Auto water changer idea - Calling all gurus

[jcardona1]

What is below your living room? Unless you have a ranch, you can drill a hole on the floor and run it to the sink, depending where your sink is.

I am thinking of doing the same thing for my system.

Thick concrete slab, and the ground Single story home, concrete foundation

 

[jcardona1]

This is a different approach, I've been using this setup for about a year and it seems foolproof.

First, set up a float valve on your sump at the desired level. I have a through-wall float valve, or you can buy one of these - http://www.petsolutions.com/storefr...shopps-float-valve/prodEShoppsFloatValve.html - , or you could DIY one using a toilet valve.

Next, set up a small pump on a digital timer to eject wastewater. If the drain you are dumping into is above the level of the sump, no problem. If it is below the level of the sump you will need an air gap to keep from siphoning your sump after the pump shuts off. You can either use your carbon filtration and line pressure to to the float valve, or you can hook the float valve to a reservoir of conditioned water.

My setup pumps 2GPH. I have it set to eject 12 gallons 6x daily, but you can tailor it to whatever level of water change you wish.

The advantages are:

It's cheap - the whole setup costs less than an ATO.
If a pump fails it won't flood your house (the sump pump setup WILL).
No drip emitters to clog.
Easily adjustable to whatever level of water change you want.
Very little chance for leaks.
Your drain can be as far away as you like.
Drain plumbing does not have to be graded.

Think it through yourself, I believe this method is superior to drip systems in almost every way. If you are concerned about changing out water in a "chunk" rather than continuously (it makes little difference in my mind) you could use a repeat-cycle timer rather than the standard cheap electronic timer, but that will add cost.

Thanks for the input, I like the idea. I get how the drain works, but how do you have it set up to add water to the tank? Got a thread with pictures?

 

[DaveB]

So where will you ultimately be pumping the waste water to? And how will you run the plumbing to it stealthily?

Even in a single story house I'd think you'd be able to plumb it outside to let gravity drain it just as easily as the plumbing for this.

(I don't know your house, though, obviously.)

 

[Dan F]

Thanks for the input, I like the idea. I get how the drain works, but how do you have it set up to add water to the tank? Got a thread with pictures?

The float valve is attached to the house water supply. After the pump ejects the water the float valve will fill it back to the normal level.

I do have a thread with pix, but looking at it they're not great pix...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=309707

I can fill you in more later, I'm kind of at work...

 

[dmopar74]

i like chompers idea when gravity is not an option- http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55152&highlight=chompers+pump

does your living room tank not have access to an outside wall? one(or a few if needed) well placed wall plates would cover your tracks if you move and allow gravity drain.

 

[Dan F]

i like chompers idea when gravity is not an option- http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55152&highlight=chompers+pump

does your living room tank not have access to an outside wall? one(or a few if needed) well placed wall plates would cover your tracks if you move and allow gravity drain.

It is a nice setup, until the sump pump fails. I have had two different models of sump pump die on me over the years. Luckily they were under the floor, so it just made a bit of a mess in the crawl-space. It may be because they were cheap (around $100 cheap ) sump pumps from Home Depot. I would never do something like this in a finished space, as I just don't trust those float switches.

 

[WckedMidas]

a standard sump pump would work moves alot of watter. can be picked up for under 100 bucks at harbour fright tools. or for under 200 at homedepot for name brand one.

 

[jcardona1]

The float valve is attached to the house water supply. After the pump ejects the water the float valve will fill it back to the normal level.

I do have a thread with pix, but looking at it they're not great pix...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=309707

I can fill you in more later, I'm kind of at work...

Cool, thanks for the link. So let me see if I understand this correctly:

- The pump is on a timer, which you have set to turn on periodically.
- As the pump is draining water, the float valve is adding water back in.
- The float valve stops adding water after the pump has turned off and reaches the set water level.
​

Now here's my questions

- Are you draining and refilling from the sump? Wouldn't that mean that you could be draining a lot of the clean water, and not necessarily the old dirty water?

- It would seem like you need a very large sump for this, right? Because if I have a smaller sump, wouldn't it be more difficult to tune this so I don't drain too much water and cause my system to run dry?
​

I really like the idea, because theres' no risk of flooding anything. If the power goes out, there's no risk of having the water still running. My only concern would be the size of the sump required. Also, how reliable do you think those float valves are? Have you had any problems with them? I guess I'd be worried about them getting stuck and not refilling the tank, causing your system to run dry.

 

[Dan F]

Cool, thanks for the link. So let me see if I understand this correctly:

- The pump is on a timer, which you have set to turn on periodically.
- As the pump is draining water, the float valve is adding water back in.
- The float valve stops adding water after the pump has turned off and reaches the set water level.
​

Now here's my questions

- Are you draining and refilling from the sump? Wouldn't that mean that you could be draining a lot of the clean water, and not necessarily the old dirty water?

- It would seem like you need a very large sump for this, right? Because if I have a smaller sump, wouldn't it be more difficult to tune this so I don't drain too much water and cause my system to run dry?
​

I really like the idea, because theres' no risk of flooding anything. If the power goes out, there's no risk of having the water still running. My only concern would be the size of the sump required. Also, how reliable do you think those float valves are? Have you had any problems with them? I guess I'd be worried about them getting stuck and not refilling the tank, causing your system to run dry.

You are correct.

In my system the pump is an old powerhead. which works fine, as it only has to pump the water up about 18". When I first hooked it up I "calibrated" the system by measuring flow - I held the end of the waste line over a marked bucket at the same height as the sewer line it was dumping into, and then timed it to calculate GPM.

Once you know the flow (I would recommend keeping it low, 1-2 GPM) you can set the time in one minute intervals. If you are worried about draining the sump, the lower the flow (you could always throttle it down with a valve) the more precise control you will have as to how much water you're removing. If you want the ultimate in precision, look into repeat cycle timers.

It is draining and filling at the same time. I really don't think it makes as big of a difference as most people think. If you are removing/replacing water at a rate of 1GPM and you have 20GPM flowing through the sump, the incoming fresh water is being dispersed quickly enough that you won't be dumping very much fresh water at all.

I have been using the same Kent Marine float valve - http://www.petsolutions.com/storefr...ump-floating-valve/prodSumpFloatingValve.html - on my sump for twelve years (the first six in salt water) and it has never given me any problems.