Backwards Siphon For Water Changes?

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ianeberle

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 11, 2012
Messages
310
Location
Crestview, FL
I have a 36 gallon tank and a 10 gallon tank that I clean the gravel and do water changes on once a week. I normally clean them on the weekends and it takes about 3 hours to do them both. I use a standard gravel vacuum to vacuum the water to a 10 gallon bucket. Then I dump the bucket outside in the yard. Then I fill up the bucket at the bathtub to fill the tanks. This is what takes forever - I scoop the water from the bucket using a small container instead of dumping the water in. For one, the fish freak out when you start pouring vigorously and secondly, it makes the gravel and plants go everywhere which takes even more time to fix.

Using one of those Python water changers may be out of the question because the only sink it would be able to reach has a decorative faucet and the likeliness of the Python fitting is slim, but I'd have to check on that.

What would make my job 10 times easier is having a backwards siphon that would transfer the water from the bucket (sitting on floor) to the tank. I have tried this with my gravel vacuum and the bucket of water has to be above the tank for it to work.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
I found some buckets that have pour spouts on the top edge and indents on the bottom to hold. There were a couple of sizes. It is pretty easy to control the water flow once you get used to it. You can always put a plate down in the tank and pour on that. Look at your home improvement store in the paint section (Home Depot, Menards, Lowe's, Ace). Good luck!
 
look for a power head, not the fans but it looks like a small mechanical box with a intake on the bottom, at any lfs that does marine tanks, its basically used for sumps to push the water back in the tank, you will have to put the hoses on but it would go at the bottom of the bucket and push the water back in the tank.
 
Annakhil said:
look for a power head, not the fans but it looks like a small mechanical box with a intake on the bottom, at any lfs that does marine tanks, its basically used for sumps to push the water back in the tank, you will have to put the hoses on but it would go at the bottom of the bucket and push the water back in the tank.

How much do these cost?
 
Fill up your bath tub as normal. Using either a powerhead or a water pump (U can get these at general hardware stores-home depot, etc.) to pump water from tub through hose and into tank. Just take off the hard tube and just let the tank fill up through hose only. Low splash and easy set-up and take-down procedure.
 
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