Automatic Water Changes

[E.intheC]

I'm seriously contemplating a daily, automatic, water change setup for my new tank. I know there are a few commercial setups like the Genesis or LiterMeter III but they run about $550+ to get this accomplished.

On the other hand, using simple dosing pumps without fail-safes encorporated seems to be too risky.

Does anyone have a system like this setup? What are you using?

 

[E.intheC]

I also wonder if I can arrange something with my Apex Jr, 2x dosing pumps, and some float switches.

 

[jhart]

If your apex has a salinity controller , you can do it pretty easy .

Ok I'll try to explain. Set your salinity probes controller to turn on a outlet when your salinity drops below 1.024. That outlet needs to controller either a solenoid switch attached to your rodi or to your make up water with a toms pump , the output of that fresh water will will enter a bottom of a container that has your salt mix in it . At the top of the container there will be a spigot where the salt mix in a slurry will fall into your sump raising your salt up to 1.025 , and when you reach that level the controller will turn of the outlet and the water will stop entering thus raising the level any higher.
Also another pump is needed to suck out water out of your sump which will lower your salt level because fresh water will enter through your top off..
The size of the water change you would wanna do would depends on how long or how much water you suck out ..

 

[mbg75]

Eric. BTLD had a auto water change setup. Pm them.

 

[E.intheC]

If your apex has a salinity controller , you can do it pretty easy .

Ok I'll try to explain. Set your salinity probes controller to turn on a outlet when your salinity drops below 1.024. That outlet needs to controller either a solenoid switch attached to your rodi or to your make up water with a toms pump , the output of that fresh water will will enter a bottom of a container that has your salt mix in it . At the top of the container there will be a spigot where the salt mix in a slurry will fall into your sump raising your salt up to 1.025 , and when you reach that level the controller will turn of the outlet and the water will stop entering thus raising the level any higher.
Also another pump is needed to suck out water out of your sump which will lower your salt level because fresh water will enter through your top off..
The size of the water change you would wanna do would depends on how long or how much water you suck out ..

Thanks for the reply. I heard the salinity probes weren't that reliable/accurate, though. Also, making a slurry out of the salt water would cause some of the elements in the salt mix to precipitate, and I'd imagine would be dangerous to add.

I like the idea behind it though.

 

[lnevo]

It doesn't have to be a slurry, it could just be your normal salinity water or even a touch higher. Either way, the concept is the same. Pump out old water... Let salinity probe decide to top of fresh or salt water. I don't know if your controller can do it, but you could set a threshold if for some reason your salinity drops lower than 1.023 for instance to stop pumping out old water or goes higher than 1.026, this way if the probe goes out of whack you are covered and then even send an alarm. I would check the probe on a regular basis. Much easier to whip out the refractometer than doing manual water changes

I really like this concept. I wish my sump were in the basement with all my water... oh and I wish I had a real drain in the basement too while I'm dreaming...with my one day future 200 gallon tank

 

[reefs4life]

I made one to work with the Apex, it was pretty good but I sold it to thirty5. Don't know if he used it yet but I could help you build one for your tank if you'd like. Oh and the cost was between 100-150 for everything I think, like parts and all.

 

[ReefMonkey13]

Thanks for posting this really peaked my interest. Now I'm think a simple way to apply this to my current set.

I already have an apex and will probably need to get a couple more things to get this going but let me know what you think:

Thing you will need:

• Apex with Break Out box
• EB4 bar (where all the outlets are relay outlets)
• 2 pumps
• 3 float switches (I already have one used for my ATO).
• 2 additional Water storage (for fresh SW and one for "Waste" water

Here is what I have planned:

1. Establish a time to do water change.
2. Turn off ATO on the said time.
3. Activate PUMP1 to pull water off the sump to the "Waste" water container. (Pre-Calculate the amount of water to be remove by the pump for a given time). For example if your pump pulls 60GPH and you would like to change 2 gallons of water, you would run the pump of 2 minutes.
4. Once PUMP1 finishes pumping water out. Activate PUMP2 to pump water into the sump from the fresh SW storage container. The pump will continue until the water level on the ATO switch is OPENED.

There are few things that worry me about this set up, so I would like to build some contingencies.

• Add a float switch for each of the storage bins
  • Low water indicator on the Fresh Salt Water bin.
  • High water indicator on the Waste water bin.
• Worried about the temp of the fresh water, but it the new water is not too much it should not be too big of a concern.
• NOT sure whether dosing will needed and how this routine will affect that schedule (My tank is in very low demand at this time so I don't have a dosing schedule set up).
• Have to keep a close watch on the salinity of the tank and may need to manage it's adjustment via the fresh salt water. (currently using ESV salt so this is a real challenge with it 4 component salt mix).

 

[reefs4life]

I wouldn't rely on the pumps gph to give you an exact water level in the containers. You'll run into some serious problems like that.

 

[Turbovr3six]

I set up an auto w/c system on one of my clients tanks. I put 2X 55g drums and hooked them up to the Apex. One drum is for mixed saltwater that is added daily (1.5G) and the other is for the waste water(water taken out of tank). How it works is the apex turns off the ATO, then pumps out 1.5g into the waste tank. It measures out 1.5G exact because of a float installed in the sump. Once the1.5g float is triggered, it shuts off the waste pump and starts the fill pump. The salinity in the mixing tank is measured with a salinity probe and heated. There is a mixing pump and fill pump in the drum. The mixing pump is turned on when the heater is kicked on via the temp probe in drum. It fills up the sump to the ATO float and is triggered off. The ATO is then kicked back on and the water change is done for the day. I go to his place once a month to do a 'larger' water change. I also have a salinity probe on the display programmed in to be able to keep an eye on any potential problems.

 

[ReefMonkey13]

I wouldn't rely on the pumps gph to give you an exact water level in the containers. You'll run into some serious problems like that.

I was actually thinking the same thing. I was using the timing more as a gauge as to how much water to change out.

If you notice on the step with Pump2 i have it have stopping with the ATO Float is "open" meaning (logically/theoretically) that the water level in the sump is at the same as it was before changing out the water.

I have read a few iteration of this daily water changes process and just wanted it to be pretty simple or mimicking what we normally do when we do a manual water change.

Also as an additional contingency I was thinking of adding check valves on the water lines on both PUMP1 and PUMP2 in case a back siphon occurs

 

[tosiek]

I would just spend the money on a genesys if you want a 1 button water change. It gradually does a water change for you during the day and has all the fail safes and guards in place so your tank doesn't go boom. This is the same idea as the DIY dosing system. I'm a great DIY person, but this just has too little room for fault to be successful long term.

Any setup you make won't have the same safe guards without elaborate and faulty float switches, timers, ect. And I wouldn't trust the salinity probes for life sustaining operations.

 

[lnevo]

Il

 

[thirty5]

I made one to work with the Apex, it was pretty good but I sold it to thirty5. Don't know if he used it yet but I could help you build one for your tank if you'd like. Oh and the cost was between 100-150 for everything I think, like parts and all.

LOL.
No I haven't set it up. Came down to laziness. I even bought the pumps for it. The stuff is still in the bag when I got them from you...

 

[thirty5]

The system that Fortunato made is on the same concept of the genesis. Calibrated buckets with overflows on them. Then a couple solenoids. It is actually very simple if you think about it.