Here is my water changing system that I just made to make keeping my water as clean as possible without the bucket work. This is in no way fully automatic. It still requires supervision however it does eliminate the heavy lifting. Check your water quality coming in before doing this.
This is my 90g in my office. Luckily it sits adjacent to an exterior wall. Otherwise this wouldn't nearly be as easy...still possible though if you don't mind running the piping through your house.
A look behind my tank. Here you will see my return line from the sump at the very top back. My overflow going to the sump (white) and the DIY pvc overflow in the forefront (black) that acts as a drain for water changes.
For all intents and purposes this is what it looks like. I borrowed this image from google search. The only difference is mine has an airline backflow preventer at the top and the "T" is located mid point on my tank since this is where I want the draining to stop.
This is where the magic takes place. Once a siphon has been created in the drain overflow you can control the exit of tank water by turning the black valve. As long as you never break siphon you can just use this valve to remove water from the tank. Set it and forget it. The overflow stops at the "T" in the previous image. After the water has exited turn the black valve to close the exit and turn the red valve for new water to come in.
The red valve is well water that dumps into my sump. Turn my pump back on and it refills the tank. Be careful here to not turn the red valve all the way. Chances are your well or city water will fill your sump faster than your pump will push it back to the tank. To remedy this I suppose you could pipe it directly to the tank but I use this method as evaporation replacement as well.
This is the image form the garden outside of my office window. As you can see the hose coming from a well spigot and the exit hose going to one of my palm trees.
In hindsight an auto water top could be created using the same equipment or hell even a continuous water changer could easily be made simply by tapping off the return line coming from the well with a drip emitter and adjusting the "T" in the drain line to be right at the desired level of your tank. I would do this however I'm not keen on having an open pipe coming from my garden going into my house. Snakes and critters seeking a warm place in the winter time is not my cup of tea.
This is my 90g in my office. Luckily it sits adjacent to an exterior wall. Otherwise this wouldn't nearly be as easy...still possible though if you don't mind running the piping through your house.
A look behind my tank. Here you will see my return line from the sump at the very top back. My overflow going to the sump (white) and the DIY pvc overflow in the forefront (black) that acts as a drain for water changes.
For all intents and purposes this is what it looks like. I borrowed this image from google search. The only difference is mine has an airline backflow preventer at the top and the "T" is located mid point on my tank since this is where I want the draining to stop.
This is where the magic takes place. Once a siphon has been created in the drain overflow you can control the exit of tank water by turning the black valve. As long as you never break siphon you can just use this valve to remove water from the tank. Set it and forget it. The overflow stops at the "T" in the previous image. After the water has exited turn the black valve to close the exit and turn the red valve for new water to come in.
The red valve is well water that dumps into my sump. Turn my pump back on and it refills the tank. Be careful here to not turn the red valve all the way. Chances are your well or city water will fill your sump faster than your pump will push it back to the tank. To remedy this I suppose you could pipe it directly to the tank but I use this method as evaporation replacement as well.
This is the image form the garden outside of my office window. As you can see the hose coming from a well spigot and the exit hose going to one of my palm trees.
In hindsight an auto water top could be created using the same equipment or hell even a continuous water changer could easily be made simply by tapping off the return line coming from the well with a drip emitter and adjusting the "T" in the drain line to be right at the desired level of your tank. I would do this however I'm not keen on having an open pipe coming from my garden going into my house. Snakes and critters seeking a warm place in the winter time is not my cup of tea.
