Meredith's 180 In-wall happy place

tcarter1936 · Nov 20, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Thanks David! While I have you here, maybe you could help me with a problem. I'm wanting to be able to just turn a valve and drain some water from my tank without drilling the tank at all. Everything I can think of is either convoluted or not going to drain enough water for a change. Got any ideas?

How about this, it's my water change hook,I just loop it over my tank and add a little water to hose before it's on my tank, when I lower my hose it starts siphon and I drain it into my wash sink or buckets. Just lift out to stop siphon.

melypr1985 · Nov 21, 2016

tcarter1936 said:
How about this, it's my water change hook,I just loop it over my tank and add a little water to hose before it's on my tank, when I lower my hose it starts siphon and I drain it into my wash sink or buckets. Just lift out to stop siphon.

That's fantastic! I was going to put something like that on then end of the hose for adding water, but I never thought to use it for taking water back out. Boy... it's funny how changing the perspective on something can fix a problem

Thank You!

tcarter1936 · Nov 21, 2016

No worries,You can put a ball valve and union on the end and use it to drain,then close the valve hook it to your pump and reverse flow. It works great.

sc8kv123 · Nov 21, 2016

On my system I have a manifold to control my reactors, skimmer, etc like many others. The manifold also has an extra valve with a barbed connection that I only use for water changes. I just hook up a hose to the barbed connection and and open the valve to drain out the water.

melypr1985 · Nov 21, 2016

sc8kv123 said:
I just hook up a hose to the barbed connection and and open the valve to drain out the water.

If I had a closed loop I would do that for sure. But since I dont, I wouldn't be able to do much of a water change with only the water in the sump and/or the water in the overflows.

sc8kv123 · Nov 21, 2016

Then would have to agree with the previous poster that suggested the siphon idea. One other option is using a settling tank that is joined into your system and take the water changes from that tank. I've seen a couple other members here use this method.

melypr1985 · Nov 21, 2016

sc8kv123 said:
Then would have to agree with the previous poster that suggested the siphon idea. One other option is using a settling tank that is joined into your system and take the water changes from that tank. I've seen a couple other members here use this method.

Yeah that was an idea that a friend threw into the mix. I didn't like how complicated it started getting. I like simple with my tanks. Really simple. So as of right now I have two ideas that I'm tossing around in my head. Using the pump for the mixing station to take the water out, then pump new water back in OR just siphon it out using the hose that I would then connect to the mixing station to refill the tank. Both are pretty simple so it just depends on how hard it might be to hook all that up. We'll see what happens. I'm trying to source mixing containers from work, so I'm still not sure what containers Ill end up with. Until then I can't really plan/desgin my mixing station. I'll let yall know as soon as I do though!

I'm getting 200 lbs of sand tomorrow! I'll also be buying new cells phones, gluing down my plumbing, and preparing to move the RODI into the new fish room! Busy day for sure

DLHDesign · Nov 22, 2016

melypr1985 said:
I'll also be buying new cells phones...

I've just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why you need a NEW cell phone - not to mention phoneS - in order to do a tank build. Put me into a bit of a panic trying to figure out what I've missed in my tank build-out.

So, to ease my mind, has anyone else bought their fish new phones along with a new tank, or is that just a Meredith thing?

melypr1985 · Nov 22, 2016

DLHDesign said:
I've just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why you need a NEW cell phone - not to mention phoneS - in order to do a tank build. Put me into a bit of a panic trying to figure out what I've missed in my tank build-out.

So, to ease my mind, has anyone else bought their fish new phones along with a new tank, or is that just a Meredith thing?

Well, I need to be able to keep in touch with them! What if they have a problem, like a new addition turns out to a crazed killer? How would they call for help?

Actually I dont know why I included that. I was thinking through my day tomorrow as I typed and it just ended up in the mix.

lol Time to upgrade phones for the family.

DLHDesign · Nov 22, 2016

melypr1985 said:
How would they call for help?

Or take selfies?!?

;-) Build is looking great! Keep up the awesome work.

melypr1985 · Nov 22, 2016

Well surprise surprise! The rock arrived early! So I went and borrowed the bulkhead wrench from work sobi could tighten things up and get the plumbing glued down. Did that, then fot a look at what 100lbs of rock looks like. Not too shabby, though Im very glad i requested medium sized rocks since large ones would have been unmanageable for me. Now, this rock scape was designed completely by my little boy. A three year old literally did this. All i did was place them. Not too bad really, though I'll change a few things and add the sand tomorrow. I just got word that its at the store waiting on me.

Ljaus · Nov 22, 2016

I think your 3rd old son is a future reefer in the making. My 2.5yr old son would of just pick the rocks up and thrown them around lol

melypr1985 · Nov 22, 2016

Ljaus said:
I think your 3rd old son is a future reefer in the making. My 2.5yr old son would of just pick the rocks up and thrown them around lol

Well he did run screaming and crying from the room because I kept telling him not to pick up the rocks. I yelled at him when he did just that. I had flashes of us at the ER and me explaining about how he came to be holding a heavy rock and drop it on his toes. He was so upset because he only wanted to help me, so I told him to decide where each rock would go. He just might be a reefer when he grows up. I'll be sure to let him help me when anything he can as he gets bigger. Especially water changes!

NCreefguy · Nov 22, 2016

melypr1985 said:
I had flashes of us at the ER and me explaining about how he came to be holding a heavy rock and drop it on his toes.

I wonder where he would have learned how to drop something on his toes?

Brew12 · Nov 22, 2016

NCreefguy said:
I wonder where he would have learned how to drop something on his toes?

Well played!!!

melypr1985 · Nov 22, 2016

NCreefguy said:
I wonder where he would have learned how to drop something on his toes?

Bahhhhahahaha! You got me there! It's so true too.

Ljaus · Nov 22, 2016

NCreefguy said:
I wonder where he would have learned how to drop something on his toes?

I laughed a little to hard at this!

My son is entering the threenager period, so I fully get the running away screaming child.

melypr1985 · Nov 23, 2016

Got the sand in there! Shes looking so good. Now to start making water. Im going to move the RODI into the fish room on friday, so until then there will be some heavy lifting of jugs.