I think that is quite simple to take out the water.

Can suck out the majority of water with hose and the remaining and be taken out by sponge/cloth. Take a big bunch of old clothes and dump it in. It'll dry out the remaining water very quickly. even if some left behind, it should be ok. after use, rinse it with tap water. Maybe, can dry it by hanging on the fence behind the house. Sunlight and rain will kill whatever left behind and good for the next use. I've actually done that for my initial setup some time ago. Only few minutes extra of work. Easy jup!

Another tip, if you want to take out more water, tilt the tank a little by using some means of shim (thin wood, left over styrofoam, etc). You can leave the shim the permanently, no problem.

Sometimes we need to be flexible with the so called "rules of thumb".. for example.

- If water too hot, we can put shades or styrofoam or use fan.
- If rain kacau, put cover.
- If not enough sunlight, use metal halide.
- If water too cold, use heater.
- If temperature fluctation a lot, use styrofoam to stabilise the temperature
- If poor oxygen exchange, use fan

There'll be definately some hurdle with the setting up against our living place. But we can use something to overcome the constrain like the above mentioned examples.

__________________
Japanese Ranchu is another ball game