29 Gallon Tank What Equipment Is Needed For A Tank

Got a question. Before anyone comes at me, I know for a fact this can be done!

What equipment is needed for a 29 gal aquarium for no w.c.?

A friend of my husband's has 3 fish tanks, all freshwater, and he NEVER does w.c... he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

Does anyone know what that equipment or canister is called?

 

Oh boy.....what a topic.

In order to understand how a "no water change" tank works, first you need to understand the aerobic and anaerobic sides of the nitrogen cycle.

You need areas of low water flow for anaerobic bacteria to grow that will convert nitrate into soluble nitrogen.

That's as far as im going in to this topic and that should point you in the right direction.

Read up on Plenums...that might be a good idea.

As far as a specific canister....there isn't really a special canister filter that is going to protect you from having to do water changes. And even if you achieve 0ppm nitrate....water changes are always something that should still be done for several reasons. Also....you will need plants.

That's my two cents.

Have at it Fishlore!


Here's this thread too, lots of info here:

Thread '0 Nitrates Is So Easy, Why Does No One Do It?' 180 Gallon Tank - 0 Nitrates Is So Easy, Why Does No One Do It? | Advanced Freshwater Aquarium Topics Forum | 382099

 

I'm not familiar with a system like what you are describing. The only concern I would have with such a system would be removing the chlorine/chloramines from the replacement water. If you're using well water, this is not a problem, but it would be with tap water.

 

No water change, in what you're describing is a misnomer.

he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

The water is being changed, just not manually.

I thought there were a couple of threads about it. Will do some searching, see if I can find them.

Here's one
A "no Water Change" Aquarium | Freshwater Aquarium Builds Forum | 353671

Automatic water change system | Cleaning and Maintenance Forum | 469348

 

Got a question. Before anyone comes at me, I know for a fact this can be done!

What equipment is needed for a 29 gal aquarium for no w.c.?

A friend of my husband's has 3 fish tanks, all freshwater, and he NEVER does w.c... he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

Does anyone know what that equipment or canister is called?

If you know someone already doing it why not just ask them? They might even be willing to set it up for you if you were concerned about doing it wrong

 

A friend of my husband's has 3 fish tanks, all freshwater, and he NEVER does w.c... he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

So water changes are being done, just not by the friend with a siphon or gravel vac.

Best guess is the canister has some sort of maintenance port, like the FX series from Fluval do.....which would be extreme overkill for a 29 gallon tank.

IF, if, you heavily plant your tank, have an air stone or two going, and have low fish stocking, you might get away with few water changes. BUT that's on a larger tank - like my wife's 55 where the filter could be turned off if I had to without any major issues - heavily, heavily, planted. But I wouldn't be willing to risk it for an extended period of time.

Might look at MD Fish Tanks on Youtube as he's done a few ecosystem tanks where he claims no water changes. Here's one...

 

In short on fishlore with beginners we deal with the first stages of the nitrogen cycle. Just converting ammonia into nitrites and then using a second colony of bacteria to consume them and produce nitrates has been the challenge so far. The next stage is quite advanced and my understanding is it take a long time to get the stable conditions for the bacteria to grow (years almost) under the gravel or deep inside ceramic media.

You ask about equipment needed . The equipment is not that important . It is a special kind of bacteria that lives in low oxygen within dee beds of gravel and inside ceramic media.

I have no hands on experience with the last stage of the nitrogen cycle that turns nitrates in nitrogen gas.
Only one old guy in my local club had tanks with 6 inches of gravel and had zero nitrates. He continued to change some water so as to remove hormones and supply minerals. He was 90 plus years old before his death.

If you wish to go down a rabbit hole on the subject of deep gravel and plenums as mentioned in post #2 these to characters are a starting point. Father fish & novac

I have been subscribed to both of these old guys for years. I don’t personally follow there way.

As for MD and his channel I can’t say anything good so choose to say nothing.

I do have outdoor containers/tanks with only plants as filters that have a very low stocking.
This person is worth listening to. However it’s about using plants as filters. But its kind of on topic

Back to answering the question Kmarroquin89
The equipment you need is time and providing the right conditions to provide a home for more bacteria. Bacteria that lives in low oxygen.

 

Got a question. Before anyone comes at me, I know for a fact this can be done!

What equipment is needed for a 29 gal aquarium for no w.c.?

A friend of my husband's has 3 fish tanks, all freshwater, and he NEVER does w.c... he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

Does anyone know what that equipment or canister is called?

what you described is not a "no water change" system, it's an "automatic water change" system.

