Making water changes easier! What are some tips and tricks?

[Dburr1014]

My Sump is in the basement so I just had a t come off with a ball valve. I can literally dump a new 5 gallon bucket of saltwater in my sump put it down next to the sump, turn the valve open and fill it to the same level that the new salt water was at. It takes me about two minutes to do a water change. I just had to pick up the old water and dump it outside cuz I don't want that going in my septic system. For anybody that doesn't know saltwater eats the septic tank they're made of concrete.

 

[thermoJoe]

I set up this volume-based automatic water change system, because I would get some flow rate drift in pumps adding fresh seawater and removing tank water due to changes is water head, which would cause a drift in tank salinity over time. After changing over to this fixed volume method, salinity has been rock stable with the automatic water changes.

SW is made in a 55 gal drum that has and RODI feed, a powerhead for mixing and sensors to turn the powerhead off and alert me that the tank needs refilling, which occurs about once a month.

 

[Pistol Peet]

Very easy as I got a 55 gallon mixing drum hooked up to a pan world pump is fed directly by my six- stage r o d i and has enough tubing to reach all three of my tanks easy peasy this also mixes all of my salts for me I just added in

 

[Cooldude7877]

I have a 300 gallon tank and for me water changes are a snap. I use a 1/2 horsepower transfer pump that I purchased at Harbor Freight for $90, hook up one end of the garden hose to the in adapter, and another garden hose from the sink to the out adapter. Once I am finished draining about 100 gallons, I take the in garden hose, hook that to my mixing station tank that is powered by a Mag 9, open the hose release bib and fill my tank up. Total time to start and finish water changes is about 30 minutes. Super easy to do and next to no mess and no buckets to carry

 

[DaddyFish]

Simple, I back my Jeep up to an ocean. Throw in a bilge pump on a hose and pump water into vats. Then I back my Jeep up to my workshop/man cave and pump the water into a bigger vat to heat up. I siphon water out of the tank into a sink and pump new water in. I may take a swim while I am at it.

CHEATER!!!

 

[DaddyFish]

Very easy as I got a 55 gallon mixing drum...

What brand is that drum and purchase source??? I like the footprint!

 

[genny1687]

I have a 180 gallon system. I only use buckets when vacuuming the sand bed. Otherwise I use a transfer pump and hose. In my garage is the mixing station where I prepare up to 60 gallons of new saltwater. I use the transfer pump and hose to extract the water (and also vacuum the sump) into a utility sink. Next, swap the hose connections and pump the new water from the garage into the tank. Very fast process, clean and no buckets. 30 gallons every week, 60 gallons once a month, sump vacuum every other month.

What is exactly sump vacuuming?

 

[bnord]

Build your water mixing station, sump and utility sink within 5 feet of each other.
Let the Autoaqua AWC move the water around for you a couple of times a day while you do something else or aren't even home.

would love to when the auto aqua system comes back to in-stock!!

 

[Pistol Peet]

What brand is that drum and purchase source??? I like the footprint!

not exactly sure to be honest with you got it from my local fish store here is a picture of the tag that's on it maybe you can find it that way

 

[amarcini]

I have a biocube and a water change isn’t hard. I’m taking no more than 5 gallons out. I make my saltwater a few days ahead in a Home Depot bucket and I aerate with a submersible pump. It makes a lot of noise, so there are complaints. Then it’s a matter of siphoning the water out of the cube and replacing. Not horrible, just time consuming.

 

[Panx]

I was using a 40 gallon Brute trash can to mix up salt water using a dedicated pump and heater at the bottom to change water on my 100 gallon reef. I'd make a batch in the trash can like once a month and then two or three times in that month would use the pump to fill the sump while simultaneously draining from the display into buckets which would then get carried upstairs to get dumped outside (usually on any weeds growing thru the paver bricks making the patio).

