Equipment Review and Discussion :: Water Pump

[vear]

So, now that I'm upgrading to a 75 gallon, doing water changes with a 5 gallon bucket is going to be impossible. I looked at the systems they have at petstores, such as the python, but I'm not convinced, plus it looks like I'm going to be replacing parts that shouldn't have been made out of plastic to begin with.

Anyway, I was thinking of buying some kind of water pump, and sending the hose out my window (which is a lot closer than say my bathroom) and emptying the tank that way. Anybody have any suggestions or have a similar set up? Maybe you can provide me with some insight as to what works for you, especially if you're using a water pump.

BTW my tank is going to be pretty low (lower than the window), so I'm pretty sure I can't just use regular suction (from my lungs) to empty it out the window. And right now I don't have tubing long enough to try it before deciding on a pump.

[BullDog]

The answer for my 75 gallon - FX5.
It drains the tank in about 5 minutes.

But before I had that, I took a 25' garden hose and got the suction going. First couple of times I did it out the window (I'm on the second floor, so that puppy drained fast!), and after that I did it into the toilet, since that was more convenient.
It is possible to get the suction going without sucking on the hose, though it's tricky with a bigger hose. Fill up the hose as much as you can by dunking one end in the tank. You want to make sure you've got at least as much water in the hose as the portion that's going to be at or higher than the water level in the tank. Then block the output end so it's air tight. If it's pretty much air tight, the water will stay when you take one end out of the tank and hang it out the window. Make sure your output end is lower than the tank (the lower the end, the faster it'll drain), then unblock your output, and if the water was far enough down, gravity will do the rest.

Come to think of it, in theory, couldn't you use any canister filter to drain the tank? Just attach the output to a hose that goes outside/toilet/drain whatever and just turn it on.

The other thing that I looked at (and still keep my eye out for) is a sump pump. My FX5 can drain most of the tank, but there's still a few inches of water that are below the intake, which you need to bucket out if you're doing a full water change.

[xstefanx]

When I was reading through the OP I was thinking, "What would happen if you tried to use the canister filter as a pump." =D Beat me to it Bulldog. I'd say yeah if you can reach the window with your output tubing, just use it. If you have the suggested 2-3x rated filter for the size of your tank then 20-30 minutes would entirely drain a tank.

[vear]

Hmm... thanks! I actually don't have a filter for it yet. I just bought the tank today... it's so big (75 gallons), it's great. I haven't set it up yet, I don't even know how the canister filters work exactly so I didn't know I could drain the tank with them.

By the way, my window is about 15ft from my tank... and that's a lot closer than my bathroom.... that's why I thought I might need a pump.

I'll probably be asking about filters soon...