jcardona1;4971485; said:I'm actually considering somthing similar for my wild discus tank. I have the chloramine filter already, so here's the route I decided to take:
- Won't be a 24/7 drip system
- Cold water will feed through the chloramine filter into a storage bin, that will be heated and aerated. Water level in the bin will be controlled with a float valve.
- I will have a small pump in my sump (close to where my overflows comes in) that comes on a set intervals throughout the day. This will drain XX gallons of water every XX hours, straight to my sewage drain.
- I will then use an automatic top-off controller like this one hooked up to a small pump in the storage bin to refill the water in the sump as the other pump is draining (water will pour in near my return pumps in the sump). This water will come from the storage bin, and will be pre-heated.
Hope that helps! It's still an automatic system, but at set intervals, instead of a constant drip. You can use a small pump, then a timer that comes on several times, or maybe just once, to give you the water change size you like
And with this setup, there's no risk of flooding. If the power goes out or a pump fails, nothing floods, you just won't have a water change done. The only potential problem is that if the return pump in the storage bin fails, your sump won't get refilled. You can mitigate this risk by doing water change in several small intervals, that way you have enough time to catch any problems and avoid running the system dry.
I thought about the storage bin but it does not seem to help me.
1. How are you going to heat your storage bin? I'm guessing another electric heater which does not help with electricity bill.
2. If the power goes out everything will stop, including the sump pump (canisters)...unless you have a backup power....ammonia will start to raise...this is when the water changes can help.
3. the more devices being added the higher the risk of failure.