After a few months of doing this without problems I began noticing my corals were not doing well, so I started to step up my water change game and was doing it much more frequently; but didn't see any improvement. It wasn't until I sent out an ICP test that came back with a high level of aluminum when I started investigating and noticed that the heater inside my trash can had water seep in and began rusting and was no longer functioning. All that time I had been swapping in new water thinking I was correcting the problem I was actually just increasing the concentration of aluminum!

Now we are looking to move into a new home so I've downgraded to a Waterbox 20 where I can easily do a 25% waterchange using just two 5 gallon buckets, it is significantly easier!

 

[Pistol Peet]

With my setup I have a 210 gallon it takes me approximately 10 minutes tops to take out 55 gallons of water and replace with 55 gallons of water

 

[sfin52]

5g buckets and mj pump no more lifting buckets and pouring. I still do that from time to time a large surge of water helps clean rocks and stirs up detritus

 

[Traian]

For me both filling my ATO reservoir, as well as water changes are super easy. My reef tank is downstairs in the basement. My RO/DI unit is upstairs in the garage. I have three 55 gallon drums. The first one to the left is the RO water storage, and it's hooked to plumbing through the walls that gravity feeds my 28 gallon ATO reservoir. There are two check valves at both ends to have leak prevention redundancy. The two drums to the right are the salt water mixing and storage ones, and those both have a powerhead, and a heater for quickly mixing, and equalizing temperature. Both are also plumbed through the wall and gravity feed directly into one of my filter socks in the sump. There's also check valves on both ends. I use a Python to vacuum my sand bed that feeds into the sink on my wet bar next to where the DT is. I have both a 55 and a 110 gallon mark (depending on how big of a water change I'm doing), and once I reach that, I stop the siphon, open the valve, and water change is done nice and easy in minutes.

 

[SpikeWire]

I don't have a water changing station yet. I use a 30gal Rubbermaid barrel, a Rio 1200 pump, and about 15 ft of 1 inch tubing. Pump water out of tank into the sink, and then drop the pump into the bucket and pump new water back to the tank. I also use the barrel and pump for mixing the salt water.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

My procedure is more about being lucky than smart... my aquarium shares a wall with the utility room, which sits about 2 feet lower on the garage slab. I installed a cat door between the 2 rooms (i do actually have a cat ) and there is a "shower" right there (literally a floor drain and wall plumbing) that my 2 27 gallon totes sit over. RODI unit hooked up to the shower, I mix salt water in one tote, siphon water from the reef through the cat door into the other tote till the levels match, then pump new salt water straight from the mixing tote into the display through the cat door.

 

[tritonpower]

It's not much for me I planned it a little before. I mix 30g in a brute can on wheels. I have a spare brute that I drain into. Match level of drain to fresh saltwater. Have a cheap 700gph return pump with a hose that I pump back into the sump. It's not too bad. Time to mix the saltwater is the worst. I take about 30 minutes but that's cleaning out cyano

I use my 700gph pump/tubing to do the mixing. I attach it to the inside of the brut using a couple of zip ties/suction cups. That return pump mixes the saltwater really fast and then if any remnants on the bottom you just aim the tubing at it. Takes less than 10 min. Just be sure to put the lid on the brut in case the tubing moves!

 

[frank1203]

I put 4 for me since I don’t have the AWC system. I still use the brute container and but I don’t have to carry buckets with the help of motor pump to get the water back in the tank. So I would say it wasn’t too bad at all.

 

[Hellothere12]

Drilling all my sumps from now on! I just add new water and let the old water go right down the drain!

 

[tony'stank]

When I did water changes I used two identical 32 gallon brute cans on wheels to make it easiur. I carefully measured and mark gallon measured for 10 G 15 G, & 20G On the insides of the cans. I would mix the rodi & salt 2 days ahead and use a 100W heater to bring it GP the proper temp. I used a Eheim 1262 pump for circulation. I siphoned the exact amount of tank water into one Brute, and then used the Eheim to pump in the replacement water.