Water change

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With the right fittings I imagine you could hook one up to a garden hose but the whole point of having a WC'r is so that it can be used from inside the house.

Phin I have mostly large tanks including a 220g which is a show tank that sits out for display so that method would not work well from an aesthetic point of view. I use a water changer which works just fine. Remember Dustin has his tanks in the basement and has a ton of them so he's looking for ways to cut down on manual WC's. I bet he doesn't have one in the 125 he keeps upstairs in his living room (if he still has it).
 
Can you post the link for me? Me and my father are very DIY oriented and love coming up with mechanical was to make things easier... Currently in the last two days we built a canopy and a base all out of 2x4 and plywood and did some electrical work on the canopy to house 3 39" lights. Guaranteed that if I showed him this video we would have it set up this week!
 
And to rivercats you're probably right but mine is in my bedroom and I could easily conceal something very large under my base. I can easily hide some extra tubing and stuff and my canopy will hide any nuisance materials on top of the tank
 
If you do go this method I strongly suggest still doing at least one 50% WC monthly simply because doing small daily WC's won't be removing much in the way of nutrients and dissolved organics which will eventually build up. Also be sure to watch your ph in the event your tank gets low on buffers since you won't be changing out much water. If you do the math you'll see that only changing 2 gallons a day doesn't come up to a very large water turnover monthly compared to doing large weekly WC's unless you have a really small tank. When I first set up the 220g I needed to drop the Kh and Gh until all the peat in my substrate had time to start working so I did daily 10g WC's with RO water for about 3-4 months. And honestly once I finally went to larger weekly WC's the plants and fish did and looked better and my nutrient levels (nitrate/phosphate) dropped significantly as did my TDS, total dissolved soilds (which I read using a TDS meter). IMO large weekly WC's is still the best thing for keeping water healthier for fish and plants.
 
If you do go this method I strongly suggest still doing at least one 50% WC monthly simply because doing small daily WC's won't be removing much in the way of nutrients and dissolved organics which will eventually build up. Also be sure to watch your ph in the event your tank gets low on buffers since you won't be changing out much water. If you do the math you'll see that only changing 2 gallons a day doesn't come up to a very large water turnover monthly compared to doing large weekly WC's unless you have a really small tank. When I first set up the 220g I needed to drop the Kh and Gh until all the peat in my substrate had time to start working so I did daily 10g WC's with RO water for about 3-4 months. And honestly once I finally went to larger weekly WC's the plants and fish did and looked better and my nutrient levels (nitrate/phosphate) dropped significantly as did my TDS, total dissolved soilds (which I read using a TDS meter). IMO large weekly WC's is still the best thing for keeping water healthier for fish and plants.

2 gallon per hour drip. 24 gallons per day.
 
With the right fittings I imagine you could hook one up to a garden hose but the whole point of having a WC'r is so that it can be used from inside the house.

Phin I have mostly large tanks including a 220g which is a show tank that sits out for display so that method would not work well from an aesthetic point of view. I use a water changer which works just fine. Remember Dustin has his tanks in the basement and has a ton of them so he's looking for ways to cut down on manual WC's. I bet he doesn't have one in the 125 he keeps upstairs in his living room (if he still has it).

True. To have it unnoticed would require some serious plumbing work. Minor plumbing to get the feed line to the tank - hide in a wall, but some pretty major adjustments to drain directly into existing pumbing.

Now if you lived in a detached home built off-grade, it could actually be done pretty easily (after you cut a hole through your floor), but if you live in an apartment or have a concrete slab foundation it wouldn't be as easy.
 
Can you post the link for me? Me and my father are very DIY oriented and love coming up with mechanical was to make things easier... Currently in the last two days we built a canopy and a base all out of 2x4 and plywood and did some electrical work on the canopy to house 3 39" lights. Guaranteed that if I showed him this video we would have it set up this week!


HOW TO: Never do water changes - YouTube
 
Good video good idea but I run into the same problem as using a python gravel vac... No available water sources within 10 or even 25 ft. Of my room.
 
Good video good idea but I run into the same problem as using a python gravel vac... No available water sources within 10 or even 25 ft. Of my room.

Do you have a water spigot outside your window? Even down the side of the house? You could run pvc along the outside, connected to the spigot (use a Y so you can still use the water outside). Run the pvc up to your window, put a pressure regulator there and run the airline from outside to inside. You could even bury the pvc, would never notice it.
 
The hose is on the outside west wall and the only window is on the north wall so with all the PVC and pressure stuff and pipe to get the 20 ft from window to tank I might as well just invest in a long python or aqueon water changer like rivercats
 
They are threaded and have adapters so as long as you have male or female normal threads it can be used on either. I know my Aqueon came with a couple different adapters and I had to use one as my faucet had female threads and I needed male threads to make it work. Plus you can get all kinds of adapters at a hardware store if needed or if you don't want their plastic ones.
 
I've also noticed that the valves they use are no different at all to waterbed fill/drain adapters which run like 7 dollars
 
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