As far as the tubing goes, make sure to run the end of tubing under hot water prior to trying to get it onto the auto siphon to make it fit on more easily. You also should not need that much for the run between bottle filler and bucket spigot: I cut a piece about 2-3 inches off the larger tubing to fit in here. With this small piece of tubing, I push it onto the spigot almost as far as it will go, secure with plastic clamp and insert the bottle filler onto the other end, securing the same way. I try to leave as little empty tubing as possible, while still leaving enough for bottling to be simple sitting next to the bucket. Just a couple items I picked up here on the forum, YMMV