See how lazy Vaughn really is?

It takes years to learn how to be that lazy
You can jump right to that stage asap.

I typically have the tank pre drilled when I buy them.
I have generally 3-4 holes in any tank on the bottom.
2 are for the overflow drain and return.
I use the ball lok pipe for my return.

The other 1-2 drains I use a rainbow plastics screen and these bulkheads are placed away from the over flow. These are the actual drains for the tank. 2 is ideal for larger tanks. The screen prevents fish from being drained.

One of the drains is about 8-12" up, the other is very low, 1-2 " up from the bottom, or uses a stand pipe to keep it right at the gravel level to keep gravel from being sucked in when draining.

For big drain jobs, the lower one is used, for smaller jobs and normal routines, fish loads, they need more water, so the upper one is used.

These drains are connected to a cansister filter, these are sealed filters, if you want mechanical filtration, Ocean clears are good etc or smaller Ehiems/Via Aqua and Magnums etc.

On the drain intake side of the these filters, you add a Tee and a valve. The valve is your drain and the closed valve sends the water to the filter otherwise.

You can add a solenoid (say a 1/4") to this junction (I'd still install a valve for manual work etc!) and place it on a timer to drain the tank through this small line for say 2 hours 2-3x a week.

The refill can use a small vertical electronic float switch like spectrapure makes which can sit inside the tank or sump.

As the water drains slowly, the float valve turns on and refills the tank automatically.

Note: use small slow flows for this, if the drain is too fast, the tank will empty!
If the refill cannot make up or you run the sump dry etc, that can cause issues also.

Main thing is to do the automated stuff slowly when it comes to flow/drain rates.

With semi automated, manual valve turning for fill/drains is the best option, then you should go huge/large pipe diameters.
So that's the trade off there.

Safety is huge, so do not get any crazy ideas to drain the tank fast and refilll on an automated system.

You can be there for those events, but the slow exchange can be done easily on a timed system.

And with the timers, you can do this 2-3-5x a week, 1-2-3-4 hours etc, whatever you want.

So if you use EI, the levels are much lower in the build up and that allows you even better control without much difference in work/labor.

The long term results are: very good fish health and plant health, high optical clarity, clean tanks, no disease, ability to keep huge fish loads*(why do discus folks do large frequent water changes when they feed like crazy?) and so on.

The utility far outweighes the inconveinence. But you can get around most of the labor with a few simple plumbing tricks.

How many of you use a toilet? Do you refill it with buckets?
Why would a large tank be any different?

Regards,
Tom Barr