Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: pollydoodle on July 07, 2018, 08:24:11 PM
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Having just done my first water change (previous post) I have decided a 10 litre bucket, to fill with - it has to be small because of lifting - is not particularly easy for me
I was wondering about getting a larger container which I can fill with a hose and then transfer into the tank via a submersible pump. is it a good idea and Does anyone have any recommendations and thoughts, good or bad?
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Having spent a lot of time doing water changes on multiple tanks, and spilling a lot of water on both myself and the carpet, the 10L containers I use (segregated/labelled for waste or clean water) are these:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/h32-Litre-Plastic-Container-Approved/dp/B00TFVJM36/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1531037940&sr=8-2&keywords=10+litre+plastic+container
They are slightly larger than 10L, so for the clean water containers I measures out 10L into the container & marked the side to make it easier to add the appropriate amount of dechlorinator.
As for refilling the tank with a submersible pump, this is similar to what I do with my largest tanks, using the external filter, which has a port for this sort of thing. It makes water changes so much easier.
I guess if you get a large plastic stack box to hold the pump that could work. It doesn't have to be large enough to hold all of the clean water as you can add to the container while the pump is working.
The only thing I would point out is get a pump that is strong enough to pump the water to the top of the tank, and not so strong as to blow all of your fish out of the tank. :yikes:
I'm using a pump (that can be used submersed or dry) to power the manifold in my river tank, so all I can say is that you really don't want one that powerful - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jebao-Jecod-DCT-12000-Speed-12000/dp/B00SWUWV5C but they do smaller ones, as do other manufacturers.
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Thank you Littlefish.
There is soo much to learn. originally I read that every bucket etc had to be 'food safe' and since finding this site I read that all sorts are being used - as long as it's for fish only, this seems to be the norm. The 'food safe' bucket I bought is so flimsy, especially the handle, I'm afraid it will break en route from kitchen to tank :yikes: so I will look around and find bigger sturdier containers.
Upside is I have a combi boiler so can do away with kettles of boiling water!
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I use a 12-ish litre builder's bucket from B & Q to take the water out. I use a 10 litre bucket from the diy section of a local shop which is graduated on the inside in litres for the new water. The reason I have 2 different buckets is that my husband is obsessed with fish tanks being full of bacteria (should never have used that word ;D ) so I can't put a dirty, germ ridden bucket into the kitchen sink ::)
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pollydoodle,
Take a look at this for pumping in the fresh water https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/product/aqua-marin-water-change-pump. I use one of these to pump a 25 litre and 10 litre container when doing a water change, makes it so much easier.
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A good place to get food safe containers is a brewing supplier. Im lucky enough to live in an area where home brewing is quite popular (no idea why) so there's a small independent hardware store that has a good selection of home brewing equipment so i was able to get an in and a different shaped out bucket.
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Or you could get a connector for your tap and a length of garden hose and fill the tank directly?
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Or you could get a connector for your tap and a length of garden hose and fill the tank directly?
If I did that, I wouldn't be able to add de-chlorinator or know how much to use. Nice idea though
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People who use a hose add the dechlorinator directly to the tank before they start refilling. For all dechlorinators but one add only enough to treat the new water. The one exception is Seachem Prime and they say that when adding directly to the tank, dose for the whole tank volume not just the new water.
In the USA they have a device called a python to both take water out and refill the tank. These don't seem to be on sale in the UK but there are diy pythons. Google* should find a few links for how to do this.
*Other search engines are available :)
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Hoselock tap connectors are what I use to attach the hose to the tap... sorry I couldn't remember the name when I posted yesterday!...