Back from hiatus- First time homeowner- Whole house water change system

[mudbuttjones]

Those float switches look nice. I live pretty close to fleetfarm and tractor supply. I'll give those a look.

I do like keeping the pressure off the tubing. I've got some ran through the walls and i would hate to have it burst. I only run them with one side open. I always shut them off at the tap, not the tank side, if that makes sense.

My water pressure is absolutely ludicrous. I have a 1" feed from the steet. I can fill my tanks almost as fast as i can empty them. The maifold comes right off the main cold supply and the water heater. I had one of the washing machine hoses separate internally and ballon out. Thankfully it didn't burst. I replaced it with a braided stainless steel line. Piece of junk only lasted a couple weeks.

 

[ragin_cajun]

Float switches...ya know, they're never real elelgant. Big, kinda don't fit right, etc. It just seems to me, somewhere, somebody has something that fits over the end of a piece of PVC pipe. A special kinda collar that lets water come out of the end of the PVC pipe until the water level reaches the end of the PVC and cuts it off. Maybe some kinda pressure differential thing that just barely keeps the end of the PVC open to let water out until water level in the tank reaches it--then it shuts it off. Just a little sleeve that fits over a 1 inch PVC pipe?

Know what I mean? Somebody's GOTTA make one somewhere.

 

[axs377]

Congrats on the new home! Nice plumbing rig.

 

[davenmandy]

I missed your threads bro, good to have you back.

 

[mudbuttjones]

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen.

Here's some aquarium related shots of the new house.

The 90g behemoth that used to dwarf the kitchen in my apartment, totally looks small in my dining room now. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...-sump-on-the-cheap-ballin-on-a-budget.588872/ Square footage is super cheap in the Midwest. I went from a 615sqft apartment to 1568sqft (with an additional unfinished 680sqft downstairs)





My 40b. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...-canister-filters-40b-superthread-56k.608033/

It looks great in the living room. The wife used to relentlessly complain about how much room my tanks took up. Now i think she's glad she doesn't have to worry about filling and decorating so much space. I was thinking of pushing the envelope and getting some big tanks upstairs, lord knows the true 2x8's 12" on center capped with 1x6" diagonal floor boards could handle it.... but I'm enjoying the spousal harmony. Lol.



http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/this-is-how-you-setup-a-canister.645945/
My 75 which is currently housing an Oscar, 2 jack Dempseys and a 2" convict. I consolodated some tanks during the move. Aggression is pretty mild, and I'm doing fin level changes 3x a week. And fret not, it's filtered with 2x fluval 406's and a sunsun 304b. (Totaling 3000g biomax and 1 gal [4L] of seachem matrix) nitrates have been staying well below 20ppm so far.

The struggle i have now is determining what to cram into the basement to adequately house these larger cichlids. The LFS was having a blowout sale and selling tanks at cost INCLUDING special orders. I could've nabbed a 180g AGA tank for about $300 or a 125 for $210. Well first i decided to have a few drinks and fabricate a crude 6x2x2 box to see if it was possible to get a 180g down my depression era stairwell.

(The boxes are from work, nobody eats that many pretzels) not a chance in hell. Literally impossible. The mock up didn't fit. And it didn't weigh 330lbs. So now I'm starting planning on a plywood/steel pond liner build or an all glass build since there is a glass shop 2 blocks down the steet. I'm thinking a 6x3x2 with a full bar built in front of it.

Which leads me to my workshop space.


The sad before and after from the storage unit under my apartment.





A definite work in progress but i am satisfied none the less. I'm working on a 3x3x3 fully ventilated steel welding booth with a 600cfm blower on 6" duct leading directly outside. Just working on the fireproofing (which isn't difficult in an unfinished basement) and running a dedicated 20amp circuit for my 140 amp mig welder.

Thanks for watching. Stay tuned

 

[HumanBean]

Hey whats up guys. Haven't been on here in ages. I just got done with an ardous move. I bought a house and managed to plumb up all my tanks for convenient water changes.

Here's an old thread of how I did it at the apartment.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...g-tools-im-not-messing-around-anymore.604730/

View attachment 1144554

I bought brand new utility sink and installed it. The house was built in 1920. All of the plumbing has been replaced with copper or pex, however there was a small section of ancient galvanized pipe that supplies the washing machine and the garden hose outside. There were two washing machine hookups so i elected to use the one not in use to fabricate my faucet and manifold. The pipe was too old to get a wrench on so i just used washing machine hoses. I figure this way it's not permanent and i don't have to worry about plumbing codes. And it can be easily disconnected if i ever have to have some kind of home inspection.

