Thoughts

G

Grimreefer

I have been thinking and I have an that I want to put out there and see what everyone thinks.

This setup will be on a 120 gallon with a 40 gallon sump.

If I was to set up a holding drum/tank of pre mixed saltwater with the same salinity and temp as my tank, could I set up a double dosing pump at about 1 and 1/2 gallons per day to pump water out of my tank into a waste drain, and have the same rate pumped into my tank from the holding tank of pre mixed water and not have to do water changes. This would come out to be about the equivilent of a 45 gallon (33%) water change every month.

I would still have to run an ATO for evaporation.

Any thoughts or forseen issue?????????????????????
 
They actually have a pump just for that purpose, many people do it and marc is actually looking at doing it in his new tank
 
That would be PERFECT but remember it's not a true 33% water change because the new water gets mixed with the old so it would probably come out to being a 10-15% water change. Anyways; it's probably way better to do that if you can and it's a fantastic idea just set up some kind of switch in case a float switch or timer goes out of whack... And you know it's going to happen (murphy doesn't like fish tanks).
 
I have an continuous/auto water change system setup on my 130G (170 TWV) system. I do 1.5 - 2.0 gpd by pulling from my overflow <u>first </u>then pump fresh SW back into my sump so there is absolutely no mixing and. If I want to do a larger WC then I can pull out then refill 8 gallons total at a time without affecting the operation of the tank and perform this 4 times every 8hrs. I do all functions by time using my Apex controller and use software time limits and a high limit float switch as secondary backup. I can also just turn on the waterchange and let is run for 8hrs for a 30G waterchange but I usually only do this overnight while I'm home, I disable ATO when the system is doing any automated waterchange function and also disable all of this when I travel because as mentioned, Murphy is quite the prankster. [smilie=smile.gif]

Things that can go wrong if using just float switches to control this:

1. A float can stick or malfunction and pump all of the water out of your tank
2. A float can stick or malfunction and overfill your sump/tank
3. A float can stick or malfunction, pump out all of the water while your ATO slowly turns your tank into a freshwater setup

Cheers,
 
@bimmerzs wrote:
I have an continuous/auto water change system setup on my 130G (170 TWV) system. I do 1.5 - 2.0 gpd by pulling from my overflow <u>first </u>then pump fresh SW back into my sump so there is absolutely no mixing and. If I want to do a larger WC then I can pull out then refill 8 gallons total at a time without affecting the operation of the tank and perform this 4 times every 8hrs. I do all functions by time using my Apex controller and use software time limits and a high limit float switch as secondary backup. I can also just turn on the waterchange and let is run for 8hrs for a 30G waterchange but I usually only do this overnight while I'm home said:
This sounds great.

Where do you store the water?

What kind of pumps do you use?

You mention that you don't use float switches - obviously you have to for your ATO, do you not have anymore?

Got any pics?
Click to expand...
 
Here is the pump I was thinking of using.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Litermeter-Beater-2-Channel-Digital-Dosing-Pump-/250728637559?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a60976477
 
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