Water change tower issues

C

chrisrush

Premium Member
I have a question. Anyone got any ideas?

I have a very similar water change setup to you, with the FW on top and the SW in the middle.

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The problem is that in order to get the SW into the container, I need to utilize some sort of hose. Right now I have been using this:

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Left pipe that runs into the container.

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But it doesn't drain well and dry salt won't work very well, which means that I need to add water to the salt and that makes a mess.

Got any ideas?
 
Do you have a vent open on the top? That can cause it to slow drain as its trying to suck air. Also is your salt on the top or the bottom? The bottom is not very high off the floor to allow gravity to push it far.

As far as mixing salt do you have a pump inside the container? That would help mix the salt. If you have a hole in the top you could dump salt there and let the pump stir it up.
 
@mmiller40 wrote:
Do you have a vent open on the top? That can cause it to slow drain as its trying to suck air. Also is your salt on the top or the bottom? The bottom is not very high off the floor to allow gravity to push it far. As far as mixing salt do you have a pump inside the container? That would help mix the salt. If you have a hole in the top you could dump salt there and let the pump stir it up. said:
Bottom container has a pump to mix the salt and to distribute it. FW is on top and gravity feeds into the SW container and for top-off water.

I may end up drilling for a uni-seal on the front of the bottom container and put the funnel there. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the drain issues.
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I think I'd put the freshwater in the bottom container, and pump it up to the top container to make your next batch of saltwater. That way you'll have easier access to add salt via the big access port.
 
@Marc wrote:
I think I'd put the freshwater in the bottom container said:
I thought about that as well, but then I'd have to lift the salt 6'+ in the air over a frag tank and that didn't sound to appeasing to me.
Click to expand...
 
It seems you are running out of cool options. I have to lift six bags up 7.5' to pour into my 265g poly tank, and that happens six times a year. Fortunately, the ladder and walkboard make it easy.
 
Where your fresh water tank sits cut a window in the plywood and put the pipe through there should flow more easily since it will be vertical


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I think water changes would be easier...

On a serious note. I see no problem with managing nutrient export without water changes. What concerns me is the depletion of trace elements needed by corals and the accumulation of trace elements harmful to corals. Water changes help keep the concentrations of elements in our tanks closer to NSW, correct any ionic imbalance from dosing, and dilute undesirable impurities added from food or dosing. It is possible none of these issues will effect your tank but I would be prepared in case they do. Good luck.
 
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