That's funny. I chase the bubbles away too. Also have to refill a little at a time because the tap water is too cold.
How you do w/c?
- Thread starter Phyroath
- Start date
That's funny. I chase the bubbles away too. Also have to refill a little at a time because the tap water is too cold.
I have a habit of doing weekly w/c. Bucket method is a bit of a heavy workload and a mess. Zigman's method, however tend to be costly and not easy to make one. Any other easy one?
I too use the bucket method to do my w/c's, but when refilling I enlist the help of my hubby. Like Dev suggested, using something to deflect the flow of water really helps to not disturb the substrate and uproot plants. In my tank I don't really have room to add wood or rock like Dev suggested so my hubby pours slowly over my hands (resting on the surface of the water to deflect it so the flow goes out rather than down).
I use a gravel vac that I put a ball valve on, then from the valve I have 25 ft of poly hose. I drain down to my laundry tub (lower level). When I am finished draining I have a hose fitting on the end that I hook up to the faucet close the valve then turn the water on go to the tank and have control of the water by the tank. The water coming from the gravel vac while filling comes out gently when submerged.
I use the bucket method as well, however when I add water I have a small pump that handles a little over 5ft of head to fill it back up 
I use a python and my kitchen sink. I don't usually disturb the gravel at all but if there is a lot of debris then I will take some air line hose and syphon out the algae and debris into a clean gallon milk jug. Because the tube is smaller it creates a pretty strong suction but it fill the jug up slowly allowing me to clean up the bottom of the tank before the container is full. I still don't disturb the substrate much.
madfox
Mad as in angry or just plain NUTS?
I use an air hose sized hose and a little syphon pump into a bucket. The smaller hose gently sucks up the debris from the bottom and around plants without disturbing the plants or sucking up my shrimp!! To refill, I use a 2.5 gal spring water bottle with a tap, like you get at the grocery stores, and pull the tap out just a bit so it slowly and gently lets the water into the tank. Works fairly well. I can even set the water bottle on top and walk away while it's refilling the tank!! I'm sure I'll want to change some of that once I can upgrade to a larger tank, but for now it works for me.
