Water Change Rate

[HarleyK]

Let the water tests be your guide.

Just adjust your flow rate to keep the nitrate level down to the level you want.

That's excellent advice. The ultra-professional way to go would be measuring conductivity That will give you a snapshot not only of nitrates, but of all pollutants combined, most of which cannot be monitored with conventional drip/strip tests. This is especially useful in a heavily planted tank, where plants may reduce nitrates and phosphates selectively and other electrolytes become more important as pollutants.

But that's ultra-pro, and most fishkeepers do just fine without ever having touched a conductivity-meter... I just thought I'd throw it in here for the record.

HarleyK

 

[zennzzo]

That's excellent advice. The ultra-professional way to go would be measuring conductivity That will give you a snapshot not only of nitrates, but of all pollutants combined, most of which cannot be monitored with conventional drip/strip tests. This is especially useful in a heavily planted tank, where plants may reduce nitrates and phosphates selectively and other electrolytes become more important as pollutants.

But that's ultra-pro, and most fishkeepers do just fine without ever having touched a conductivity-meter... I just thought I'd throw it in here for the record.

HarleyK

Hey Bro,
Would a TDS meter do any good? ~BenO

 

[Toby_H]

Dissolved Solids are different from Electrolytes... So a TDS meter is testing for something different than a conductivity meter...

 

[HarleyK]

Howdy,

I'd say you should give it a try Not exactly the same, as it covers electrolytes and non-ionizable components. But if you have access to one, go for it! Just remember to micron-filter the water first, otherwise you'll have interference by suspended solids which will absolutely ruin the reading. But if you have access to TDS, then I am certain you know that.

HarleyK

 

[zennzzo]

Howdy,

I'd say you should give it a try Not exactly the same, as it covers electrolytes and non-ionizable components. But if you have access to one, go for it! Just remember to micron-filter the water first, otherwise you'll have interference by suspended solids which will absolutely ruin the reading. But if you have access to TDS, then I am certain you know that.

HarleyK

What I have, I bought with my RO unit. It is an inline unit with 2 channels. It was sold to me so I could monitor the difference from untreated tap water (channel 1) and the output water from the 5th or final stage (channel 2). The channel 2 reading has always been very low compaired to the untreated water...
I was never instructed to filter the input side, the guy told me to just put that channel anywhere along the supply line leading to the 1st stage, and to install the #2 channel on the line just after the final stage, which of course "is" micron filtered or better run through the RO membrane...

You know, now that you mentioned it...He could make my tap water look worse than it really was, by letting me take a "interfered" reading by putting the probe in the line of raw tap water that supplys
the stages.
Hmmm...As it turned out my Ph is at a steady 8.0 out of the tap and treated with chlorine only. I am not comfortable with trying to balance Dripped RO water and 8.0ph tap water to try and maintain 6.8-7.0 Ph...

I pulled off the RO membrane and those last stages and have plans of dripping what I hope to be,3 stage filtered, dechlorinated 8.o ph tap water...

 

[mos90]

drip rates do depend a lot on stock,desired ph,tap water ph.

i have a drip system on my medium stocked 300. i want to maintain a ph around 7. tap water is 7.2 with only clorine,tap water is run through 2 carbon filters.

originally i was dripping 2gph. the ph would stay around 6.7 but the nitrate levels were a little higher then i wanted ,15ppm.

i uped the levels to 3.3 gph. ph stays right around 6.9-7.0 and nitrate stays under 5pmm.

u need to remember like someone previously stated. even though im dripping 80gpd in only changing 84% of the water a week.

here is a good drip calculator.
http://www.angelfish.net/DripSystemcalc.php

i would think on your 40g i would do 5gpd. that would give u 58% per week.

 

[Coolboy55]

interesting... how does the whole setup work? care to share?... thank you!

So here are a few pictures of my setup (sorry about the poor quality - I used my 2MP cellphone camera since I couldn't find my other one). I just slipped a valve onto a cold water line (unsoftened) in the laundry room next to the tank room and snaked it behind walls to the tank, where it is dripping into the tank right beside the heater. I used the typical overflow with a piece of cloth at the mouth to keep out foreign particles. I was able to run the drain hose behind the same wall into the laundry room floor drain.

I also managed to get a pic with all 6 loaches, though some of them were moving fast enough to blur a little (no shutter speed options on my cellphone camera!). I also slipped in a pic of my cute bristlenose pleco (about 5" long), and a few other shots.

The tank isn't particularly clean right now, but the constant drip system has already helped immensely - the algae is thinning out a lot, some of the stagnant plants are growing again, and the water is much clearer. It has only been running for one week, but already I'm very excited about how well it's working!

 

[mos90]

are u running drip right out the tap with no filter? clorine in the water?

 

[Coolboy55]

are u running drip right out the tap with no filter? clorine in the water?

Yep, the chlorine in the water here is very low. Test strips always show zero chlorine in the tank. Nevertheless, I add a few drops of Chlor-Out from time to time just to make sure.

 

[mos90]

even with low clorine levels it would be inexpensive and easy to add a simple carbon filter system to it. just to be safe.. i would. can help with contaminate removal too.