How We Change Water In Our Tanks

Welcome back to the Jack Wattley Discus Hatchery, This is Gabe Posada. Based on your guys recent questions and comments, today we are going to be doing a quick recap on how we perform water changes for our tanks. We have done in-depth videos on how our water system works in the past, so be sure to look for those as well!

The Water Change Process

First of all, the process here at the hatchery is very simple. We have a system of one-inch hoses and pipe that all have ball valves connected to them to make control of water flow easy to manage. We keep everything primed, so this system has water in it and is ready to go all the time.

Emptying and Cleaning Tanks

When it comes time to do a water change, all we have to do is turn the proper valve and immediately the water will begin to siphon. As this is going on, we start to pick up all of the debris, fecal matter and everything else that shouldn’t be at the bottom of the tank. Once we have cleaned the physical matter out of the bottom of the tank, if we want to do a 30%, 40% or 50% water change, the only thing we have to do is leave the valve open long enough for the necessary amount of water to come out. While this tank is draining, we continue to move onto the other tanks and repeat the process. Realistically, we can change the water in about 16 tanks all at the same time.

Refilling The Tanks

As the water begins to decrease, the floats that we have in every tank will begin to register when the water is low and will automatically start to fill the tanks once we are done emptying them. This part of the system is very similar to what you probably have in the back tank of your toilet that helps to regulate the water inflow and outflow.

This system is very simple and makes it easy to change the water on all of our tanks quickly. It beats going around with one single hose and waiting for each tank to empty before you can start working on the next one. Each tank has its own independent siphoning hose, and independent fill system, which makes for much faster turnaround time. We can literally go through 6,000 gallons of water, in and out, in a matter of two hours and fifteen minutes.

Want To Learn More?

As always, we really appreciate you guys asking questions and taking the time to read our articles and watch our videos. Remember, we can’t come up with these ideas without your help, so keep them coming! We hope you enjoy them and get some good information as well.

Even though our water changing system is pretty simple, it’s quite a sight to see. Find videos on this and more on our YouTube, Instagram and Facebook pages, with new exciting content all the time!