My DIY water exchange

[AndrewMack]

So after hours and hours of trying to figure this out I came up with a few simple,cost effective ways to build a water exchange system for my 125. Yay,no water changes.

First here are the parts for the water supply. I used 1/4" pex tubing.
It required two 90º slip fittings, one turn on valve slip fitting, some 1/4" hard pex tubing.i'll be running the water with 1/2" Cpvc, so I then got a glue on connecter with threads, and a 1/4" slip on with threads. This will allow you to connect tha 1/2" CPVC to the 1/4".

Here it is put together, and with 25' of 1/4" Hard tubing(for an icemaker)

Heres the overflow and other parts. They are a 1/2" Sharkbite T, these fitting are great cause they accept EVERY kind of pipe and tubing. Im going from Copper,to CPVC. Also the T reducing from 1" to 1/2", and a cap.

Cap the existing T

Put the other T at your desired water level. And thats really it. I am using 1/2" for the drain line, im going to just run the drain out to my water trough sense i DO not medicate tanks this large. I'll have pics once the tank is up and the parts are all installed.

 

[kyleking007]

looks more like a drain and fill with less effort more than an automatic to me. cant wait to see how it works.

 

[AndrewMack]

Well a little confused by that. What exactly is a water exchange then, if its not something that adds and drains water? and how isnt it automatic if i never had to mess with it, and its being done 24/7? not alot of effort, Just thought out better. the effort is jacking my house up, and reinforcing the floors to withstand a 125 and a 125g sump

 

[Dr Joe]

I don't think we realized that it was a constant flow system since they are usually drip type.

Very nicely accomplished.

What's the fill rate?

My valve runs vertically to the tank so it hooks over the side closely, but is just for fill/drain.

Dr Joe

.

 

[Nic]

no inline filters?? sediment,carbon block,granular carbon....

 

[AndrewMack]

Going to be doing only 20gpd untill my fish are larger then i will up the amount. We have well water so we dont need any inside filters, all our water is filtered through bedrock

 

[Fish Eat Fish]

so just curious...how do these effect water bills? Anyone who runs about 1 gph wanna chime in?

 

[DanProwse]

well 24 gpd is just under 100 litres a day, here in UK 10 litres is approx £0.01, so 100 litres is about £0.10 or $0.20 USD

 

[AndrewMack]

I dont pay a water bill so I have NO idea.

 

[rallysman]

My water bill went down with the drip system. I used less water to maintain a certain parameter than what I did when I was constantly fighting it with large water changes.


Looks like a good system. Thanks for the update