eliminating manul water changes completely

[Hart1985]

Im thinking of changing set up completely making water storage and prep room in attic. Chase plumbing into walls directly into tank slowly dripping water in, while anothe feed exits water from the tank. Does anyone have any info on this? Surely all id have to do is keep prepared water topped up?
cheers all

 

[HarleyK]

Check out our Articles Forum.
Neoprodigy has a thread on drip systems. It's what I modeled mine after. Search this forum if you're interested, I posted a thread about 6 years ago.

 

[Hart1985]

Pretty interesting I was planning my whole system being gravity fed thought I had it pretty sussed?!
My plan was constantly dripping water from a tank at a rate of 1.75ltrs an hour to get 30% weekly water change. With a tap connected to a hose at bottom incase emergency change is needed. I was going to use an ro-di unit set up to another barrel then use another barrel to buffer water in using this one to top up the last manually say once a week?
Now I've come across dosing systems! Is there a dosing system I can use to buffer pH kh and GH so I can just have the one barrel?
Cheers all

 

[Hart1985]

Problem is you always throwing away some new water

 

[monkeybike]

Problem is you always throwing away some new water

Exactly. I am in the process of installing a drip setup and decided to go with a 40 gpd drip for my 180 because I figured you probably lose 1/3 or so of change to new water loss.

 

[HarleyK]

I use a small peristaltic pump to dose fertilizers. That'll work for any additives you may want to add.
I'm perfectly fine with flushing some new water out. The convenience and time savings outweigh all downsides fit me.

 

[Hart1985]

so would you say you would need to pass a third of tank volume through for it to be effective?
also do you know where i can find any info on using buffering salts with an auto doser?
Cheers for your help
*\Im taking it you would have to make a solution first has anybody had any success with this?

 

[Hart1985]

I think ive read enough about these systems and made my own mind up, its not for me.
A lot of waste water especially if i go ro and i think id feel safer dosing myself *machinery goes wrong! If you set up correctly you should only have to open a few valves and let gravity do the rest im sticking to a steady water change routine.

 

[savannah_az]

I know this won't necessarily work for you hart, even if you do decide to try an auto change, but it might benefit someone else if they open this thread. I used a solenoid valve (about $7-10 on eBay) hooked up to a t off my refrigerator water line. The plug is hooked into a basic Walmart on off timer ($5). I'm also running a sump on my tank with a bulkhead at the desired water level. So once a day for 30 minutes the water turns on and raises the sump water level past the bulkhead which I run a pvc line under the house and out to the yard. Basically just a drip but consolidated into 30 minutes a day. You can also use a irrigation head to control the gph to get an exact amount of water influx.

 

[Hart1985]

Have you ever had a burst water main and you water comes out brown? What do you do to prevent this if you run straight from mains to tank?