Just set up my 'Continuous Water Change System'!

[cchardwick]

Will do! I'm tempted to swap out my long tentacle with a bright purple one. I see several of them on Drs Foster Smith that are just awesome!

[mmcguffi]

This is really awesome! Great job. The only thing that would prevent me from setting up a tank like this is noise you mentioned. I like my tanks to be more or less silent.

[cchardwick]

Actually the noise isn't bad at all, in fact you can hardly hear the pump. The fans in the hood of my tank are louder than the pump, but I work in a very quiet environment, sort of like a library. If you built the pump into a stand you wouldn't hear it at all. Sitting in the cubicle the pump is about as loud as the ticking from a grandfather clock across the room, not bad at all, in fact it makes me sleepy LOL.

[glennr1978]

I had a similar system set up on one of my old tanks using a bubble magus triple doser that worked very well. In order to address the top off situation I simply set my controller to turn my ATO off whenever the water changes were performed (on my tank it was every 3 hours).

[cchardwick]

Now if I could just figure out a system to continously replace the water on a 150 gallon. At 0.5 gallons per day it would take a whole year to replace all the water LOL.

[beefus]

Seems like this is over complicated, when compared to maybe take a large empty plastic cup of water out per day and topping off every now and then.

[mmcguffi]

Yea but youre forgetting that it's way cooler

[cchardwick]

Actually I was just thinking about that one the drive home: I could take out a few cups of water out of the tank every few days and that would increase the efficiency of the system. Basically the setup would stop sucking water out of the tank and would slowly drip water into the tank to bring it back to the proper water level, simulating a real water change.

 

But I'm guessing I won't really have to worry about the efficiency of the water change system. Because who in their right mind changes 100% of their water every nine days? Even if it were 30% efficient that's 100% a month, and who replaces that much?

 

The setup may be complicated but maintaining the system isn't. Once a week I pour a few gallons into my new water reservoir and then empty the waste container. Easy as pie. And I'll never have to worry about shock to my system from large water changes, especially because I have very sensitive starfish in the tank that need three hour drip acclimation times when introducing into your tank, hard to do a water change and not affect your inverts.

 

On that note, I did a 10% water change before I installed the system and I immediatly noticed my anemone reacted to the change, even though I tried to match all parameters (temp, salinity, etc.). Never will I have to shock my inverts again with a regular water change.

[Kazooie]

especially because I have very sensitive starfish in the tank

That will die because you have no experience and are naive? Don't have to worry about shocking inverts when you already killed them.

[cchardwick]

That will die because you have no experience and are naive? Don't have to worry about shocking inverts when you already killed them.

 

??????????????????

[cchardwick]

OK, here's an update as promised! It's been six days since I set up my continuous water change system and I just tested the water. Here are the results:

 

Ammonia: 0.0

Nitrite: 0.0

Nitrate: 5ppm (down from 10-15ppm a week ago)

pH: 8.6

Salinity: 1.023

Temp: 78

 

The tank is really doing amazingly well. I can't belive how much growth I've had on the rocks with sponges, fanworms, and all kinds of coraline algae and critters popping up everywhere, the photos just don't do it justice. I finally figured out that my salinity is half a point higher in my tank than in my reservoir. The last water I put in there was 1.0225 and my tank came down to 1.023 (from 1.024). I've never had a reef tank do so well and I'll never have to worry about water quality again!

 

Here are a few photos:

 

 

 

 

[Dr.eclipse]

I just tested the water. Here are the results:

Ammonia: 0.0

Nitrite: 0.0

Nitrate: 5ppm (down from 10-15ppm a week ago)

its not gonna stay like that for long. the nem and 2 clowns are gonna crash you tank. but im sure this has already been stated.

[beefus]

aside from all the other problems mentioned already, I see flow being an issue considering almost half of the inside volume of the tank is covered with rocks piled on each other. I think it would look a lot better with less rock and considering you have a bullet proof plan for dealing with quality issues I can't imagine this will be a problem.

[dasstheboss]

I finally got most of my stuff to set up my continuous water change system which consists of a peristalitc pump and two four gallon reservoirs, one for new saltwater and one for old. I'm testing it out on my 2 gallon Fluval Spec that has my mantis shrimp in it at the moment. So far it seems to be working great. I have it set at the maximum flow, which is 0.5 gallons per day, so it will change all the water in my Fluval Spec every four days, but I don't plan on keeping it on this little tank for more than a few days since I will eventually move it to my 6 gallon nanocube at work.

