Auto water change plans

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Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2008
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Thailand
I'm pretty sure this topic is one which is covered a lot. I have used the search function, and there is some interesting information to be read, so thanks to previous posters.
What i'm really after is some drawings of how to make an auto water change system. I need simple to understand stuff though. If anyone has any I'd really appreciate it if you can share, or if anyone has posted anything like that before please provide a link.

I've go a basic understanding of what to do, but i want to formulate a proper plan which i can then put into action.
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
I have a trickle system that has to be the simplest period.

Basically I trickle 1 gallon an hour into my tank and one gallon an hour overflows out a hole in the side of my sump.

Thats 24 gallons a day 168 gallons a week. This is a very small amount of water over a long period. Zero stress on the fish. I have a over flow pipe in my sump. This is a hole drilled in the side of my sump at a specific water level. This pipe goes to my yard and waters my plants.

1) No moving parts, timers, valves to fail.
2) Simple adjustments. I slightly increase flow if ammonia starts creeping up the chart. I check monthly, no big deal, I never had my ammonia higher than the lowest level on the chart.
3) Free water, at least thats what I tell my self. I was going to water the plants anyway so I now water the fish tank. Fishy water goes to the plants and they love it!
4) I haven't done a water change in two years now, forgot what that was like :D
 
OK, that sounds interesting. How to you regulate the water going into the tank? I suppose if you wanted, you could fit a filter for water in.
 
Hose bib type valve regulates the water, just like something on the outside of the house. I think the details are in my 450 thread. Some guys filter the incoming water, I don't. When I do this again for my fish room I'm going to use PEX line instead of coper pipe.
 
Our house uses PEX line throughout and we have an RO system and I've considered trying to find a way to do this same thing but I don't have an overflow, sump or wet/dry system. I use a Fluval 305 and two in-tank sponge filters. I just did another water change today and now that I'm up to an 80gal tank it's become more of a chose to do the weekly water changes. Not the least of which is the fact that our RO tank is only 3gal and that's cut to about 2.5gal of actual water since it's a pressurized tank so I have TONs of 1gal milk jugs stacked up in the kitchen/dining room for a couple days afterwards since I can only fill 2 jugs at a time. Then it takes another hour or two to fill two more. It would be REAL nice if I could have a system that automatically trickle in this water at all hours day and night and then eliminate the tank water at the same time. I too use my tank water to feed trees & plants and they all love it. If I can have this dump into a tank in my garage or something (the tank is against a wall that is shared with my garage) for use for my plants that would be ideal. I'm just not sure how I can complete this easiest w/my current setup.
 
Jer;5151377; said:
Our house uses PEX line throughout and we have an RO system and I've considered trying to find a way to do this same thing but I don't have an overflow, sump or wet/dry system. I use a Fluval 305 and two in-tank sponge filters. I just did another water change today and now that I'm up to an 80gal tank it's become more of a chose to do the weekly water changes. Not the least of which is the fact that our RO tank is only 3gal and that's cut to about 2.5gal of actual water since it's a pressurized tank so I have TONs of 1gal milk jugs stacked up in the kitchen/dining room for a couple days afterwards since I can only fill 2 jugs at a time. Then it takes another hour or two to fill two more. It would be REAL nice if I could have a system that automatically trickle in this water at all hours day and night and then eliminate the tank water at the same time. I too use my tank water to feed trees & plants and they all love it. If I can have this dump into a tank in my garage or something (the tank is against a wall that is shared with my garage) for use for my plants that would be ideal. I'm just not sure how I can complete this easiest w/my current setup.
Click to expand...

I think your only option is to drill a hole in your tank and put an overflow pipe in at whatever height you want the water at. I would drill the hole below the current water’s surface then put a bulkhead with a 90 elbow, from the elbow set the actual waters height with a straight piece of PVC. Then run your pex supply line to the top of the tank as far away from the overflow hole you drilled so you’re not running the clean water right out to the yard. If your tank is acrylic this would be easy. I've drilled acrylic tanks with the fish still in the tank.
 
Egon;5151454; said:
I think your only option is to drill a hole in your tank and put an overflow pipe in at whatever height you want the water at. I would drill the hole below the current water’s surface then put a bulkhead with a 90 elbow, from the elbow set the actual waters height with a straight piece of PVC. Then run your pex supply line to the top of the tank as far away from the overflow hole you drilled so you’re not running the clean water right out to the yard. If your tank is acrylic this would be easy. I've drilled acrylic tanks with the fish still in the tank.
Click to expand...

It's glass.

I can run the new water line and adjust the valve to drip slowly so I'm not as worried about this aspect as I am the removal of water. Seems this is the more important aspect and drilling my tank isn't going to be an option. Is there a way I can add some sort of a valve to my canister filter setup? Either to the canister, supply or return line or maybe somewhere I'm not thinking of? Since the pressure is on the return line on a 305 maybe I could cut the line and add some sort of a small valve to that and bleed off a couple drops here and there from the pressure of the return? Ideally it would be before the filters but this isn't as large of a concern. I suppose I could also add some sort of a pump with vacuum line to the tank to eliminate the old water but I'm drawing a blank on the best way to go about this.
 
Jer;5151473; said:
It's glass.

I can run the new water line and adjust the valve to drip slowly so I'm not as worried about this aspect as I am the removal of water. Seems this is the more important aspect and drilling my tank isn't going to be an option. Is there a way I can add some sort of a valve to my canister filter setup? Either to the canister, supply or return line or maybe somewhere I'm not thinking of? Since the pressure is on the return line on a 305 maybe I could cut the line and add some sort of a small valve to that and bleed off a couple drops here and there from the pressure of the return? Ideally it would be before the filters but this isn't as large of a concern. I suppose I could also add some sort of a pump with vacuum line to the tank to eliminate the old water but I'm drawing a blank on the best way to go about this.
Click to expand...
just build a DIY overflow out of 1/2" pipe, works great.
 
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