Auto Water Change Calculations/Pump Selection

[TexasMFK31]

Hello everyone,

At the bottom I have submitted a link to a simple spreadsheet I have made for calculating the pump times for a simple auto water change system. On the right side of the sheet you select:

Size of tank, days per week to run your pump, 3 different tank percentages, 5 different intervals throughout the day, and lastly the size of pump.

My plan for an auto water change will be with a float valve into my sump (think a toliet), and a pump that removes water from my sump. An electric timer will set the pump to run for X time. It appears a majority of these electric timers will do a smallest interval of 5 minutes but research has been small in these. So, this pump runs for 5 minutes and the level in my sump naturally drops. Once the level drops, a brass/stainless steel float valve will open and filtered water will fill into the sump until the float returns to it's normal operating level. My spreadsheet allows me to see how many gallons I would be removing per interval, and how long I need to run my pump in order to do so. I welcome all critiques, you will need to download to modify it yourself and hope someone finds it useful!

Thanks

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O9bEeom-CZ3_VDJx-mGhlzUJlLLydU_4FEUZzcm_uH0/edit?usp=sharing

 

[millerkid519]

If you are going threw hat much work setting up pump, timer, float switch, and drilling the sump... why not just run a drip

 

[TexasMFK31]

If I run a drip I would need a float switch that then relies on electricity to ensure my sump doesn't overflow. For how I want to do it, I'd need to overflow into a second tank under my display tank, and pump it out after it reached a certain level. My tank isn't going near any wet wall, nor do I have easy access to a drain.

This method ensures that is my water level is good even without power I don't flood the tank. The only thing is during a power outage I wouldn't do my percentage of water change if an interval happened during that time. My thoughts are inspired by jcardona1's system. Setting up a pump and timer will be cake, and drilling a float switch even easier.

I think it comes down to half dozen to one, 6 to another. This is the simplest method for the location of my tank, and in reducing points of failure.

 

[eddiegunks]

millerkid519 im not the op, but i was thinking about doing the same thing and having a drip system.

The drip system would run like all the test, the second system would be my weekly automatic water change.

My plan was to run two floats. One for the fill pump, one for yhe waste pump. I have an indoor pond with the filter(sump) being higher than the pond and i cant drill into the pond for an overflow.

As a failsafe I am keeping my waste pump off the bottom of the pond so I could never pump the entire pond out. And then I'm also having a float switch for high water level that would shut off the freshwater supply if the level got too high because the other pump wasn't working, or so or some other reason. (And i would also shut off the drip as well)