tired of water changes...

[portabuddy]

well it seels that all of my tanks are in the basement and they are all near deains...weird...


well i have wanted to make a water change system for quite some time now, i have a 800gph pump i got for $30 circulating my water in the 120(that i use for W/C) water.


I plan on drilling the tops(or bottoms(whatever)) of the tanks and having this go directly to the drain, then over filling them to change the water...

drip emmiters cound like a good idea but this means that there has to be a pump always pumping into the lines, i have oooo, about 20 washer pumps laying around that will do the job quite well. i have a brute 100gallon garbage can laying around from a failed pond exparament and space behind my boiler...



is it better to go with emmiters or timers that controle individual pumps?, i dont realy get the emmiters, they are awsome if the city doesnt al chlorine to your water but mine is chock full of it to the paint that i dont drink my tap water. i could have holding tanks above each tank that would provide enough pressure to run the emmiters...,


this would be for my 60g FW community, a 120g salt thats replacing my in-wall 90(the tank will be uses as a refug sump) and a 300-400g FW cichlid tank thats going in on my back wall.... im also getting a (free-new) 90g bowfront that im unsure of...


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I work for a volvo truck dealership and there is alot of fun gadgets i can take home with me, like a convenient square 6"X4"X12"long washer fluid tank with a pump attatched(off a 88-94 truck) or a slimmer 3gallon tank off a new truck, but it seems a bit un nessasary to fill the garbage can to fill a second tank to emmit water to the tank... although this would be a better more controlled and reliable way of doing it....

 

[portabuddy]

i know you guys have made them...hint hint neo*cough* maybe you can sugest the best course of action?

 

[soggysandwich]

id make a drip system. i think they are easy to setup. heres a link to the one rallysman did http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27474

 

[dogofwar]

You don't need to drill tanks, either. The PVC overflow works great in this low-flow application...

 

[rallysman]

You don't need to drill tanks, either. The PVC overflow works great in this low-flow application...

Mine would constantly get air in them. I couldn't get them to work reliably in my drip system application.

As far as chlorine, install a carbon filter to remove it ( chloramines poses more of a challenge)

 

[Mr Cracker2u]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75372
This system is working great for me. It is all in my sump and for a salt tank I think it would be out standing. Instead of useing city water you can set this up gravity fed with premixed water in a holding tank. These all plastic float switches are a CHEAP (2, 3 bucks) and I have one on an auto top off running a mag5 plugged into 120v that has been working for 6 years. An HVAC supply house should have them they use them to shut down ac units when the drip pan gets to full from condensation. You would only need one pump on a timer to remove the waste water. Hook a float in line that it shuts the pump off if the sump gets to low. A standard mechanical float valve like they use in evap coolers would let the water into the sump from the holding tank. just keep both clean of tube worms and it will work flawless.

 

[Mr Cracker2u]

Thinking a little more on this and I realized it would wind up replacing tank evap with the premixed water set up that way. Back to the drawing board but it can't be to hard to work out. A combination of two floats one high water mark (floating up on the holding tank) on a valve, and a low water mark (reversed to shut off the pump at your minimum) on the pump. a little tunning and you can keep it all within a 1/4" water line. HMMMMM to many parts.......... Very do able with some tweeking.

 

[portabuddy]

thanks for all the responces, Im definetly going to use a float valve on the holding tank but like i said, doesn't the emmiter need constant pressure?, having the pump working full time will burn it out. i cant go with the carbon scrubber because the water will still have to be treated with chemicals to get rid of the chloramines. and if i have to use seperate holding tanks for each tank then there is more to fail-but its more reliabe at the same time if it works, inthat there will always be water added if the secondary holding tank is full... but a level sensor could fail then it doesnt fill up again. you could make a easy curcit with two micro stiches and a logic curict, a float, when the float goes too low it trips a micro switch that triggers a relay that triggers the pump to fill or open a solenoid to refill the main ageing, then it pumps untill the float rises high enough to get turned off by the top switch a NC switch that cuts the power once triggered, this kills the pump untill the bottom switch is triggered again., the level sensor(of whatever kind) cant be in the fish tank since i like my tanks sturred whurlpools(lots of flowing water and lots of power heads)this would trigger the pumps constantly, the tanks must be drilled, the water wont go throught the overflow unless there is suction, there wont be any suction if the water level drops too low and the suction is broken and if it rises very slowly then the tank will over flow since there isnt anything to start the custion again, like me....

drilling is easy and more reliable for a overflow type design where the incomming water displaces the dirty water, none of my tanks are tempered so no biggie.....

Or i can just have a couple pumps that get triggered by a timer to add water once or twice a day for say a minuite each time, this kind of timer is cheap. also if i get a 12volt one i can make it all run independently of the house, if there is a power outage the pumps and timers will run off of bateries, i got craploads of 1200CC amp batteries at work that they will never miss(and 3 in my shed), then put a trickel charger on them... i also have two (31D-type or truck sized) marine batteries i can use.


i would like to have the tanks drain out to the drain and get over filled by the new water... not drain down and ger refilled by it, thus always having the water at max hight..., my 90-soon-to-be acrylic 120salt is right infront of a drain, the 60gallon community is right beside where the boiler is (which has a drain in the floor), the 300-400gallon is right infront of another drain, right in the carner, and the 10gallon newt tank i think i can manage by myself. im not sure where the 90bowfont is going to go but maybe upstairs, which has the bathroon right behind the wall...


Right now at this stage of the game i think i might go with the 1pump per tank idea since i got tons of them..., here is a pic, i cant find my other bag of stuff but here goes, that container is for the water conditioner, this way i can have a gallon of it sitting there for oooh two years with out it needing to be changed., i have 4 of the super pumps, 3 of the pumps like the one attatched to the container, and the slender one on the right is a prety good one, moves 1gallon in 4 secconds, it has a level sensor built in moves fluids at 35 psi and costs about $95(retail(free to me)) i have 5 of these, dont ask me why, i just do...call it overstock. i was going to use the container to make a cool smokescreen for my car by pumping coolent to my exhaust maifold but i dont see me doing that any time soon... Oh and about 200' of vaccume style 1/8"ID washer hose.