Auto waterchanger heating issues

[rudy]

I am going to do a DIY automatic water changer on my ray tank Essentially this will be an bulkhead with a drain and a cold water tap running into the tank. as the tank and sump will be about 500 gallons I would like to change 25 gallons per day. I am worried about 2 things:

1. Heating the water. What size of heater would suffice to make sure the temp does not dip a ton. Secondly what kind of back up could I use. My fear is that the power goes out for an extended period of time and due to the water changes the water runs cold and kills my rays

2. Cloramines. Currently I do not need to use any water conditioner, on my 50% per week however at certain times of the year I may have to. What can I use?

 

[ercnan]

I am going to do a DIY automatic water changer on my ray tank Essentially this will be an bulkhead with a drain and a cold water tap running into the tank. as the tank and sump will be about 500 gallons I would like to change 25 gallons per day. I am worried about 2 things:

1. Heating the water. What size of heater would suffice to make sure the temp does not dip a ton. Secondly what kind of back up could I use. My fear is that the power goes out for an extended period of time and due to the water changes the water runs cold and kills my rays

2. Cloramines. Currently I do not need to use any water conditioner, on my 50% per week however at certain times of the year I may have to. What can I use?

#1, you could use an inline solenoid on the supply line that will close on power off, preventing a flood.
#2, you could also set up a gravity drip from a 2 litre bottle of prime to control cloramines.
#3, you could plumb an inline heater into the supply line for the drip to pre-heat it before the tank.

With a 500g tank, and placing the drip output close to an intank heater, you would probably be ok on the incoming new water temp.
25G's a day in 500 is easily diluted and warmed.

 

[john C]

hey rudy hows the ray? i am also looking into a drip system.you might want to check out rallysman he has a thread on here some were that might help you. i don't think you will have a heat issue as well. use a carbon filter for chlorine removal. good luck

john

 

[fishdance]

If your changing 25 gallons a day on a 500 gallon heated sump then you dont need to worry about choramines or cold since the 25 gallons is added slowly. Chloramine takes a couple of days to break down but will still be at very safe levels at these ratios. As you mentioned already, you sometimes do a 50% water change now with no ill effects.

Adding a carbon filter is good insurance simply because it is so easy and cheap and will also stop your drippers from clogging. If your winters are really cold then you could run your water through a 50m coil of pipe which is in a tank of water at room temp before letting it drip in. If you have an extended power outage, just turn the incoming water tap off.

 

[kcress]

Yes! Run the water in thru an electric irrigation valve. Power goes off => filling stops.

You could run the valve with a timer.

You could also wrap several feet of copper tubing with some heat tape that runs when the valve is running. This would take the chill off the water. Set the flow rate to cause the exiting water to be +/- a few degrees of your tank. It doesn't need to be very accurate.

 

[Lil_Stinker]

2 1/4 oz per minute pre-heater in the sump seems do-able. the solenoid would certainly limit power-out issues on over cooling the tank, I don't see a flooding issue, if you have an overflow to waste...

an in-line carbon filter in the tap to remove chlorine/chloramine should be helpful..