Changing water in a big tank

lost66 · May 10, 2020

Hi
I have 75g tank and I use gravity to change water. My tank is on first floor, mixing station on second one. I use Aqueon water change hose to drain the water and marine grade hose from mixing station. Gravity does the job. For 75g I change like 10 gallons of water. The process takes like 15minutes in total.

I am upgrading to 240g and I think this solution might be little bit too much time consuming. During water change, basically all live support is shut down so I would like to do this process as quick as possible, but nothing extreme.

How do you guys do water changes in bigger tanks? Use some sort of pump for accelerate water flow? If so, is it submersible or dry pump?
Please advise.

Jvalle · May 10, 2020

Hi, I had a 600 gallon tank with wet dry in my old house and I would use a Rio pump (like the ones for protein skimmers) to push the water out faster with a bigger sized hose. I also got tired of doing this as it was in the wall in my man cave. I moved 2 years ago and I changed the sump and started running a large refugium and havent had to change water since I started it 2 years ago. Refugium is the way to go with chaeto growing below. Look into that option if its possible. You wont regret it. have a good night

thanks

2Wheelsonly · May 10, 2020

I wouldn't worry too much about the tank being offline. Power outages happen and people's tanks have been offline for days with minimal flow and light. Sometimes my water changes take over 1 hour in my 300 depending on how much I need to clean it and I don't fret. I only do 50G at a time...

For pumps I use an inline pump (panworld 350g/hr) to send water back to my sump from my mixing station.

vetteguy53081 · May 10, 2020

I have a 660g and I use the python hose to remove and have a 44 gal brute can ready and simply return it to tank via Sicce pump. Total time to remove and replace 40 gallons is 25 minutes.

Jvalle · May 10, 2020

2Wheelsonly said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the tank being offline. Power outages happen and people's tanks have been offline for days with minimal flow and light. Sometimes my water changes take over 1 hour in my 300 depending on how much I need to clean it and I don't fret. I only do 50G at a time...

For pumps I use an inline pump (panworld 350g/hr) to send water back to my sump from my mixing station.

hi do you have pics of the front of the tank? looks really cool