Aqueon Water Changer

[Kannan Fodder]

I bought one of these a couple years ago, but have never used it due to incompatible plumbing. I've heard it makes water changes much easier, and eliminates the bucket brigade hassle, so want to give it a try.

Mine is the 50 foot version, and yesterday I dug it out of storage to look into adapters for my faucets. I have those wand attachments on my kitchen and laundry room sinks, and the other fixtures have no possible way to attach the water changer. I was finally able to locate an adapter yesterday, but the fittings still leak. We use this at work too, and it does the same thing, in the exact same place, and the "solution" is to just tie a rag around it to keep it from shooting water everywhere.

Anyone else use the Aqueon version and have this problem? Were you able to solve it? And if so, how?

Thanks!
~M

 

[Rbishop]

Depending on your plumbing, a more compatible connection could be tee'ed off under the sink for it.......

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Someone suggested hooking it up to the outdoor faucet and letting it water the lawn - which is a great idea. That would fix the water spout issue, but I'd have to lock up my dog. (Labrador retriever - he'd most likely tear everything up playing in the water.) And there would be the temperature problem with no way to equalize the water with the tank temp. Doubt this would affect the sunfish, but not sure about the tropicals.

 

[Rbishop]

You can drain out the window and just fill from the tap..the tee should be off the line going
to the faucet so you can still control temp

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Hooked it up to the laundry room sink. Either this thing is utter junk, or I've got the worst water pressure in the world. It will NOT siphon anything except water out of my tank. Takes a full 5 minutes to siphon the smallest of debris particles. Haven't tried hooking it to the hose outside - it's 111° here, and I need a second person to operate the faucet valve controls.

The irony is that we use this exact same water changer at work, and it's a breeze. Sucks that obnoxious blue green algae right off the gravel without any problems.

I'm thinking my best bet might be to use my other siphons to remove the crud and use this contraption to refill the tank.

 

[Rbishop]

I think you will find most folks just use the Python or Aqueon to fill with and siphon out as normal. No sense wasting water to get water out unless the tank position doesn't allow any other option.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Yeah. I actually turned the tap off once the siphon got going. Having it on didn't help anyway. Worked great to refill the tank, tho.

 

[Puha Khani]

I tried one a few years back. Thought it was a complete waste of time, money and water.

I simply siphon and run the hose out to my veg garden. Fish water gets double duty as irrigation water and then hook it up to the tap to refill.

 

[Towely]

I tried one a few years back. Thought it was a complete waste of time, money and water.

I simply siphon and run the hose out to my veg garden. Fish water gets double duty as irrigation water and then hook it up to the tap to refill.

Same here except mine goes down the drain at the moment(little bit cold for that here in WI.

Once it warms up I plan on running it out into the dirt to see if I can't draw some worms out to feed the cichlids.

 

[GraphicGr8s]

I finally broke down and bought one after using the one over at a friend's fish room. I'm on well water and pressure goes from 35 to 60. It works. Sort of. From my tanks higher up it does fine. Lower tanks not as good. Only reason I really bought it was I found it for $38 on line and Petco matched it.
The sink in my fish house has only cold water. Not much of a problem in Florida though. It's interesting but I think, for the most part I will stick with my old system. use a garden hose hooked to a t with a valve and use the valve to fill the hose then let nature do its job on the tanks about the sink. That takes care of the water change itself. The cleanup I do with a gravel wand and siphon into a bucket. A white/ivory one on my fry tanks. I can see the fry and put them back if they get sucked up.
I then refill using the hose. The sink in the fish house drains right outside so it waters the grass there.
I do pretty much the same thing in the house tanks.

BTW Mine leaked at first also. The connections where the tubing connects needs the tubing to be right up against the stop and the fitting needs to be tight. After the first time it hasn't leaked since.