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Multiple large tanks and water changes

9K views 63 replies 15 participants last post by  cwmorrow 
#1 ·
Because I don't have room for any more tanks right now, I like to do a lot of planning and dreaming. I've got some setups worked out that I'd like to try in the future. But one of my hangups seems to be water changes. I've got a python and am more than capable of doing them. Right now I mark off Sunday as water change day, and get them done then. It doesn't take more than a few hours, but I only have one large tank (55 gallon). In the future I would like to have at least four tanks in excess of 50 gallons. Doing them all on one day seems a bit daunting and very time consuming.

For those of you who have multiple large tanks, how do you organize your water changes? All on one day? Spread them out through the week? I'm curious to know others' solutions for this problem. These tanks won't come to fruition for at least another 5 years, so all of this is merely speculative. I don't need a solution right away. I just like to plan ahead.
 
#2 ·
Water change Wednesday for me.

When I had the 180g tank I did that in the morning before going to work removing almost 100 gallons with the python.

Then when I finish work after supper, the other tanks (as per my signature).

All in all took about 4 hours.
 
#3 ·
I split mine between two days. I'll do the small tanks (20 and 10gallon) and a 55 gallon on one day, then the 135 and the other 55 on another day.
 
#4 ·
I've got 9 tanks and a water changer. I've got 3 55 gallon tanks and a 125 as well as several smaller. I break up water changes over 2 or 3 days. I've gotten myself in to trouble a few times walking away while my tank is filling and forgetting about it. Flooded my fishroom more than I'd like to admit.
 
#5 ·
I'm just "spit balling" since although I have several tanks, only the 60g has water right now (also have a 5g, 2x10g, and a 29g in the basement).
I don't think there's a right way or a wrong way as long as each tank receives the required water change weekly....right? So a lot depends on your life and how the process fits in with the priorities of your other chores. I think it can be good to target a day of the week and stick to a schedule so it gets done routinely, but it can be pretty flexible and the world won't end if your a day or two late.
In fact, doing weekly water changes that includes cleaning the glass, gravel siphoning (as/if required), servicing the filter can be done very quickly because of the routine as I'd think it would take much longer to address a neglected tank.
Anyway, whatever 'gets her done'.
 
#6 ·
I presently have 7 tanks running, including a 115g, 90g and 70g. I do the water changes in one day, it takes about 3 hours, and currently i do them on Monday in the morning. I was dividing them between two days, half and half, but after a few weeks I decided I preferred doing them together. The only downside to this is if i want to do some re-aquascaping in one tank; so this is sometimes best left for another day.

One reason i went back to one day was keeping better track of plant fertilization which is twice weekly. It is easier for me to remember doing it every Tuesday and Friday morning, rather than Tuesday and Friday for these tanks, and Thursday and Sunday for those tanks... or whatever.:)
 
#7 ·
Right now I can get my water changes done in about 2 hours. Three if I'm pussy-footin' around doing other stuff. I've done the alternate day water changes, and the ferts do get confusing with it. Often times I return from trips on Sunday too tired to do all of my water changes in one night. Ferts the next week are often not done right. Good point, Byron.

100 gallons before work, Tazman?! That's crazy. I can hardly feed the dogs before work let alone change that much water!
 
#8 · (Edited)
I use a pump to drain the tanks and a python to refill them, so I can be draining and filling at the same time. Takes a little more than 2 hours to do 80% changes on all the tanks (including 4 quarantine tanks).
 
#11 ·
I use an azoo power head, model 1800? I think it does like 450 gph. It is a pump style power head, as opposed to the penguin and aquaclear style. I dont ever vacuum, but you could attach a vac tube to it very easily.
 
#10 ·
I connect to my shower instead of a sink and seem to get more water pressure/faster filling that way. If I am rushing water changes I will drain all the tanks before refilling any of them, instead of draining one then refilling it then draining another then refilling it.... takes about 40 minuets to change 50% on my 55gallon normally plus doing trimming while its draining/filling.

In the last couple weeks I moved and have switched to using some RO water and that has slowed water changes wayyy down lately. Mainly because I don't have a proper pump yet for filling. I've modified a tank filter and a powerhead to pump water but its pretty slow, especially when the water can gets close to empty.
 
