Darko A.

Hi!

I just spoted this in my local shop and since I was thinking about similar system with pump for water changing recently, this piece of equipment could be a solution. But, drawings on the packaging and decriptions are very limited so I need some help/opinions with this from more experienced users.


http://www.jbl.de/factmanager/frame_...r+Changing+Set

My thank is just in progress of formation (still preparing driftwood and gravel and picking up first plants), but I have some questions:

- Is it reliable and simple to use? How this "water pump" that is mentioned on the box works (I presume it has a manual knob that I have to push or something)?

- Symphoning water out is pretty straight forward process, but I have doubts with refilling fresh water. Directly from tap source - is this safe? (chlorine/chloramine wise, temperature differences etc.) If not, then how I could benefit from this system and still to avoid bucket trips from toilet to aquarium fort and back?

- Any other spots I missed maybe?

Thank you all for inputs!

Lifesabeach

Hi Darko - welcome to Fishlore
Not familiar with that pump, but as for putting tap water straight in, I was doing that for awhile, but I put a dose of Prime in the tank beforehand. When doing say 25% changes, the change in temperature would not be that great, but if concerned, while that water is going in by hose, you can bucket warm water at the same time.
You probably wouldn't need the pump if you can use the garden hose. Either way, add the water conditioner first. Good luck and look forward to your set up!
What I didn't mention is that our tap water is pretty stable at around pH 7.5.

Darko A.

Tanks Lifesabeach for you answer.

I went again to the local shop and there was an aquarist salesman this time who explained it a bit more for me. It is a good solution, but I am also considering a cheaper one - to buy a simple pump and custom hose that i could use for easier and more frequent water exchange when needed (even for prepared new water) which is better in a way, but it is probably not good for siphoning (that will depend on how strong the pump is (there are many power-graded models with small price differences) and there is a possibility of hose blocking with particles. Nevertheless, this still could be simple and cheap solution just for easier water exchanges.

Picture will explain this:

(Note: it could be a good idea to install a valve on the longer end of the hose for convience/emergency shut off)

Attached Images

Exchange_Pump.png (18.3 KB, 24 views)

peacemaker92

Hi Darko,

I use a simple garden hose to do water changes and fill up my 55g tank. Although it takes a while and my garden pipe is all the way outside, it's still quite cheap and simple. Hope everything works out for you. Good luck!

Darko A.

Hi all!

The reason I did not posted for several days is the fact that I have a big trouble accessing FishLore.com. I though that the site was down due to maintenance (but it was a bit suspicious since no email notification was received) so I was patient for a couple of days with regular checks. Since every other site are working fine, I really do not know what is the problem except that my IP address could be banned or something. Now I am accessing the forum through some proxy server located in China (it was pain to find a working one at the first place, pages were loading very slowely with lot of failures). Anyway, I will post this in site related section.

I bought a pump Atman AT-303 (strongest model I found at the store and cheapest brand btw.) plus 10m hose. It works great, but a pump is a bit slow (it took over 1 hour to fully fill 120l eff./30 gal thank). It is way cheaper than above mentioned system, but it is also great. Good thing about slow(er) pump is the fact that the stream really creates small ripple, so when the fish comes, it won't disturb them much and tap water will gradually mix/blend with the old one.

Thanks peacemaker92 for your advice.

pepetj

Good for you!

I like my Water Changes to be done slowly too. I do have a huge pump for those rushed up times but I enjoy doing maintenance slowly more than in a run.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

Darko A.

Just to report that today I did a first partial water change with the new pump. This time pump had a bit trouble to push all the water from the aquarium through the long hose (other direction works better), but eventually with my little help (pulling the pump almost to the top of the aquarium and tweaking the hose up and down) it started with 1 liter per minute, which is not bad. I could get a bit stronger model, but this one is good for now. 20% water change done in 30 minutes.