Stronger Gravity Syphon

R

rs154196

Registered Member
Dec 1, 2005
3
0
0
There are about 11 20 gallon fishtanks in a class I have at school. About 10 of them wind up being my responseability, because everyone else is lazy. I cant just let all the fish die, so I try my best to take care of all the tanks a quickly as possible.

The only problem that frequently comes up is people throwing gum, paper, and candy in the tanks. Mr. Combs my teacher really cant do anything about it and the budget for aquaculture (acording to him) has already for the entire district been cut to about $400. So no fancy protection either.

The siphon problem comes up, because its the only method of cleaning the tanks that I have. Currently in the classroom weve only got 2 siphon hoses about 3 ft. on length, except 1 of them I extinded with bits of hoses I found around in the storage room.

I need to find a faster way to siphon because im only abile to finish work on about 2 tanks a class period.

Help Please!!
 
Well since gravity does not change, the only way to speed it up is to increase the size of pipe. Not just one section of pipe but the whole length of pipe.
 
I gather that you are emptying into sinks. if so you could build a python which is faster, but it will cost money which you said is an issue. You could also as someone suggest get bigger hoses. For 20 feet of potable hosing it could be around 15 bucks at homedepot. Maybe you could elaborate on how you empty and filll your tanks.
 
Unluckly, money is an issue. If you could get a pump and attach it to the end of the hose that would help a lot.

A reversable power head is great for that kind of bussines, since it can also help you to fill your tanks again.

If you can get one, make sure you manualy remove any chewing gum present in the tank.
 
ttan said:
I gather that you are emptying into sinks. if so you could build a python which is faster, but it will cost money which you said is an issue. You could also as someone suggest get bigger hoses. For 20 feet of potable hosing it could be around 15 bucks at homedepot. Maybe you could elaborate on how you empty and filll your tanks.
Click to expand...
We are emptying into a back room.

We either fill the tanks by carrying buckets of water, or we can shove one end of the siphon tubeing into the garden hose in the back (which has been passed through a activated charcoal filter), and pump water back through the tubing into the tank.

We empty our tanks by syphoning.



Raskolnikov said:
Use a 1" ID siphon tube.
I can siphon ~50 gallons of water in under 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that tubeing?



patoloco said:
Unluckly, money is an issue. If you could get a pump and attach it to the end of the hose that would help a lot.

A reversable power head is great for that kind of bussines, since it can also help you to fill your tanks again.

If you can get one, make sure you manualy remove any chewing gum present in the tank.
Click to expand...


What pumps do you recomend? Ive never really dealt with them too much. The pump would need to be able to empty alteast 40 gallons in 30 minutes 80gph.

The 40 gallons rateing was because id need to empty 10 gallons from atleast 4 tanks. What would you recoment as a splitter for the pump so I could hook up 4 inlets.




Thanks for the timely advice, keep it come'in.
 
Last edited:
http://www.thatpetplace.com

Just search for "tetra tubing"

The 1" stuff is on sale right now. I've found that the 1 1/4" tubing tends to collapse too easily. Also, it's excellent for sand and bare bottom tanks, but it's no good for vacuuming gravel (it'll suck the gravel right out of a tank).
 
go to big als and buy their store brand siphon tube get the one with the fattest tube and it sucks water out pretty fast.
 
The tank I managed at a school was done with a home-made hose, 1/2" vinyl tubing with hose mending fittings on the end. I had 80' length to go out the library door to the yard to drain, then I'd tank the end over to the sink to attach to the faucet to refill. Cost about $20 for tubing and fittings.

I had baby guppies in the tank so didn't want a faster flow.
 
it doesnt matter if the fry get sucked in, you're sucking it into the bucket right? Just scoop them back out and put them back in the tank. If you were directly dumping into the sink from the hose then i'd be worried.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom