My very own python, well sort of....

[Chet]

I took the advice of chennes and bought the replacement parts for the python, then bought a roll of tubing at Home Depot and made my own water changer. I was so excited when the damn thing worked. No more carrying buckets or filling up water jugs. Water changes used to take like 30-40 minutes, but I did them last night in like 15 minutes. Awesome! Thanks for the tip!

One caveat though. I had a gravel vacuum that is the easy start kind. You know where you mive it up and down in the water and it starts the siphon. Well, I put it on my new water changer, and vacuumed the tank out fine, but when I reversed the water flow to refill, the hose blew the vacuum extension on the end. As I was holding the vacuum, and not the tubing, the end of the tube flew out of the tank, and proceeded to spew several gallons of water on my floor. Not good! The "easy-start" gravel vacuum has that little floating piece inside it, and when I tried to pump water back through it, it stopped up the tube, the pressure built, and I ended up holding the vacuum in my hand as I looked on dumbfounded while water poured onto my hardwood floors. :shock:

[Rudy]

:rofl:
That is hilarious. Well not really but.
The same think happend when I put a longer siphon on my Python CHet.

[jnorris]

It is because it had one way ball valve on it. See if you can find a regular siphon at the LFS. Or you could try tanking the ball out somehow.

[Chet]

Yeah, I knew almost immediately what caused it, I was just pissed at myself for not knowing what would happen. I guess I was too excited about not having to do the bucket brigade anymore and my brain shutdown. :oops:

[jnorris]

I had the same thing happen to me (well sort of) with my eheim cannister filter (except I have carpet floors :shock: )

After a few beers I decided to take out the carbon matt filter because it was in there four weeks. I forgot to detach the hoses and unlocked the top part of the canister.

Before I knew it 5-6 gallons of tank water was on my floor.....ooops

I learned a lesson.....don't break down the filter while drinking....

[Boilermaker]

LMAOF :lol: :lol:

[Serious4play]

Chet,

What type of tubing are you using for you diy python? Do you ever have problems with the tubing collapsing while siphoning? I am using the clear vinyl tubing from Home Depot and whenever I siphon my tubing collapses restricting flow from my vac.

Any thoughts.:(

[Chet]

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, I am using the same tubing, and occassionally it does partially collapse, but I think that has more to do with the tubing having been wound too tightly on a roll than anything else. I just wonder if the tubing that comes with a python set is any different. I would be suprised if it varied greatly.

Oh, and I ordered a 36" extension from BigAl's, so now I don't even get my hands wet when I do my maintenance. However, I do not get suffcient lift to remove all the waste from the pleco in the 135. He is just a dirty, well you know...

[Serious4play]

Well I finally bit the bullet and picked up the reinforced braided tubing and what a difference. No more suction loss, I now need some practice using this thing to keep from emptying my tank of all the sand :D I did compare a piece of the clear tubing with that from the python kits and the tubing in the python kits does in fact have a thicker wall give it more outward strength.

[Chet]

Thanks! That's good to know. I am getting ready to make another python for my office tank, so I'll use the reinforced tubing this time around.