Building automatic water changer for my 550.

[ApacheDan]

Why don't you guys just put an overflow on the sump to remove the excess water?

That's a completely autmated solution that doesn't rely on electricity, valves or anything like that.

I'll drink to that the simpler, the better. That's how I deal with my tanks now....after experimenting with all kinds of electronic gadgets before. Let gravity work for you. The worst that can happen in case of no electricity is that the tanks don't get their water change...

 

[rallysman]

The only problem with drilling the sump to act as an overflow is you're pretty much screwed if the power goes out (unless you have a gadget to shut the drain off incase of a failure.)

 

[ApacheDan]

The only problem with drilling the sump to act as an overflow is you're pretty much screwed if the power goes out (unless you have a gadget to shut the drain off incase of a failure.)

How's that? I drill the sump to certain level...if power goes out, it will drain to that level only. I had to stop the system several times, no problems. Now, I'm assuming that the main tank(s) have their own overflow pipes and won't drain past this level into the sump either.

 

[rallysman]

How's that? I drill the sump to certain level...if power goes out, it will drain to that level only. I had to stop the system several times, no problems. Now, I'm assuming that the main tank(s) have their own overflow pipes and won't drain past this level into the sump either.

The way that mine is set up is that the water level is regulated by the hole in the sump. When power goes out some water will continue to flow out of the tank, into the sump, out of the "sump overflow" and go down the drain. when it fires back up the pump runs out of water to pump because the system volume drops. I could raise the level of the hole so the volume is greater but that would put a lot of my bio media under water. It's easier for me to use a sump pump or something similar. I've also had the drain line get plugged......which was no fun at all.

 

[ApacheDan]

but that would put a lot of my bio media under water. .

humm....I'm with you on that one. I recently saw a w/d with about 3 feet high worth of biomedia and the water way down. I might think about building a w/d with high-stacked biomedia...

 

[repair]

OK here comes the trouble maker.......

I'm really becomming more and more convinced that with a drip system the bio media isn't as important as with a closed system.

On my 420 gal system I only have 2 gal of bio media and I drip 5 gal an hour and it works great.

 

[ApacheDan]

OK here comes the trouble maker.......

On my 420 gal system I only have 2 gal of bio media and I drip 5 gal an hour and it works great.

You're doing roughly 25% water changes daily..it takes away a lot of nasties in the water, therefore no need to stress the biofilter. The amount of water change needed is dictated by the amount of ammonia, nitrites, nitrate in the water...(or cloudiness & dirt if you want to add that to the equation). If you cut down on your drips/hour, you will find out how much your 2 gals are mantaining....my guess, 5%/day should be sufficient...then again,...it depends on your stocking level, etc...

 

[Boydo]

Why don't you guys just put an overflow on the sump to remove the excess water?

I'm using the pump because I have too, I don't have a drain close to my tank, therefore I must pump the water to a drain. There is problem with overflowing the sump that in the event of power outage there is a large loss of circulating water ( 50-60 gallons in my case) causing the pumps to run dry on start up.

The only problem with drilling the sump to act as an overflow is you're pretty much screwed if the power goes out (unless you have a gadget to shut the drain off incase of a failure.)

You're doing roughly 25% water changes daily..it takes away a lot of nasties in the water, therefore no need to stress the biofilter. The amount of water change needed is dictated by the amount of ammonia, nitrites, nitrate in the water...(or cloudiness & dirt if you want to add that to the equation). If you cut down on your drips/hour, you will find out how much your 2 gals are mantaining....my guess, 5%/day should be sufficient...then again,...it depends on your stocking level, etc...

Stress the bio filter

There is a certain amount of water that need to be changed in order to keep pristine water, I used to change 150 gal every 3 days now my drip system does 50-60 gals a day with the same results just less stress of the fish and of course more time for me.


Trust me if there was an easier way I would have done it .