"no water change" can be done, but it's involved and complicated to an extent, as far as monitoring and how you need to top off and with what you need to top off with for evaporation and what the tank is doing. if you don't stay on top of it and maintain balance, there are depletions and excesses that will crash it.
it's kind of advanced.

No water change is more about "for a period of time" which could be months or years or decades really depending on how much you are watching it and making adjustments. However my own experiences, and others that I've seen, everyone brags for the first year or two, and shuts their yaps about it by year 5-10 because it failed horribly and everything died. Denitrifiers are fickle, take forever to grow and multiply, and need a very specific, consistent environment and even in nature denitrifers are only capable of so much because they are slow.
A combination of methods must be used and maintained, heavy plants, light stocking, anoxic zones, and other control methods must be used to control nitrates from building up in a closed environment like an aquarium, nature can bring in new plants with excesses and spread to new areas, algae blooms can happen to correct excesses. die offs can happen to correct for depletions.

Like a lake or natural space, there's plenty of volume, plenty of interactions and outside influences giving and taking, and then natural processes to make corrections, this doesn't happen in an aquarium, and aquarium needs you to be that influence.

if you want an automatic water changer, build a cart with two 50 gallon drums, one gets filled with tap water to age for new water to be added and has a return pump in it, the other is to take water out and has a pump to suck out the water, now convert this system to a holding tank system for a rack and pipe it to all thee aquariums in the rack, and connect the fill tank to a faucet, and the waste water tank to a drain. if you want and have the money, add a doser, add a flow meter if you like if money is no object. Adda heater to it, or add a water mixer with a thermostat.

once you have filling and taking out water down using piping. it's then handling the waste water.
add a fine micron filter and ro/di system to it for the waste water section and a doser, to clean the water completely, and then remineralize and enrich it with nutrients, and then just top off the system for evaporation with ro/di water, and it's using the bare minimum of water, basically recycling it with the exception of the water that evaporates.

Although, building an aquarium water recycler is cost prohibitive, for the hobbyist, or for a commercial breeder/ fish farm, even they dump their old water and use new water, but it can be done and have your own at-home, aquarium water treatment plant.
It won't be cheap though and will take some engineering
Last I checked the reef supplys sell auto water changer control pumps, they are like $500 just for that part. it works off of one tank, has two lines, one that runs tank to pump to waste, then a 2nd step that runs from fresh to refilling pump to tank. those can be used for auto water changes or top off and for whatever speed you want it to run at up to like 1 liter per minute. even ones that run by wifi control on a mobile phone app.

its a 29 gallon tank. if it's "no hauling buckets" you are trying to achieve, buy a python water changer, OR DIY your own version of one.

 

Ya know....it could just be that this guy has a fish tank with a canister filter and he doesn't ever change his water.

Just sayin'.

 

People mistake a very slow tank metabolism and a few fragile self-regulating processes, with a self-sustaining system. The latter is not possible. Ms Walstad would no doubt agree with this.

Setting up a tank and not conducting water changes for a year or so is not that difficult. Just don't call it self sustaining.

To the original question, "what equipment is needed":
- a rooted substrate (instead of lowering oxygen, increase it...)
- a glass cover
- a bit of light, not too much, only ambient light will do, as plant growth is the factor that is going to collapse the system eventually

 

Ya know....it could just be that this guy has a fish tank with a canister filter and he doesn't ever change his water.

Just sayin'.

I thought that also, it's possible he's a walstad kind of person, and just connecting a canister filter for water polishing and topping off when its' needed and letting plants and the tank do it's thing. I'd guess he's doing a fair amount of water testing though, if not how could a person know when things are depleting or building up to troubling levels?

Or he could be like me, and just neglecting water changes for a long long time and just top offs. I didn't lose fish, I couldn't add new fish, but nobody died that was in the tank as it depleted KH and ran up on GH, they acclimated to the changes the tank went through as it got more acidic, they acclimated to insane nitrates that were above 10x the recommended levels of a water change needing to happen.

 

I thought that also, it's possible he's a walstad kind of person, and just connecting a canister filter for water polishing and topping off when its' needed and letting plants and the tank do it's thing. I'd guess he's doing a fair amount of water testing though, if not how could a person know when things are depleting or building up to troubling levels?

Or he could be like me, and just neglecting water changes for a long long time and just top offs. I didn't lose fish, I couldn't add new fish, but nobody died that was in the tank as it depleted KH and ran up on GH, they acclimated to the changes the tank went through as it got more acidic, they acclimated to insane nitrates that were above 10x the recommended levels of a water change needing to happen.

