- Okay, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna tell you a little secret about my wife.
She doesn't know what a siphon is
or how a siphon works
or how to start a siphon.
No joke, no idea.
But the more embarrassing part
is that eight years ago, before I started this hobby,
I didn't know either.
Ni hao, everybody,
Matthew here at your BRS beginner guru
coming at you with week 24 in the
beginner of how to guide for saltwater aquariums
and reef tanks.
Five ways to start a siphon.
If you missed any of our previous episodes,
one through 23,
we will put a link to the entire playlist below.
But before we jump in
and teach you the five ways to start a siphon,
it's going to be really helpful to understand
what a siphon is
and how a siphon works.
So what is a siphon then?
A siphon is a tube that is used to move water upwards from a
reservoir and then downwards to a lower level all by itself.
So in our hobby,
a siphon is usually a gravel vacuum that is used to move
water upwards from your display tank
over the edge,
and then downwards into a five gallon bucket.
The beauty of a siphon,
and really the miracle of it is that water moves upward
seemingly against gravity without the use of a pump.
So then the question is, how does a siphon work,
if not through witchcraft or wizardry?
Well, lucky for you.
I made this beautiful diagram to explain it.
It all begins by filling the siphon, the tube,
which for us is usually the gravel vac,
completely with water.
Then inserting one end into display tank
and the other end at a lower point on the ground
into a five gallon bucket.
If you look really closely at this diagram,
you'll notice that there are two different sections.
One from the display tank to the top of the siphon,
and one from the top of the siphon
to the bottom of the bucket.
Now, if you take those measurements in this diagram,
from the display tank to the top of the siphon
at the highest point is three and a half inches.
And from that highest point
down into the bucket is seven inches.
What that means is that you have
two separate columns of water.
One column of water is smaller
and it is only three and a half inches.
While the other column of water down to the bucket
is taller, is seven inches.
So if you look at the vertical column of water in the bucket
versus the vertical column of water in your display tank,
the bucket column is a lot taller.
And because of that,
gravity will pull that water down into the bucket.
As it pulls that water down into the bucket,
it sucks up the water from the display tank.
And as long as there is no air in the line,
it will continue draining water until the two levels
are equal or until it runs out of water.
Here we go from easiest to most difficult,
the five ways to start a siphon it
and coming in at number one,
is the mouth method.
The mouth method is probably
the method you've seen the most
and it's the one you see in movies.
When somebody is draining a gas tank
by sticking a tube into the gas tank
and then sucking on it and getting a mouth full of gasoline,
that's the basic method.
But if you do this method right,
and you pay attention to it,
you don't have to get any saltwater in your mouth.
There are obviously two ends to gravel vacuums,
and we're going to refer to the larger end as the vacuum end
and the smaller end as the tube end.
So in order to use the mouth method,
you start by unraveling the gravel vacuum.
You place the larger vacuum end into your display tank,
and you take the smaller tube in
and put it in your mouth.
Then you gently suck in with your mouth
and you watch the water go up the vacuum
and over the apex.
Once the water is over the apex
and starts coming down the tube,
you can pull it out of your mouth
and put your thumb on the edge of the tube.
Then all you got to do is take that tube
and put it down below the water level of the tank
into a five gallon bucket,
release it, and water will start flowing.
This method works totally great.
I've used it for many years and I still use it.
I especially like to use this method
when it's a clean gravel vacuum,
but since I cleaned so many different tanks
after the first use,
it's kind of dirty
and I don't want to put my mouth on it.
So I'll move on to one of the other methods that we'll talk
about here in a sec.
Method number two,
and might even be easier than method number one
is the hand pump method.
I have actually never used one of these.
And this just came in the mail for this video.
Basically what you do is you just use
a hand pump to start the siphon.
Let me just show you how easy it is to do this method.
Since I'm going to do it for the first time right now,
and then you'll probably want to go out and buy one.
This is by the Python brand.
So you can just go to our website and check it out,
just make sure you get the one
that comes with the hand pump.
The hand pump method starts exactly the same
as the mouth method.
And that is by putting the vacuum portion
into the display tank.
Then you take the pump in the other hand.
And I found when practicing this,
that if I hold the pump in a vertical manner,
pointed upwards and not downwards,
It tend to work more.
Then all you do is you pump that hand pump
and you will be able to watch the water
in the gravel vacuum, go up, up, up, up.
