Water Change Technique

Since this will be done somewhat regularly, I'm thinking ahead and trying to come up with a solid way to do this. My sump is below my tank on the ground so siphoning from the sump won't work.

I think the "best" I've seen is to siphon from the DT and then add new water into the sump while the main pump is on but everything else off. Otherwise I won't be able to get enough volume of water out of the sump before the system stops cycling (because the water level in the DT goes below the bulkhead) if I pump it out of the sump.

Thoughts?

 

Sounds like that would be efficient. I used to have a PVC pipe on my drain line with a ball valve that I could open to drain into a bucket for WC.

 

I have a valve on the drain that I could replace w/ a ball valve or 3 way valve and then use that. cool idea. save the siphon need.

 

Make sure that your WC plumbing doesn't have areas where the water sits in hoses/pipes and stagnates (you'll smell it when you open the valve), so you want your valve as close to your "T" as you can get it.

 

I prefer to vacuum my sump with a shop vac at least every other water change so I can suck any detritus out.
On the opposite changes I shut all the pumps down, siphon off the rocks and slowly replace with new saltwater into the display using a MJ 1200 powerhead to pump it up from my Rubbermaid or buckets via a piece of clear vinyl hose so I don't stir things up any more than necessary.

 

What kind of shop vac do you use AZ?


Edit - yanga sorry to derail .... perhaps you can do something similar to me...

I place a 10 gal tank on a table near the tank. I mix new saltwater with a powerhead and heater overnight. I turn off all pumps on tank and siphon into a 5 gallon office water container. I then pump the new water into the tank with a MJ 1200. Then I turn it all on. Alternatively, sometimes I simply pump water out of the sump with a MJ 1200 instead of siphoning from the tank. I do 10 gallon water changes on my nano.

 

I use a plain old Craftsman 6 gallon shop vac, they can be used wet or dry and have a float inside that shuts the vacuum suction off when the canister is full so no worries. Its on casters so easy to wheel outside and dump.

 

Hellava idea!!! Thanks AZ

 

I recently started using a MJ1200 to pump the from the sump and then pump the fresh water back in. I have a 1/2 hose I use to manually vac ditritus from the sump and tank rocks first before this process tho.

The faster\easier maintenance steps are the ikely I am to do them!

 

I also have a MJ to pump from the sump. I stuck a 2-3" piece of tubing on the suction nipple and the 1/2" hose on the discharge but I find if there is much detritus in the sump it plugs up pretty quickly and has to be cleaned out frequently. For light cleaning or just sucking out water and not debis it works good though.