Wow!

Yeah it's probably best that you leave well enough alone.

 

Wow!

Yeah it's probably best that you leave well enough alone.

What I mean is, like when I did it, the tank looked great for years, the fish looked great and ate and didn't seem like there were any issues at all nobody died. I stopped testing, just kept doing what i was doing, Didn't see a problem, it was easy to just let it ride.
it's was when I tried to add new fish, they immediately went into shock and died and could not be acclimated to it no matter what I tried even drip acclimation for hours and hours, that's when I realized I should test, see what's what, and when I realized how bad it was.
The tank clarity actually looks worse now that it's mostly back in order than it did when it was buried in nitrates and a 20+ dGH with a 0 dKH. I'd assume that will balance out in time also and clear.

As far as I can tell now, it can be recovered since I've been working on recovery since march, it can be brought back with water changes (thousands upon thousands of gallons of water doing it that way) or by doing one 100% change and then reacclimating the fish over 48+ hours drip, (much cheaper on water and time) everything adjusts over time as the conditions slowly improve again. or done quickly, and just the fish need the time to re acclimate back from the low pH acidic stone water to normal parameters again without going into shock. keeping an eye on your cycle of course, such a quick shift on the bacteria from like less than 5 pH to around 7 may not work, I didn't try it that way, it seemed riskier overall for the fish.

better to not get there at all and not be lazy, it cost me tons of time, and thousands upon thousands of gallons of water to slowly recover a 72 gallon tank. the neglect just adds up, so while it's coasting for a good while and everything appears fine, it costs you in the long run and you have to end up doing the work you didn't do anyways.

Just saying, it can be done and give the appearance everything is wonderful, and everything looks fine and nothing is dying and no indication without testing or trying to add new fish, that there's a problem building up behind the scenes.

 

how could a person know when things are depleting or building up to troubling levels?

You gave the answer: "it's possible he's a walstad kind of person". The key of Walstad is plants. And plants give off signs.

 

Hey guys, Let's not lose sight of the original question:

Got a question. Before anyone comes at me, I know for a fact this can be done!

What equipment is needed for a 29 gal aquarium for no w.c.?

A friend of my husband's has 3 fish tanks, all freshwater, and he NEVER does w.c... he has some type of canister that siphons the old water out and replaces it with clean water.

Does anyone know what that equipment or canister is called?

 

Like someone else mentioned. this sounds like an automatic water change system. Not a no water change system.

It sounds like your friend might be using a system like the one in the link below:

Kamoer X2SR Water Change System

It has a drain pump that drains water from the aquarium to a wastewater reservoir. And a fill pump which pumps freshwater form a reservoir into the aquarium. It comes with water level sensors to monitor the water levels in the aquarium, and both of the reservoirs.

Pretty cool. But also pretty pricey.

Some people (typically people with large fish-rooms) also use a flow through system where they continuously drip water into their tanks. The tanks are typically drilled and plumbed with overflow drains. So the water is constantly dripping into the tank, and draining out through the overflow.

 

Just topping off water as it evaporates will lead to higher and higher mineral content in your water, unless you're using RO water.

This will be very hard on any new fish you get and will put yours at risk if you ever do a water change for some reason - say to remove medicine after treating for an illness.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

If you know someone already doing it why not just ask them? They might even be willing to set it up for you if you were concerned about doing it wrong

I dont have contact with him

 

Well regardless, if you have a 29 gallon tank and if you can tell us a bit about your vision and goals for what you would like.... I'm sure that there are several folks here that would love to help you out.

 

All tanks need water changing, I do 25% every 4 days and this is considered small changes.

You gave the answer: "it's possible he's a walstad kind of person". The key of Walstad is plants. And plants give off signs.

Even with this method, at some stage you have to water change.

 

All tanks need water changing, I do 25% every 4 days and this is considered small changes.

Even with this method, at some stage you have to water change.

Absolutely. It's all about pace. The pace of planted tanks in my basement is much slower and more steady, than those on ground level. (by the way, 25% every 4 for days is huge in my book).

Back to the OP.

Perhaps some people use a fancy system for water changes. I can't imagine an LFS doing water changes in their non-planted well stocked fish tanks with a wine jar (which is what I use myself). I hardly ever visit a LFS. One that I know uses a hose and a bucket; I've been there perhaps twice myself over the last 5 years or so, and at both times I saw this guy doing the changes. I bet he's doing them right now.

The other LFS has some system in place. I've never wondered how it works, but it seems almost mandatory if selling fish is your business and you don't want to pay a person just for conducting water changes.