 

I had one piece of curved airline tubing that I got from Drs Foster Smith, it was part of an acclimation kit that was just a couple bucks. I decided to try to bend some rigid airline tube myself and it was easier than I thought. I just ran a flame under the tube until it became slightly cloudy instead of clear, indicating that it was soft. Then I bent it around a pill bottle and held it in place until it became rigid again. These hook onto my tank for the in and out water flow.

 

I also labeled the new water, old water, in and out lines so I don't confuse them. And I plan on getting some regular flexible airline tubing to replace most of the really thin line that came with the peristaltic pump, mainly because some of it isn't long enough. I plan on putting the two jugs and pump under my cubicle desk and running the two lines (in and out) up to my tank. I'll attach the rigid bent airline tubing with tape on the back of the tank and run them through the electrical cord holes (rubber removed) on the back of the nanocube hood.

 

I plan on cutting the airline tube that sucks water out so it is at a pretty high level in the sump to control the water level and prevent it from lowering from evaporation. If it runs properly, the line will suck up an air bubble or two once in awhile when the water lowers from evaporation. And if the flow isn't balanced, meaning too much water in vs. out, I'm thinking I will have to put a restrictor on one of the flows, but I'm not sure that will be necessary. I'm sure I'll find out after a few days if my water level increases instead of maintains a steady level.

 

I bought the pump and reservoirs on E-bay. The pump is a lot noisier than I thought and I'm thinking I may have to insulate it with some styrofoam to keep the noise down. Here are a couple pics, all of this stuff will be hidden away out of sight and the lines will be run up to my aquarium on my cubicle desktop:

 

 

 

You are wrong, the drip will not change out 0.5 gallons per day, its much less than that. Since you are not taking a cup out and adding a new cup but rather mixing old and new water in the tank, this doesn't do much but dilute the stuff in the water, so you are still looking at maybe 0.5 gallons per week, perhaps less.

[cchardwick]

You are wrong, the drip will not change out 0.5 gallons per day, its much less than that. Since you are not taking a cup out and adding a new cup but rather mixing old and new water in the tank, this doesn't do much but dilute the stuff in the water, so you are still looking at maybe 0.5 gallons per week, perhaps less.

 

Actually, you can calculate a worst case scenario. If the nitrates came down from 15ppm to 5ppm in six days that's actually changing 2/3 of the water (removing 10ppm nitrates), not to mention that the tank is actually producing nitrates at the same time they are being removed, so this is actually changing more water than 2/3. And I'd say a 2/3 water change is more than enought to handle any kind of fish/invert load within reason. So my nitrates should be two thirds of five next week, which is 3.3 ppm, and 2/3 the next week which is 2.22, so on and so forth until they are maintained at virtually zero.

[mad28gnc]

its sad how many haters are on N-R

[beefus]

Actually, I think this is a logic fail. Someone correct me if I am wrong but the nitrates in the water removed would be a fraction of the total water volume? Considering like others have said that it is diluted both incoming and leaving. I am having a hard time understanding why this method while maybe possible is desirable considering the added expense and complexity. It seems like you are using 2 to 3 times the amount of salt needed compared to doing a real water change vs a water dilute method that you are doing.

[bensanders]

lol, this entire thing is a fail. all the fanboys crack me up

[Dolphins18]

You should set it up to were you manually take out like 2 gallons a day and then have the system refill it. But faster than .5 gpd. Idk if that makes sense..

[cchardwick]

its sad how many haters are on N-R

 

Agreed. It's like it's full of people from Brooklyn LOL. Do you know of another similar forum where people are actually civilized?

[paradox_of_reef]

No forum will respond kindly to your stocking habits and treatment of livestock.

[bensanders]

Exactly. Door's that way ------->

[Kazooie]

No forum will respond kindly to your stocking habits and treatment of livestock.

Agreed. He just needs to get to that time in every boy's life when changes happen. Maybe then he will stop endangering animals for the fun of it.

[cchardwick]

I love this thread.

 

 

 

its sad how many haters are on N-R

 

OK, I'm outa here. I'm gonna post my stuff on a real reef website that isn't full of pansies.

[sogreedy23]

Please let me know where you go so I can go there and ignite the flames so everyone there can continue where these threads were going.