Water changes.... from?

[Chumpy]

Hi
I've heard contrasting views regarding taking water from the system when performing water changes.

Where do you syphon your water from?

[marshalls2007]

from the tank;)

[BASH]

from the sump

BASH

[Fungia]

I voted top 1" but thats just where I hold the hose by convention. I have heard though that there are more nutrients near the surface of the water so it could be good thing?


Jeff.

[Lost Boys]

Depends if i am cleaning the bottom of the tank then from the bottom otherwise around 3/4 of the way down. :)

[Tony B]

Makes no odds, sump, tank, top bottom - the aim is to change a % of water from the system. :rolleyes:

[hihat]

I pump mine out via a tapped tee piece from my sump return pump:) .

[maestro]

I always use a gravel vac and clean the sand everyweek, its amazing what you get out.

[jobr]

anywhere for me, unless i want to specifically clean the sump or something.

[SCOOB]

always from the surface of the rock (hence not voted)

i get algae, asterinas, cyano, detritus, all kinds of crap.

[powder]

from the bottom & the rocks no sand but always clean the crap from around the corals, (not voted)

[jimblonduk]

I always get as much cr@p into the water as possible, clean the back and side glass, pull out any hair algae, stir up the sand, then syphon out.

Gary :)

[fire999]

I always use a gravel vac and clean the sand everyweek, its amazing what you get out.


How deep is your sand ? if its say 2" or more then .. leave it ... it will help with denitrification. if you keep ploding it with a vac. then you might as well have none or little sand in the tank .:whistling:

[fire999]

I have just noticed ...... BTW do you not have loads od worms and pods and critters in your sand ? i do , and the last thing i want to do is vac them away.. they are all part of the eco system .. its good to have crap in the sand... thats why we have DSB ..

[bazman]

I gp all over the tank,start with the rocks then just fan over the sand so as not to disturb to much. But if i do just the water i start at the bottom and then work my way up,so a top, middle and bottom. :thumbsup:

[DC110770]

Top of the tank or the cleaner shrimp tries to get sucked up the pipe!
:laugh:

[Wee-Man]

always from the surface of the rock (hence not voted)

i get algae, asterinas, cyano, detritus, all kinds of crap.

including feline;)

In my last tank i used to try to hoover up the crap on the rocks, and yes loads of it came up.

[dark_stranger]

anywhere as in theory, if you have enough flow, what was the top 1" 1 min ago, is now elsewhere :D

Saying that, i do blast the rocks before hand to free up muck.

[Cav]

I squirt my rocks and around the filters on my powerheads with a turkey baster then pretty much go from every level aiming the syphon at any large bits floating about, I also give the wet/dry filter above the tank a good suck out to get any detruis trapped up there too.

[marin31ife]

wherever the misses decides to hold the pipe:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D but seriously does it matter????????

[Cav]

How often should you stir your sandbed when cleaning?

[simonblue]

i normally coincide my water change with a algea/glass cleaning session that way you get loads of that out killing two birds.

[ptdborth]

Top of the tank, saves catching silly little clowns who like buckets more than a real home!

[zimreef]

I combine the water change with cleaning the sides of the tank and syphoning out any crud from that and also that's built up in the rockwork. Why wouldn't you? ;)

John

[Divejunkie]

Two different answers from my perspective.

Big tank, I don't worry too much.

My Nano's however I skim from the top. I don't run skimmers in the Nano's so this serves to remove the film that collects there.

[techieman]

I mainly take from the sand while I slightly sift,but also go over the rockwork.I have doubts about using a gravel vac.---- removing good guys from the sand.

[goslayer]

From the sump for me.

[keithboylan]

I take for all over the main tank trying to get as much detritus as I can so I voted anywhere

[Kevinuk32]

just stick it in and let it go...

Kev :)

[Vicky_99]

We clean the sides of the tank etc and then take the water from the main tank (too cramped underneath where the sump is - we'd make a right old mess!) - never taken much notice where from - assumed it didn't matter & concentrating too much on getting rid of the stuff that's come off the sides of the tank!

Vicky

[blub]

wherever. Dont think it matters that much, although sometimes I use a waterchange siphon to remove the odd bit of cyano.