 

This is my water change system, It is very easy. Hose in the window turn the tap on, switch the hose off, open the drain valve, siphon the water out, and then shut the valve off, and open the tap to refill.

 

So here's a better explanation on what I'm wanting to do lol. I am wanting a system that basically drains the water out of my tanks, filters it, and then drains the filters water back in my tank. This way I don't have to do w.c. ever or rarely. It's constantly filtering the old water, filtering into new water and then dripping back in My tank. Does that make any or better sense?

 

Are you looking for a canister filter? Mine sits under the stand.

https://fluvalaquatics.com/us/product/407-performance-canister-filter-up-to-100-us-gal-500-l/

I still do weekly water changes.

 

Are you looking for a canister filter? Mine sits under the stand.

https://fluvalaquatics.com/us/product/407-performance-canister-filter-up-to-100-us-gal-500-l/

I still do weekly water changes.

Something like thise video....

 

Sounds like a tank with a sump ?

Just a box often made of glass that houses the filter and often the heater. Allowing for plenty of biological media out of sight . It’s nothing special and just another filter doing exactly the same basic filtration with the same bacteria as any other tank .
The sump can be smaller or bigger than the fish tank and both container volumes are added together to calculate total volume.
If it is a sump filter you are describing it’s just tank water going around and around. Like a “ normal “ aquarium filter the water must pass through multiple times per hour to be filtered. A single pass though the filter does not “ clean “ the water.

edit
Yes the video shows a sump.

A local club member has a room of tanks hooked up to a pair of 15 foot sumps.
When breeding angels he changes some water every day Kmarroquin89
At the 32 second mark you see “ moving bed media”. Still the same bacteria as any tank but the theory is it’s not covered in gunk / poop and the surface areas touchi each other continuously grow young fresh bacteria constantly .

 

Sounds like a tank with a sump ?

Just a box often made of glass that houses the filter and often the heater. Allowing for plenty of biological media out of sight . It’s nothing special and just another filter doing exactly the same basic filtration with the same bacteria as any other tank .
The sump can be smaller or bigger than the fish tank and both container volumes are added together to calculate total volume.
If it is a sump filter you are describing it’s just tank water going around and around. Like a “ normal “ aquarium filter the water must pass through multiple times per hour to be filtered. A single pass though the filter does not “ clean “ the water.

edit
Yes the video shows a sump.

A local club member has a room of tanks hooked up to a pair of 15 foot sumps.
When breeding angels he changes some water every day Kmarroquin89
At the 32 second mark you see “ moving bed media”. Still the same bacteria as any tank but the theory is it’s not covered in gunk / poop and the surface areas touchi each other continuously grow young fresh bacteria constantly .

I'm looking for something like that but, I need a way that's recycling the water. A system that takes the old water, refreshes it, and drips it back on. Something that's not needed to be hooked up to my city water. My water bill has been going up and up and I know it's bc of my weekly w.c so my husband is looking for something to save money in the long run.. sorry if I'm not explaining it clearly. I had oral surgey Friday and I'm still kind out of it. Something that sucks my tank water out, filters it, screening it, making it good water again, then putting it back into my tank so ultimately I don't have to do w.c anymore they do them automatically.

 

Research sumps .

They are not anything magical. Just think of a sump as a way of hiding all the working equipment out of sight. Yes they can have lots and lots of media and can have media operating as moving beds, wet and dry as well as foam sheets and ceramic media. You can have cartridges as well but you still don’t have any more bacteria than in any reasonable sized filter. The media is however easier to access and clean.
Water changes with a sump can be done by removing and adding water that’s in the sump . This allows for less disturbance in the main tank.

Next time you are in a shop check out the sumps used by them . Often on the floor behind panels.

As far as trying to save water use.
Recycling old tank water into toilets , gardens and any other use is normal practice in my house.


A constant supply of old tank water buckets and numerous watering cans is a daily part of life.

 

Research sumps .

They are not anything magical. Just think of a sump as a way of hiding all the working equipment out of sight. Yes they can have lots and lots of media and can have media operating as moving beds, wet and dry as well as foam sheets and ceramic media. You can have cartridges as well but you still don’t have any more bacteria than in any reasonable sized filter. The media is however easier to access and clean.
Water changes with a sump can be done by removing and adding water that’s in the sump . This allows for less disturbance in the main tank.

Next time you are in a shop check out the sumps used by them . Often on the floor behind panels.

As far as trying to save water use.
Recycling old tank water into toilets , gardens and any other use is normal practice in my house.
View attachment 864874
A constant supply of old tank water buckets and numerous watering cans is a daily part of life.