View attachment 1144555

The sink is right over a 4" floor drain and can handle all 3 tanks draining at once, about 2000gph, however I'm not coordinated to babysit all three so i usually do them one or two at a time.

A lot of people will ask why I didn't just do a drip system? Well I don't want to deal with dosing pumps or filter blocks. This is a fairly hands off system but it allows me to still spend time with the tanks and keep me from getting complacent.

I basically flip one switch to drain and another to refill. I can do it all with an infant in one arm. Lol

View attachment 1144556
Basically the pvc manifold has a bypass valve so it can be operated independently of the faucet. I can either use it like a normal sink or use it to fill my tanks. Also all the valves can be turned open and i can run the faucet to pull all the water out of the lines so they are empty between water changes. There is a supply line that runs to each tank and a drain line which runs to the large 1.5" pvc pipe on the left side of the sink. The tanks upstairs drain into this and the water flows into the tub of the sink and to the floor drain. I actually "fished" braided vinyl tubing (supply) and 5/8" garden hose (drain) up through the walls and behind each tank.

If anyone wants a more detailed explanation i can post more pics.

Congratulations on your home.
Welcome back
It's pretty neat system you got there. Amazing.

Please upload more pics thanks

 

[mudbuttjones]

For my 40 in the living room i ran about 50 feet of hose each way. This was the hardest one to hook up. I used 1/2" reinforced braided vinyl tubing for the supply and 5/8" garden hose for the drain. This time of year garden hoses are dirt cheap, maybe $20 per 100 ft or about 5 times cheaper than vinyl tubing.

I had to cut out a section of the hvac ductwork to find my spot where this came up between the walls behind my tanks. This was a major headache. Spacial relation skills aren't always my strong suit. Half the time i have no idea whats going on when i run plumbing or wiring between floors lol


I popped the baseboard off and cut into the lathe and plaster some. I was forced to use the 16" space between studs shared with the romex wiring. The bends were too tight and required elbows to prevent kinking. The floor and horizontal stud were very thick. I used a 7/8" and 3/4" speedboar drill bits, about 12" long.


Conveniently the previous owners butchered the baseboard here and scrwewed an outlet plate with coaxial and ethernet jacks. They must've been less persistent than me, because there was nothing hooked up to it. Haha


I posted a link in a previous reply to this tank. I drilled it for a pair of 3/4" bulkheads that feed a manifold for draining the tank as well as two canisters. It's just a flip of both ballvalves there and there's water headed downstairs.



There is a bin that slides under the stand that holds the refill hose. I was going to just hang a small nozzle over the back of the tank, but the water pressure was too great and would destroy my plants. So i made this large diffuser. Its a piece of pvc drilled with a bunch of 3/16" holes and wrapped in nylon mesh.


That's all i have time for now. I'll toss up some more pics after work

 

[mudbuttjones]

My 75 has 2 fluval 406's under the stand and a sunsun 304b between it and the wall.

The 75 sits in what used to be a couple thousand gallon cistern. ( For those of you who didnt grow up in the 1890's, a cistern is a large basin that collects rain water, it usually also had a gravel floor which allowed ground water to seep up into it. There is a tap near the floor drain, and an overflow that leads to the drain aswell. People used to use this water for washing clothes, watering gardens, and giving to small children so they could die of polio, dysentery or cholera) What remains near the floor is a 95 year old pipe which was the drain or faucet for the cistern. I tapped into these century old rusty threads so I could drain the 75 through the wall and into the floor drain.


I made this cool double valve setup. The bypass can be opened and the top valve shut to drain the tank using the canister. Done in the reverse order and it goes back to a closed loop within the tank.


The refilling hose is connected to a piece of 1/2" pvc that's attatched to the plastic strip of the lid and sandwiched with a male and female threaded connector.

Look at that water pressure Gee Wiz!

 

[mudbuttjones]

Sorry about the Double pictures. I cant figure out why on mobile. I only see one of each embedded in the reply

 

[Woefulrelic]

Sick setup dude. I foresee sumps in your future.