Once the water crests over that apex
and starts falling again,
you can put your thumb over the tube end,
lower it down into your five gallon bucket
and the siphon started.
This would probably be my recommended method for you
if you don't have a gravel vacuum yet,
because you're just starting out.
This is just a really good way to start a siphon.
Method number three is the total immersion method.
And I know a lot of hobbyists that use this method.
This is not my favorite method
because you generally have to get both of your hands wet,
but it works really well.
And this method basically means
you take the entire gravel vacuum,
both ends the large vacuum end and the small end
and all of the flexible tubing,
and you submerse it into your display tank.
Then you just play around with it
by moving the tubing up and down
until water fills every section from the vacuum end
to the tubing end, completely filled with water.
Once it's filled with water,
you leave the vacuum portion vertical
in the display tank
and you place your thumb over the tubing version.
As you pull it out and over the edge.
By this point, the tube is completely filled with water.
You take the tubing portion,
put it into your five gallon bucket below your display tank.
And the siphon has started.
Method number four is a little bit more difficult
and I call this, the partial fill method.
How this one works is you take the vacuum portion
and you put it into the display tank.
Then you take the tubing portion
and you put it below the water level
and you put your thumb over the edge.
Now at this point, there is no water in the line.
So what you do is you use the vacuum portion,
almost like a scoop and you scoop up water.
And then you lift that entire portion above the water line.
Then with your other hand,
which is over the tubing portion,
you lower that down into the five gallon bucket
and you release the water.
Now here's the trick.
You have to release some water
so that water will start filling that flexible tubing,
but you can't remove all of the water
from the vacuum portion
because then you're just gonna get air in.
So you have to keep that vacuum portion vertical
and watch as the water goes down
and before the water gets all the way
to the bottom of that vacuum,
you've got to put your thumb immediately back
over the flexible tubing.
Now comes the tricky part.
You take that vacuum portion
and you place it back under the water
and fill up the vacuum again with water.
By this point,
you should have enough water in your flexible tubing,
that if you just turn the vacuum portion over
and let go of the flexible tubing,
the siphon will be started.
And the final method, method number five,
the method that I have been using for years,
I call it the mad skills method,
because it takes a little bit of coordination.
So it might not be right for you first timers out there.
Basically what you do is you take the partial fill method,
but you do it so fast
that you don't have to stop in between.
How this method works
is you start with the gravel vacuum
and you place it in the display tank,
but you place it in there
under the water line but horizontally.
Then you take the flexible tubing
and you hold it down below into your five gallon bucket.
You do not need to put your thumb over it
because water is going to flow
and it's going to keep flowing in this,
but make sure that flexible tubing stays
in the bucket during this process,
because it's so many times it is pulled out
during this process and I've gotten water
all over the floor.
Now here comes the tricky part.
With that flexible tubing and in the bucket,
you have to work fast with the gravel vacuum.
You take that gravel vacuum,
that's sitting horizontally
and you put the open-end
and you tilt it up a little bit, right?
So that way you're almost creating a scoop
like in the partial fill method.
Once the gravel back is full of water,
you lift it up
until water starts flowing over the edge
of your tank and down into the bucket,
it's going to start flowing really fast.
So you have to watch the water in the gravel vac.
Before the water in the gravel vac
gets all the way down to the bottom
and start sucking air in there.
You have to immediately take it
and place it under water,
but here's the trick.
You can't place it under water
with the open side facing down,
because it's going to suck up a whole bunch of air first.
So you have to keep that open side
facing up towards the sky
and re submerse it,
so it fills with water.
If you're successful,
there will be a constant flow of water through that tubing.
Your siphon will be started,
and then you can keep going with your maintenance.
Okay, be honest.
How many of you actually watched all five of these methods?
And how many of you knew that there were five methods?
And do any of you actually use any other methods?
I would be super curious
if you could put a description
or a link in the comments below
for other methods,
so that I can update this in the future.
But I feel like giving you guys five options
for how to start a siphon
is probably gonna be enough.
Okay, that about wraps up episode 24.
You want to practice those five methods
or choose the one that works well for you.
Because next episode,
episode 25 in the beginner of how to guide
for saltwater aquariums and reef tanks
is how to perform a water change.
As always everybody thanks for watching.
Happy reefing,
be well.
And we'll see you next time.