In article ,
"NetMax" wrote:

If I can add to your excellent idea (which only requires everything to be
on the same floor ;~). Is there room on your dolly for a 2nd bucket and
a watering can? That way you can cart over a full &, an empty bucket to
fill during the water change. The watering can gets filled too, for
watering the house plants ;~).

If the gravel-vacuum hose you use will slip over your faucet (simplifies
filling the source pail) and slips over your powerhead, then you can
gravel vac into the empty pail, and then break the suction and move the
hose over to the powerhead to refill the tank. I suggest you invest in
one of these progressive hand clamps with the plastic ends, sold at
hardware stores. They let you clamp the hose to the tank, so you can
easily handle the pail-end of the hose without anything slipping to the
floor (it's like a third hand).

I would also suggest plugging the powerhead in before you start your
gravel vacuuming. The powerhead would harmless stir the water around in
your source pail (a little aeration doesn't hurt), so you don't have to
go near a switch with wet hands. When the gravel vacuuming is complete,
slip the hose end from the waste pail into the powerhead outlet (this is
where you need the clamp holding the other end of the hose in the tank
;~). The water will squirt a bit while you are fitting the hose on, but
at the bottom of a 5 or 6g pail, it shouldn't splash upwards.

If the source pail's water volume is the same (or slightly more) than the
waste pail, then you don't need to rush to disconnect the powerhead's
electrical plug. Let it run dry and as soon as you hear the air, you can
calmly (with dry hands) unplug the power cord :~)

Thanks for the tips! Yes, my dolly board has room for three 5-gal
buckets, and the idea of using vacuum water for the plants is great. I
see what you're saying about using the same hose, but hose is cheap and
having one permanently attached to the vacuum and one permanently
attached to the pump is not a problem. Good to know about letting the
powerhead run dry; already I was wondering if I really needed to
scramble to turn it off before it started sucking air. And I'll
definitely be getting a couple of clamps for the purpose you mention.