A hose question

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

SquishyFish

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Messages
1,134
Location
Dallas
Is there any problem with hooking a garden hose to my pump and pumping the new water from the mixing trashcan into the tank. I seem to remember someone saying that there was a problem with that, but I cant remember what it may have been.
 
i dont see an issue with it !! but id prob just run to home depot and get some clear tubing be around $3-4 bucks ya know !! also the only issue i could see is that the garden hose isnt that fixable as for looping over the side of the tank ya know ??
 
I thought I had been told once that garden hose has stuff inside that could taint the water. I wondered this when I moved my tank to my basement. I used a 50ft hose to send the water out the window and into a container downstairs. :)

If I did it, I would get a marine grade hose. When camping, they say to use these types of hose for drinking water. The metal ends on the hose I used rusted up after the one use as well.

HTH
 
Which pump are you talking about - a power head or your main pump. Are u using the pump to pump water out of the mixing trash can or are u using the pump to suck the water out of the trash can and into the tank?

Generally speaking most pumps work fine with added pressure (head) on the output side of the pump. You generally do not want to restrict (or add more head) to the in-take side of the pump. I would think that you would be doing just that if you place a garden hose on the in-take side. I am assuming that your garden hose will be a smaller diameter than you current intake. The best test is to try it out and listen to your pump. If you hear it start to make a swishing sound or it sounds louder then usual, then you may damage your pump and should not do it that way. The swishing sound would be caused by air pockets in the pump - which would not be good for it.

Also - another point to consider is that when you connect that garden hose to your pump, it will need to prime the hose. This will introduce air into your pump and may cause your pump to run dry until it primes the hose (it is also possible that it will not be able to prime the hose due to the air in the pump).

Your best bet is to place a powerhead in the trash can and pump the water out using some clear tubing as Scuba Steve suggests.

Good Luck

Marcel :p
 
I can say that I hook my RO system to my backyard hose and to this point have not incurred any problems. I would think that if the hose isnt used a lot, then it may have build up in it but otherwise it wouldnt be any different than saying water coming out of the copper tubing in your house is tainted?? Plus if its safe to drink from a hose, I would think it would be safe for the fish as you pointed out.... Just my thoughts...
 
well after changing out my ro filters im not sure your average tap water is good to drink imo !! also copper pipes in your house isnt good for fish tanks but your ro unit wwill pull all this out and why we use them !!
 
I thought that some hoses had algeacide in them? When I asked for verification of this when I moved my tank I got none so this is probably a moot point.

I do know that in camping, marine hoses are recommended for freshwater drinking.

I would not compare a garden hose to copper piping though. I would say most copper piping might not fare as well with saltwater running through it all the time. I used the hose once and it rusted the ends up.

I don't drink from ther outside water hose either :)
 
hummm algeacides ?? wonder why they would do that ?? due to most use them just to water the yard so who would care ya know?? why i would just buy a clear hose it not much money and prob not worth the chance :)
 
I think I will just go with the clear hose. I didnt know that you can get it from HD that cheap. (I'm also not sure how this ended up in "getting started"...was suppose to be in "reef")

Anyway, the pump (a 2800gph pump) will be pushing the water from the trashcan to the tank.

Thanks all!

Squishy
 
At an RV center They have potable water hoses. White with a stripe, that you aRre supposed to fill the water tank of the rv with. Those should be ok
 
Back
Top Bottom