#12 · (Edited)
with the large tanks u describe i really doubt they need weekly changes presuming they are planted

so lets say you have 4 50+gal tanks i would do one a week perfectly acceptable and less stressful for your fish

personally i never change water unless the nitrates get too high for my liking
other than removing approx 15 litre to clean my filters i dont ever change water without a v good reason

my tank is 150 litre (40 UK gal) with an extra 50 litre of water in my sump

also although plants enjoy neutriants from a water change they also feed and need nitrates

weekly changes on large tanks will leave nitrate levels extreamly low for your plants to thrive

even at work we dont change water just top the 1500 gallon system with ro water
 
#13 ·
There's more reasons to do water changes than nitrates.....
 
#15 ·
each to there own
its just my opinion thats all

just a little tip but like me when you up-size a tank you can also up size your syphon equipment

a good example is my diy gravel vac which is just 19-20mm inner diameter tubing which fits very snug into the top of a normal 2 litre pop bottle chop bottle in half or just under and job is a good one this will massively reduce water change time

hope this helps
 
#17 ·
Water changes also remove hormones and pheromones from the water, which can be problematic depending on the stock. It also replenishes nutrients, again, depending on the specifics of the tank.
 
#18 ·
with the large tanks u describe i really doubt they need weekly changes presuming they are planted
It is true that live plants do impact on this due to their natural water filtration capacity, but at the level most of us stock our tanks with fish, this is not a safe practice.

so lets say you have 4 50+gal tanks i would do one a week perfectly acceptable and less stressful for your fish

personally i never change water unless the nitrates get too high for my liking
other than removing approx 15 litre to clean my filters i dont ever change water without a v good reason
As jaysee correctly mentioned, there are important reasons for weekly water changes. Using higher nitrates as a reason is not advisable, since by the time the nitrates have risen the damage to the fish has been done. And contrary to what one may read elsewhere, nitrates do harm fish long-term.

Stress of not doing water changes is much more significant that any stress from a water change. As most of us have learned over the years, fish become used to them, and some will even "welcome" the process. If you are in the tank but not chasing after the fish, they learn that it is not a danger.

The stuff you cannot measure that accumulates in an aquarium from fish has to be removed, there is no other way to handle it. Those of us who have worked in sealed offices with "air conditioning" but no opening windows know what this is like compared to fresh air from an open window. In the closed aquarium this is magnified many times. Stale water is detrimental to all fish, and the daily accumulation of stuff worsens it daily.


also although plants enjoy neutriants from a water change they also feed and need nitrates

weekly changes on large tanks will leave nitrate levels extreamly low for your plants to thrive
While some plants will take up nitrates, most prefer nitrogen as ammonium which they grab from ammonia and plants can out-compete Nitrosomonas bacteria for the ammonia. Studies have shown that once the ammonia is insufficient, many plants turn to nitrite and then nitrate. Those with high-tech planted tanks dose nitrates since this is safer than dosing ammonia or nitrite, and the additional nitrogen is essential to balance. But there may be a toll on the fish.
 
#20 ·
It is true that live plants do impact on this due to their natural water filtration capacity, but at the level most of us stock our tanks with fish, this is not a safe practice.



As jaysee correctly mentioned, there are important reasons for weekly water changes. Using higher nitrates as a reason is not advisable, since by the time the nitrates have risen the damage to the fish has been done. And contrary to what one may read elsewhere, nitrates do harm fish long-term.

Stress of not doing water changes is much more significant that any stress from a water change. As most of us have learned over the years, fish become used to them, and some will even "welcome" the process. If you are in the tank but not chasing after the fish, they learn that it is not a danger.

The stuff you cannot measure that accumulates in an aquarium from fish has to be removed, there is no other way to handle it. Those of us who have worked in sealed offices with "air conditioning" but no opening windows know what this is like compared to fresh air from an open window. In the closed aquarium this is magnified many times. Stale water is detrimental to all fish, and the daily accumulation of stuff worsens it daily.




While some plants will take up nitrates, most prefer nitrogen as ammonium which they grab from ammonia and plants can out-compete Nitrosomonas bacteria for the ammonia. Studies have shown that once the ammonia is insufficient, many plants turn to nitrite and then nitrate. Those with high-tech planted tanks dose nitrates since this is safer than dosing ammonia or nitrite, and the additional nitrogen is essential to balance. But there may be a toll on the fish.
i struggle to get any nitrates if they are the tinyest bit over 5ppm i give fish a starve day if above say 8ish ppm i would change but they never get near that 2-4ppm at a guess is my avrg

and yes i use a api master test kit of the chemical kind
 
#21 ·
It's a water changer. It hooks upto the faucet and drains/refills the tank. I don't know if they are available anymore, but aqueon still makes one.
 
#27 ·
Hello:What works for me is when 4 to 6 inches of water has evaporated from the tank I remove about 10 to 20 gallons of water and add fresh water. It's 40 or 50 gallon tank.