I don't have a garden or anything like that as it's November. We don't garden until spring. My husband is just trying to find a way to remove old tank water and then put that same water back in the tank, but cleaner lol so we aren't using "new out of the faucet water" to refill 70% of water back in. 70 gallons Is Alot of water. Yes I've explained that w.c. are needed but he's trying to find a way to save on water in a sense.

 

70 gallons on a 29? How often are you doing water changes?

Bi-weekly on mine and I might pull down 10 gallons each time. So over a month's time 20 gallons of fresh tap water.

**Planted....King tiger pleco, striped raphael catfish, a few black phantom tetras, and a bunch of half dollar sized mystery snails....which really need to move into my 75.

 

70 gallons on a 29? How often are you doing water changes?

Bi-weekly on mine and I might pull down 10 gallons each time. So over a month's time 20 gallons of fresh tap water.

**Planted....King tiger pleco, striped raphael catfish, a few black phantom tetras, and a bunch of half dollar sized mystery snails....which really need to move into my 75.

I have 2 tanks. I have a 55 and a 29. I do weekly w.c. on both between 50-70% WC on each tank every friday. My 55 has 2 goldfish and 2 plecos my 29 only has 2 goldfish. Both tanks have Java fern ( 55 has 1 and 29 has 4). Both has 2 airstones, 55 has 2 filters 29 only has 1 filter.

 

So if I understand, you want to use the exact same water that is removed from the tank to refill the tank but first you want to somehow remove all the toxins, nitrates, hormones etc. etc.as well as replenish the minerals. I don't think it can be done. At least not in such a way that the average aquarist could afford it. I think we all would do this if it was possible.

A sump will not do this. A sump is a filter. You still need to do water changes.

If want to use less water you need to under stock your tank and use a lot of plants.

What nitrate levels are you reaching in your tanks before your weekly water changes?

automatic changers and continuous drip systems eliminaten the need for you to do the water changes, but they are still using new water to do it.

 

I'm sure its possible to do what you are thinking. But possible and practical are very different things.

There is no off-the-shelf product that does what you want. This would be a custom project. And a relatively expensive and involved one at that.

 

I think you're looking at sump systems with chemical filtration added....in massive amounts. Purigen is listed as pulling out/controlling ammonia, nitrite and nitrate but that's going to get mighty expensive over 2 tanks running 24/7/365. So expensive I wager the water bill is going to be cheaper.

There are other chemicals out there I'm sure you'd probably need to use in combination to achieve your goal but that's a massive, massive continuing outlay. And you're going to have to test to make sure that the chemicals aren't being depleted and that your water parameters aren't changing either.


IF it were me, I'd be looking at the amount of water I'm pulling out of the tanks to begin with. If it truly needs 70 gallons that's one thing but in my experience pulling out about 10 gallons out of a 29 and about 10-15 gallons out of a 55 works. I might go through 60-70 gallons doing all my tanks....75, (3)55, 29, 10 gallon quarantine and a 54 gallon patio pond.

**My son's 55 has (2) fully grown Angelfish, (1) albino Sailfin pleco (10" long), a yellow bn, a bunch of platies, a 4 stripe Pictus (4-5" long) and probably 20-40 mystery snails. 10-15 gallons is sufficient to restore water parameters on a bi-weekly basis. This is heavily planted tank though and I run Marineland HOB filters the next size up from the tank recommendation with sponge pre-filters.

***Everyone can relax....the Sailfin is the reason I'm going to a 125 in the spring (tax return). I know full well he needs a bigger tank, which is in the works.

 

So if I understand, you want to use the exact same water that is removed from the tank to refill the tank but first you want to somehow remove all the toxins, nitrates, hormones etc. etc.as well as replenish the minerals. I don't think it can be done. At least not in such a way that the average aquarist could afford it. I think we all would do this if it was possible.

A sump will not do this. A sump is a filter. You still need to do water changes.

If want to use less water you need to under stock your tank and use a lot of plants.

What nitrate levels are you reaching in your tanks before your weekly water changes?

automatic changers and continuous drip systems eliminaten the need for you to do the water changes, but they are still using new water to do it.

That's what I gathered. I only have 2 goldfish in a 29 gal... it's well understaffed but I won't put anymore in it either unless I get bottom feeders, really thinking about Shrimp!

I'm sure its possible to do what you are thinking. But possible and practical are very different things.

There is no off-the-shelf product that does what you want. This would be a custom project. And a relatively expensive and involved one at that.

What I've gathered. :/