Auto Water Change System - How Much to Change?

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appleton71

appleton71

Exodon
MFK Member
Mar 13, 2018
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Appleton, WI
I'm starting work on an automatic water change system for my setup and I'm wondering how much water to change on a daily basis. I know some will say that you can't change too much but at some point it's just wasting water when you're not having much affect on parameters.

I have a 125 gallon display with a 75 gallon sump for an estimated 150 - 160 gallons total water. I currently do a 52 gallon water change weekly (draining the sump) and my nitrates have always been in the 20 - 30 ppm range. For stocking I've got one 10" Oscar, a 7" Blood Parrot and a 5" L-034 Pleco. I'm thinking about having the system do 2 to 3 five gallon changes per day. It's going to be done with a pump and an ATO vs a continuous stream in and out.
 
Those fish are highly adaptable so I would do 2x 65-70 a week. If your wanting daily I would do 25g per day which would be the same as running a 1gph drip over 24 hrs.

How are you going to treat your water? Dosing valve? Carbon filter? Do you have chloramine?
 
I have a RKE system with dosing pumps which I haven't been taking full advantage of. I also have a Tunze ATO so all I really need to do is feed the ATO reservoir and set up a drain pump.

My plans are to tap into my water line and have it feed into the ATO reservoir. The level will be controlled with a RODI type float valve. The RKE will dose Prime into the reservoir. At set times a pump will run in the sump to drain about 5 gallons of water at which time the ATO will be switched off so they aren't fighting each other. A solenoid valve will be used in conjunction with the pump to prevent syphoning when the pump is off. The pump will switch off, solenoid valve closed and ATO switched back on.

I'm lucky enough to have a basement sump so my water supply and drain are right there.

IMG_20171005_153311418.jpg
 
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PYRU said:
Sounds like you have a plan. I would up my wc's to get the nitrates down though.

How are you going to get your temp right?

Here's a link to an auto wc system I had on my watch list from awhile back you might like.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...hanges-suck-heres-my-automated-system.500155/
Click to expand...

Given the volumes that I'm dealing with I'm not concerned about the temp. If it does become a problem I have an extra heater that I can throw in the ATO reservoir.

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a read.
 
Oh ok. I wasn't sure how roughly 5g every 5hrs would affect the temp.
 
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