I must be of the ole school of fish keepers I am surprised that you might use a sump pump. If pumping large volume of water was my goal I would consider using a marine submersible pump with 1 1/2 output and a car batter for power. one word of caution be fast the pump could move a lot of water. pop
 
#29 · (Edited)
I do SW water changes (210 and 120gal) usually on Saturday evenings, and all the FW changes (55, 20,20, 10) on Sunday or Monday. If I am still energized on Saturday, I do them all in one fun-filled day. Having absolutely no social life has really improved my general care and maintenence of my tanks.

I use the Python for refilling, more than for removing water. I find that a shorter siphon hose dropped straight down into a bucket has more pulling force than the python, given the water pressure in my home. Sometimes, weather permitting, I am able to throw the end of the Python into the garden and use the water from the FW tanks to water the trees. Of course SW goes down the plumbing not to the lawn.

I like Pythons in that they save our backs. I dislike the collateral waste of water that is necessary when they are used to remove water from tank to sink via adapter.

I use a pump to move new water from mixing buckets to SW aquariums, or let a siphon drop water from the mixing buckets into the sump, and monitor the water level, turning the return pumps on occasionally so as not to overflow.

Izzy: You will get very quick, too quick at this chore and my main advice is to slow down and be methodical. In my own case, other maintenance projects like cleaning glass canopies, replacing filter media or trying to restart a stubborn power head or propeller pump REALLY SHOULD WAIT until you are done changing water. Multi-tasking in this context is asking for wet carpeting and worse. . .

I confess that I once did a large-scale water change on an African tank and FORGOT TO ADD DECHLORINATOR until the tank was nearly completely re-filled and fish were gasping in distress. Due to my negligence in this case, I lost two beautiful wild caught Synodontis multipunctatus and a gorgeous male Copadichromis borleyii I had raised from a juvenile. Fish losses do not usually bring me to tears, but they did that day.
 
#30 ·
Here's the thing about evaporation - it raises the concentrations of what's contained in the water left in the tank....
 
#31 · (Edited)
Exactly. In waiting for evaporation to occur to this extent, minerals and wastes could become concentrated or, depending on the number of growing fish in the tank, water could become completely degraded and void of dissolved minerals, making the water softer and more acidic than what will replace it. I attend to and replace even a half inch of evaporated water. Waiting this long between water changes would make me feel as though I weren't doing them frequently enough. Aesthetically, aurally, visually, I couldn't take it to let the water get that low.
 
#33 · (Edited)
It is my goal in all cases is to allow people to benefit from my hammerheaded errors.

It truly would be swell if, in 45 years, I never did a stupid thing that resulted in the unnecessary loss of fish.

In fact, it would be swell if this were the only such hammerheaded incident in my resume'. Such is not the case. But this was a pretty epic fail, even for me.

As I recall, I was out on the porch having a smoke at the time while my fish were inside receiving water laced with toxic chlorine. Irony!

I gave up smoking eight years ago, but I am sure I am yet capable of future blunders where water changes are concerned. Stay tuned.
 
#34 ·
A lot of great advice here, everyone! Pumps to refill and not rushing things. Randy, I had an incident like that, too (well minus the smoking), but I managed to catch it before too late. I've also heard of cases like that where people are doing water changes on their koi ponds and forget the dechlorinator. Another day worthy of tears.

I love my python water change system, too. But I dislike all the water wasted when I use it. I have to for two tanks simply because of their placement. I try to make it up by sending all of the changed water from my filthy goldfish tank to the lawn. Best lawn on the block! ;)

For those of you who have to mix water before you put it into the tank, what kind of buckets do you use?
 
#35 ·
Pumps to drain ;)
 
#37 ·
And pumps to drain for the tanks sitting closer to the floor!! Forgot about that one. So pumps are a good help either way. I'll be certain to get more pumps when I get my larger tanks.

Randy, here is the million dollar question, how many of those 5 gal buckets do you need in a water change?
 
#38 ·
Well, I am an idiot:jester:, so I still mix salt water in separate 5 gallon buckets. I used 15 buckets yesterday for SW. I want to get two sturdy plastic 40 gallon garbage cans on wheels and mix in those instead. Then I could prepare several days in advance, instead of 24 hours in advance, and throw a recirculating pump in there to do the job right.

I was changing about 20 percent of each tank, so. . .yeah, I needed at least 65 gallons of water. I had done larger water changes the week before.
 
#39 ·
The only way I can see using a pump to fill the tank is if you are moving it from a holding tank.
 
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