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By GabbyB
#19229
Owners of large marine aquariums have to do regular water changes, monthly or more often, a messy, wet job that COULD be made much simpler. What I want invented is a "bi-directional in-line electrical water pump" with tubing on either end, that does NOT need to be submerged to work. Here's how I envision it:
Step 1) Plug it in. Stick one end of the tubing in my tank and the other end in an empty 5-gal water container. Turn it on, it pumps the water out into the container. (Like siphoning but faster). Easy on/off button to stop when full. Step 2) Leaving the aquarium end in place, just move the other end to a full 5-gallon container. Flip the bi-direction switch on the pump and it pumps the new water right into the aquarium. No more splashing around like I always have to do now, pouring water into buckets to pump it into the tanks because I can't just pour it in (5-gal containers are too heavy and pouring disturbs the tank far too much) and I can't fit any existing pumps into the small mouths of the standard 5-gal containers that every aquarium store in Los Angeles uses to sell saltwater. This SOUNDS like a simple invention and for years I was sure it already existed somewhere, but I have now been in this hobby for >10 years and have NEVER found a pump that can do this. I've discussed it with many other hobbyists and they all agreed they'd buy this if it existed. The only engineer I discussed it with said it couldn't work because a pump needs to be primed with water so it would need to be submerged to start. I don't know if that's true.

Reward: Make me one...I need it.
By CARRUTHERS
#20655
I too end up having to tip water from a bucket, or 'spoon it' jam-jar at a time, into the tank. However, for larger tanks I know some public aqauriums do use a pump to shift the water. I saw an article on an Israeli public aquarium where the tidal reef was simulated by having two tidal display tanks in the same room. Water was pumped from one tank to the other, and back again, over the timescale of the tides. If they can do it, so can anyone with space. It may take two pumps side by side, with electronic switching between, or a single pump which again would require electronic swtiching to change the turbine direction.
By GabbyB
#20699
Yes, really big aquariums with hundreds of gallons of water to change always use pumps to do it, but they are moving water from giant water tanks (or the ocean), so the pumps are submerged, not a problem.
A hobbyist is moving water from the 5-gallon containers most of us use, and the mouth of the container is too small to get a pump in there. Hence the need for a pump that can operate outside of the water.....that's what I want to see designed.
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