Alx Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Thinking of doing continuous water changes at a rate of 3-4% per day. Set over 3-4 doses in a 24h period. Anyone do this and what are people's views on this method? Quote Link to comment
MSunkin23 Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Hi Alx, What is the goal of doing this? - As far as waste reduction this would not yield much benefits over doing a weekly 20% change. 3% each day is about the same amount of water as a 20% change (3*7=21) As you can see below, both methods will bring your nitrate (example) from 10ppm to ~8ppm. Quote Link to comment
specore Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 8 minutes ago, MSunkin23 said: Hi Alx, What is the goal of doing this? - As far as waste reduction this would not yield much benefits over doing a weekly 20% change. 3% each day is about the same amount of water as a 20% change (3*7=21) As you can see below, both methods will bring your nitrate (example) from 10ppm to ~8ppm. I think the "goal" is just that the process would be automated, but equipment for automatic water changes isn't up to the task of changing 20% at once. For me the biggest drawback would be losing the ability to stir up and remove detritus the way I can when manually siphoning. Quote Link to comment
Alx Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 8 minutes ago, specore said: I think the "goal" is just that the process would be automated, but equipment for automatic water changes isn't up to the task of changing 20% at once. For me the biggest drawback would be losing the ability to stir up and remove detritus the way I can when manually siphoning. Yes, just one less thing to worry about. I would still do siphoning water changes when needed but I thought at least I've got some water changes in the bag and everything else is an extra. My pico is only 5L with displacement so I guess I'd only be doing under 200ml per day. 18 minutes ago, MSunkin23 said: Hi Alx, What is the goal of doing this? - As far as waste reduction this would not yield much benefits over doing a weekly 20% change. 3% each day is about the same amount of water as a 20% change (3*7=21) As you can see below, both methods will bring your nitrate (example) from 10ppm to ~8ppm. Thank you for the diagram. I might do 30% per week. I just want stability and thought this was a simple way of helping that. I have a cabinet with loads of room so I may as well use the space to help the tank. Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 With a pico like that, seems like you could just use something to do a quick daily WC by scooping some water out then adding some back in... I’m sure you’d still want to turkey baste and stir or siphon your sand on a regular basis though. I think I’d prefer that to automatic because I would think that maintenance on the water changer would be more work. But... take my input for what it’s worth, as I’ve never had a pico. Quote Link to comment
specore Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 23 minutes ago, banasophia said: With a pico like that, seems like you could just use something to do a quick daily WC by scooping some water out then adding some back in... I’m sure you’d still want to turkey baste and stir or siphon your sand on a regular basis though. I think I’d prefer that to automatic because I would think that maintenance on the water changer would be more work. But... take my input for what it’s worth, as I’ve never had a pico. lol...probably so. 200ml is like 1 cup a day 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment
Sjadet Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 You can hook up a dosing pump draining water from your tank into a waste bin, then using another channel to dose the same amount from a freshly mixed bucket into the tank. Quote Link to comment
MSunkin23 Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 Ahh, Diddnt know it was a pico. I guess I can see the benefit of doing daily water changes in that case because each change would be very simple. If the goal is to automate it completely could be a really cool concept tank! Personally, I hate to rely too much on automation. Elon Musk over automated his Tesla facility in Fremont, CA, caused some delays and too much reliance on inflexible processes. Was interesting to hear his take on how humans are underrated. https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/13/elon-musk-says-humans-are-underrated-calls-teslas-excessive-automation-a-mistake/ Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 If your main goal for water changes is to clean the tank, then auto doesn't help anything much. If your main goal for water changes is chemical/elemental stability for corals, then automating is good. Quote Link to comment
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