canister, close to the filter with taps after the T pieces and on the t'ed off pipes. I can then use 5 gallon barrels to pump water out by closing off the outlet after the T piece and open the tap on the t'ed off pipe into the barrel. Once that is full I close the outlet into the barrel, open up the outlet into the tank and open the t'ed off pipe from the new water barrel and close the inlet from the strainer, closing it when it's finished and openening up the strainer inlet. This works for me as I don't have a source of tap water close by. This is a basic diagram below.
3283805255_68d51fa676.jpg
 
Re: My Water Changer

Wilis said:
Hey guys,
The way I use to start the flow is to pump some water up the hose towards the tank,may take a couple of goes to judge it - if there are 2 of you there the first time it helps, as when the bubbles stop you've gone too far :lol: then switch off & disconnect at the tap/shower end & put yor strainer on, the water then starts flowing nicely without any messing around

Regards
Will
Click to expand...

This is what I do too ( I think I might have posted this already a few months ago and probaby at least 50 posts back in this thread!)
I wait for the bubbles to stop do not worry about going to far. It is no big deal to me if a little water goes into the tank before I start draining it. The sound of the bubbles is great as it means you can be in a different room from the tank and hear what is happening.

As I drain into the bath my strainer is very simple... I put the plug in the bath :lol:

This also helps when matching the temp of the refill water to the tank.... I match it to the bathwater instead 🙂

There are so many ways to skin a cat, it is great.
 
Something to bear in mind...

Having done some research in to plumbing solutions to make water changes more straightforward I found myself falling foul of regulations surrounding mains and waste water. I was loosely familiar with the reasons for non-return valves in garden taps and why you can no longer buy bidets with the fountain in the bottom of the bowl. I am also aware the fish tanks can harbour salmonella. But, not being a plumber, I decided to ask the experts.

What I managed to find out so far...
a fish tank is cat 5 water if you install a dedicated supply with a hose that can enter the aquarium it will require a break tank with AB air gap !
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure what that means but, in essence, I think it means you should supply a storage tank and then the (storage) tank supplies the feed to the fish tank - the point being that the feed to the storage tank and the supply from the storage tank are separated by an air gap across which germs etc cannot travel. It does reinforce my concerns about essentially "plumbing" your fresh and waste water together...

At the very least I would recommend running waste to a non-kitchen waste and installing a non-return valve near to the supply.
 
bugs said:
Something to bear in mind...

Having done some research in to plumbing solutions to make water changes more straightforward I found myself falling foul of regulations surrounding mains and waste water. I was loosely familiar with the reasons for non-return valves in garden taps and why you can no longer buy bidets with the fountain in the bottom of the bowl. I am also aware the fish tanks can harbour salmonella. But, not being a plumber, I decided to ask the experts.

What I managed to find out so far...
a fish tank is cat 5 water if you install a dedicated supply with a hose that can enter the aquarium it will require a break tank with AB air gap !
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure what that means but, in essence, I think it means you should supply a storage tank and then the (storage) tank supplies the feed to the fish tank - the point being that the feed to the storage tank and the supply from the storage tank are separated by an air gap across which germs etc cannot travel. It does reinforce my concerns about essentially "plumbing" your fresh and waste water together...

At the very least I would recommend running waste to a non-kitchen waste and installing a non-return valve near to the supply.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I have non return valves on all my taps that I use to supply water to the aquarium. Back-syphoning into the water supply is an issue with leaving a garden hose in a bucket of water or watering can in the garden too. I think it's mandatory to have a one-way valve fitted to all garden/out-door taps now. I thought this protection would be adequate for an aquarium too, but maybe not!
 
I had no idea about this :shock:

Just found a NRV hozelock fitting on Ebay for under £10, I'll add that into my standard setup 🙂
 
My water for the tank comes from the bath which is fed off the coldwater tank in the loft therefore it has an air break already. Correct me if I'm wrong please!
This is not potable water that is meant for drinking anyway so surely there is no need for a non return valve on my changer hose in this case.
 
TLH said:
My water for the tank comes from the bath which is fed off the coldwater tank in the loft therefore it has an air break already. Correct me if I'm wrong please!
This is not potable water that is meant for drinking anyway so surely there is no need for a non return valve on my changer hose in this case.
Click to expand...

I'm not an authority on the subject (just sharing the little knowledge I've picked up and that seems to make sense).

I've not asked about cold water storage supplies so the following is pure speculation...
You risk contaminating the water between your cold water storage tank and the outlet to which you connect your hose. I knew nothing about categories of water before a plumber mentioned aquariums being cat 5, therefore, I suspect (this is just a hunch) that drinking/mains water is probably category 1 and water from a cold water storage tank is somewhere in-between. So perhaps not as big a deal as mixing cat 5 with cat 1 but possibly still a bit of a no no. I reckon it's still worth using an inline non-return valve for what it costs - that way you can be confident that there is no backflow.
 
Thats why I use shut off taps in my hoses (in my diagram 1,2,3,4 are shut off taps), when the water is draining from the tank, the hose that connects to the taps is completly shut so no water can go back into the taps. Also I only open the taps when I want to fill the tank so little chance of back pressure there, I shut a tap at the end of the hose near the tank, also to prevent water going back down the hose.

But its all good information that most of us are not aware off, thanks for sharing guys 🙂
 
Hi LD,
Finally got off my backside to set this up. I received my stop taps today...
LondonDragon said:
...4x Shut off taps:
On ebay search exactly for "hose tap flow", look for 25mm which is compatible with hozelock, so will fit standard garden hoses. (Could no longer find the ones I used)...
Click to expand...
Did you not mean 20mm (5/8")? The 25mm (1") ones seem very large!? All the pumps I have seen seem to have ~20mm.
 
Ben_K said:
Did you not mean 20mm (5/8")? The 25mm (1") ones seem very large!? All the pumps I have seen seem to have ~20mm.
Click to expand...
What I documented is what I used and fitted the hose I was given, you just have to ensure the adapters you get are the right size for your type of hose 😉

beetlesteve said:
Just wanted to say cheers for this!
I made my own following your diagram, worked a treat, easy changes, no buckets! Whoo!!!
Click to expand...
Great stuff, but when with the hose and pump I am still lazy to do the water changes, would be ideal if I could hide and leave the hose in place permanently, shame I don't have an attic to run the hose through the house hahaha
 
chilled84 said:
Should you realy use hot water from a tap? I boil mine in kettle and add to fresh cold tap water, Is the hot tap ok?
Click to expand...
I always used water straight from the tap to the tank cold and hot mixed together, never had any issues that I am aware off, use at own risk though.
 
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