Starting an airline syphon

[Puggle]

Here's an easy way to start an air-line syphon without getting a mouthful of tank water.

Get a syringe and put it in one end of the airline tubing. I've found 10mL syringes work well with plastic or silicon tubing.

Put the other end of the tubing in the tank.

Draw the syringe back to suck water into the tubing and let gravity do the rest :P

[Callatya]

DUDE! that is AWESOME! LOVE IT!

[Figure_8]

aww but the mouthfull of tank water is all part of the glorious experience that is water changes excellent idea!

[Jess]

Thats a great idea! It beats filling up the airline with water before hand!!

[Chuckie]

absolutely brilliant. You are an ideas woman, Veronica!

[Figure_8]

Thats a great idea! It beats filling up the airline with water before hand!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats the way I normally do it. slight pain in the butt, but no way am I sucking on the hose! BLEH! I like the syringe idea much better though.. less hassle :P

[Callatya]

I'm a hose sucker... and a *pfft* water-spitter-outerer.

[Figure_8]

I used to be until I read about someone getting some really horribly weird disease from their tank water :cheer:

[Chuckie]

I am also a siphon-sucker, from way back. And I'm not dead, yet!! LOL!

[Phil]

if you dont have one of them syringes, just make sure you use clear tube and you should never get any water in your mouth :cheer:

[Callatya]

if you don't get distracted... "oh! look at the pretty bett..*pfft-spitspit-gag*"

[Puggle]

:cheer: sounds like me. I've always used clear tube and still end up with a mouthful if I'm not careful. I suppose it's extra incentive to keep the water clean :D

[Chuckie]

if the tube is long enough that you can hang down a big loop, so you'd have to actually suck the water uphill after it gets to the bottom part, it helps. I just suck it until the water is at the bottom of the loop then let gravity do the rest. But that's not to say that I don't misjudge from time to time. I mean, who doesn't "look at the pretty bett.. *$#@7^$*!"

[Robbies Betta]

LOL Lilli. yep that's what I tend to do. Either that, or the Jess and Mousie method of filling the tube up b4 hand. But that hand be a prob of it's own (especially gewtting the tap flow just right so that the tube fills steadily and doesn't all come gushing out the other end )

[Bettabegood]

Clever idea, Veronia! Certainly beats whatever I'm doing at the moment, which doesn't work for all the reasons listed above. I'm gonna miss that mouthful of betta poo ... not! And what do you do with the mouthful of ... betta poo? Spit it out? Download it into the nearest tank?? Run to the basin??? And while you're trying to decide, the water's running out of the syphon hose onto ... the floor, in my case. Sue

[Chuckie]

I spit the poo in the bucket I'm siphoning into. my husband laughs at me cleaning the pipes in the barracks, which involves alternately blowing the pipe clear and spitting in the sump.

[Mishy]

LOL.. at least everyone does it in the privacy of their own home the number of times i have had an audience while doing water changes in the office.. *sigh* it's become a 3 ring circus with a bet on whether or not i swallow some betta fertiliser (thank goodness this hasnt happened yet)

[najrick]

Oh dear where have all the adventurous souls gone. What's wrong with fish poo I ask you all Full of vitamins and builds up the immune system. And in some cases tastes a little nutty How could I give up that. Pat. p.s a good idea though

[edie]

:), this just indicates that Pat has tasted that nutritious water more than our fair share Being a lazy guy, I usually don't syphon much (if at all LMAO). The only water that I syphon is bbs water, and I make sure I have a very long airline tubing for it Now, who stole my airline tubing during last visit LMAO...just kidding :D

[Figure_8]

Oh dear where have all the adventurous souls gone. What's wrong with fish poo I ask you all 

Full of vitamins and builds up the immune system.

And in some cases tastes a little nutty

How could I give up that.

Pat.

p.s a good idea though

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ROFLMAO!

I never want to become that familiar with my fish water.. :)

[najrick]

Actually I was cleaning out our gourami tank this afternoon not long after posting that and my first mouthful was all furry and chunky. Not good And definately a little nutty Pat.

[Jess]

OH MY GOD! Furry? ewwwwwwwwww *imagines Nitrates* I have to admit I suck with my mouth at times, but I make sure I have a loooooong tube, so I do not get yukkies. I sucked up one of my B. enisae's once, his big fat head got stuck and I had to blow him off the other end of the tubing, I was so traumatised... I was watching elsewhere at the time. He was fine, just a bit shaken up :no:

[Figure_8]

I sucked up one of my B. enisae's once, his big fat head got stuck and I had to blow him off the other end of the tubing

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I read the first part of that and had images of a fish in the mouth! A wiggling mouthfull is most definitely worse than fish manure any day! *shudders*

:whistling:

[fuzzy_dragonfly]

:whistling: , I've only ever twice had mouthfuls of aquarium water, when I was in a rush and wasn't paying attention. Three times if you count the time I was starting up the canister filter (but that doesn't really count because there were no fish in the water yet). When I'm not using my gravel vac which you jiggle a couple times to get the water flowing I raise the entire tube above water level with one end in the tank. I suck until the water is about halfway up the tube and drop the end of the tube in the bucket. Works for me, and I haven't tasted dirty aquarium water in a long time. The syringe idea is clever too . Catching a disease from your fish is rare. You have a better chance of picking up something from a non-aquatic pet.