I'm trying to come up with a water change solution that works for me and I need a little help. By "best" I mean a system that is robust and virtually overflow/leak proof. Is not bulky and can be concealed in a finished space. And is flexible enough that I can add and remove aquariums without a major overhaul.
Draining is the easy part. I can drill the tanks and add bulkheads. The tanks will contain three bulkheads in total . 1) One at the 50% water change mark. 2) One at the 20% water change mark. And finally, a hole at the top of the tank to function as a overflow. The overflow would stay open at all times and prevent the tanks from overfilling. I know three holes is a little excessive, but this would allow me to run a simple drain and fill system as well as a drip system should I need to go fully automatic in the future.
For returning the water, I want to use a storage vessel for the water change water. I have chloramines and I do not want to deal with the added cost of filtering out the chloramines. If I use a vessel, I can just add prime. Secondly, I can keep this container in a utility closest away from the main tanks.
Here is where I need some help:
Finally, the number of tanks to have is still something I have not narrowed down. Hence hoping I can come up with something that is flexible. No matter what, I expect the bulk of my tanks to be either 120g or 180g tanks because I enjoy community tanks. I would like to have a small section of 20g long tanks for breeding/raising fry. But these would not be ran all of the time.
Can I get thoughts and opinions on this? Is there an easier way to accomplish what I am trying to do?
Draining is the easy part. I can drill the tanks and add bulkheads. The tanks will contain three bulkheads in total . 1) One at the 50% water change mark. 2) One at the 20% water change mark. And finally, a hole at the top of the tank to function as a overflow. The overflow would stay open at all times and prevent the tanks from overfilling. I know three holes is a little excessive, but this would allow me to run a simple drain and fill system as well as a drip system should I need to go fully automatic in the future.
For returning the water, I want to use a storage vessel for the water change water. I have chloramines and I do not want to deal with the added cost of filtering out the chloramines. If I use a vessel, I can just add prime. Secondly, I can keep this container in a utility closest away from the main tanks.
Here is where I need some help:
- If I use a pump to return water to the aquariums. Could I use drip emitters to return water relatively evenly across multiple tanks? The emitters need not be precise, since each tank will have an overflow to prevent overfilling. I could just walk away and let the emitters run until the tanks fill completely.
- What type of sensor/switch would work to turn the pump off to prevent it from running dry?
- What options do I have to automate and or overflow proof the process of filling up my water change storage vessel? The container is most likely going to be in the 2-300 gallon range. So filling it up will take some time. I know I'll be stupid enough to walk away when refilling it and completely forget about it.
- Added information: I do not want to automate the action of adding prime to the water storage vessel. I don't want to fiddle with dosing pumps or always worry about it failing.
Finally, the number of tanks to have is still something I have not narrowed down. Hence hoping I can come up with something that is flexible. No matter what, I expect the bulk of my tanks to be either 120g or 180g tanks because I enjoy community tanks. I would like to have a small section of 20g long tanks for breeding/raising fry. But these would not be ran all of the time.
Can I get thoughts and opinions on this? Is there an easier way to accomplish what I am trying to do?