no more mouthful of water

[lighthouze08]

couple of days ago i was doing a weekly water change. i ingested a mouthful of nasty water while trying to get the siphon started. 1- didn't taste that good 2-all the chemical i've dosing in there can possibly turn me into the hulk. Then i sat there and thought about it, there has to be a better way. well i i've found A way

just wanted to share with everyone, this is the contraption i came up with, use a y splitter and construct it as pictured. To use it, pinch the hose right below the y splitter, open up the valve, suck it then let go of the pinch. water should start flowing by then, close the valve up and it should flow even faster.

There's no way you can get water in your mouth this way and it beats bending down sucking water

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz35/lighthouze08/Untitled-3.jpg

[Psirex]

or you could just buy a self siphoning pump like this...


http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_searchItem.aspx?SearchText=siphon&parsed=1

there are various types....

[RubberFrog]

You know they make siphon bulbs for this....

You shouldn't ever put your mouth on anything that goes in the tank. There are some pretty serious diseases you can get from saltwater.

[lighthouze08]

i tried the siphon pump, it just doen't have enough power when you squeeze it to suck the water over the tank. when you suck on the valve you can control the power. well that's if your lung is still good.

[RubberFrog]

Are you prefilling the hose with water? Lots of people syphon without putting their mouths on the hose.

[jrp1588]

I just use a gravel vac and scoop up a bunch of water and let it flow down. Then I stick the end back into the tank before all the water runs down. Then I have a siphon. Very easy with no extra equipment. If I'm not using a gravel vac, but just using a smaller diameter tube (I do this to clean some of the nooks and crannies of the LR) I push the inlet of the tube right next to the outlet of the return line from the sump. This pushes water down and starts a siphon.

[Elem7777]

If you're removing water from your display the best way I know to get a siphon started is still to just place the siphon directly in front of a powerhead outlet.

Biggest problem I have is siphoning out crud from my sump, it's just to low to the ground for a gravity siphon to work and my python won't reach my saltwater tank.

[Psirex]

mine is a self starting pump all i have to do is pump the siphon up and down a few times and it starts - I could empty my 120 in a matter of minutes....

[Dr Colliebreath]

If you're removing water from your display the best way I know to get a siphon started is still to just place the siphon directly in front of a powerhead outlet.

Biggest problem I have is siphoning out crud from my sump, it's just to low to the ground for a gravity siphon to work and my python won't reach my saltwater tank.

You could buy an extension hose for your python.