BJP

There's another trick I use on tanks to save time. It works even better on larger longer tanks. Once I finish vacuuming the substrate, I leave the vacuum going on one side of the tank and start filling on the other with a seperate garden hose. It takes a little juggling to get the rates to match but it allows for almost any percentage change I want and sometimes that ends up being more than 100% using the current to direct more debri from one side of the tank to the vacuum. I've also used it to flush under UG filters shoving the hose down one uplift tube and the vacuum over the other.

If you just want to speed up the vacuuming/getting water out part, I drilled a hole in a standard trash can at the bottom, attached a garden hose fitting securely. Then I just hook on a hose and run the hose out the door. Then I could run two or three gravel vacuums emptying into the trashcan at the same time. In other cases I could be cleaning three tanks at the same time if they were close together.

You have to find ways to save time when you're trying to take care of over 100 tanks by yourself frequently. If your tanks aren't used to frequent changes or large ones then I'd work up to them slowly.

BJP

found a picture. two vacs at once with the hose going out the door.

Patricia

Awesome. I also send the water out the back door onto my plants. They grow like crazy.

BJP

I should have added that I used the trashcan as a work station also instead of having to haul stuff to the sink. Since I was using a seperate hose for filling I could blast the funk off cartridges and such directly in the can avoiding contaminating my sink area or dripping water across the house. I frequently left algae scrub pads, nets and extras in the bottom of the can or hanging.

When I was done the can served as storage for everything. Roll the hoses up and drop them in. Toss in the gravel vacs. Chunk the can in a closet or somewhere out of sight.