When you say water change, you mean...

[Aphone]

Taking a small bucket and dumping the water, not nessarly just the syphone?

 

[sabrinarichard]

I use a pump for my big tanks and a vase for my smaller, it's important to clean the gravel/sand also
Edit: not take the gravel out, but use the appropriate equipment you can find at petshops..

 

[Aphone]

I use a pump for my big tanks and a vase for my smaller, it's important to clean the gravel/sand also
Edit: not take the gravel out, but use the appropriate equipment you can find at petshops..

So dumping with a bucket and spyphn is the best?

 

[Hulka9]

I use a syphon and drain the water into a bucket. Then dump that water, fill the bucket with dechlorinated water and syphon back in.

For my bigger tanks I use an aqueon water changer that connects to my faucet.

 

[captaincritical]

I use a siphon/manual gravel vac on about half my gravel at the time. I siphon the tank water into buckets, dump it, fill them with new water, and pour it back in straight from the buckets. My tank's not too big so it's no hassle. If it was any bigger, I'd likely siphon it back in.

 

[JRT83]

Gravel vac/5 gal bucket to empty my tanks. Bought a garden hose adapter that screws on to my kitchen sink and a $10 RV hose (safe for drinking) for filling the tanks back up. Just match the temp, add Seachem Prime, and fill them back up.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[gilpi]

Taking a small bucket and dumping the water, not nessarly just the syphone?

What size tank?

I personally use a 5 gallon bucket with a siphon right out of the tank when I want to vacuum the gravel or for a bigger water change, a garden hose dumping half the water into a sink and then the hose from the sink filling the tank, after dropping some de-chlorinator into the tank.

 

[Luananeko]

I have two large systems, so it's the Aqueon water changer (Python has a good one too) for me. Hook it up, turn on the siphon until the water levels where I want it, add Prime, match temp, then reverse the flow back to the tank until its full. Soooo much easier than the buckets.

 

[sabrinarichard]

Sorry it took a while to reply, yes to siphon and fill up with a bucket is the best but don't forget to vacuum the gravel, that's where the nasty stuff lies

 

[Luananeko]

Sorry it took a while to reply, yes to siphon and fill up with a bucket is the best but don't forget to vacuum the gravel, that's where the nasty stuff lies

True unless you have live plants, in which case try not to siphon around the root systems or else you'll suck up their food and damage the roots

 

[sabrinarichard]

True unless you have live plants, in which case try not to siphon around the root systems or else you'll suck up their food and damage the roots

+1, absolutely right , in my planted tank if I want to clean around the plants what I do is lightly stir up the surface gravel around it (not too close, I have bunches) with the handle of my net and suck up the filth in the water (I do this about 1/4 wc)