Water Change System Any Ideas

[RobertG]

Has anyone ever plumbed a system that would do a water change with the turn of some valves? I will be setting this up in about 3-4 wks. Tank on Order. This tank went back it was scratched. I have plenty of room to make something work. I have a sump about 35 G , a 50 G tank as Fuge. RO/DI Water supply. All being placed under 240 reef tank. I want to make this (water changes ) as easy as possible. :P

Here's what I am working with.
Any Ideas?

Thanks in Advance

Robert

[Henry]

Do you have a sink or drain near? If so I'll look for some plans.

[captexas]

Are you talking about just regular water top offs for loss of water due to evaporation? That is fairly common, but always make sure you have extra fail safes in the setup as something can always go wrong.

As far as actual water changes go, I have seen a system that was supposed to do constant water changes, but it sounded like to big of a risk to me. I have also seen some people put bulkheads on their sump and use that to drain out the old water for a change. I have my water filtration and storage tanks in the laundry room and simply unroll some tubing from there to my tank when I want to do a water change. I use a Mag 5 to mix saltwater and simply use a waterhose quick connect fitting to attach the tubing. Works good enough for me and beat the heck out of using buckets.

[StephenA]

I do mine similar to captexas, I don't see why you couldn't use bulkheads to permenant connections to make it smoother. Just drain the sump and fill it back up.

[Henry]

Here is a link to a great project on rc. I'm planning on setting up the same water mixing setup in my storage room once I get some time. Hope this helps. Its about half-way down on the 3rd page.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=236668&perpage=25&pagen umber=3

[StephenA]

Instead of a tank to put waste water in. I would just put the waste staight down the drain. Your tank should be topped off before you start. I also have a mark on my tank that indicates the level of my mix tank. But I usually don't replace that much water. In your case one 32 Gallon should be about right for a water change.

[RobertG]

I do have a drain available. This is not for top off. I want to turn valve to Drain , Turn A valve to fill. I would have a mix Tank ready all the time. 40-50 G. My tank is all by itself, own room. Not looking for something to be constant just easy to do. I'll check the thread.

Thanks again

Robert

[RobertG]

That thread is dangerous!!!!!!

What are you trying to do to me. thats Nuts, However inspirational. Light set up is sweet , All around this is where i want to be. Thanks Henry. Anyone think this could alll be done by gravity, No pumps. Just something to recirculate mix tank. I could just drain the waste water to drain or , Does Salt water hurt to use on the yard or bushes? RO/DI Drains there now.

[StephenA]

Salt will slowly kill your yard and bushes. Down the drain, driveway or street is the best.

[RobertG]

Cool Thanks , Something else I have to make sure looks good. If I killed it because I did'nt ask, I'd feel pretty stupid. Thus would take me from my tank to the yard. That would suck. As little yard work as possible wanted here! :-D

[GaryP]

This sounds similar but I don't think he gives a lot of details as to how he has his water change system set up.

http://www.moyesreef.com/tank/Watertreatment.html

Gary

[Henry]

Robert I don't think it could be done all gravity the way it was setup on that thread, but even using a small mag would be fine. I like the idea of the two trash cans so you can be exact on how much is removed and match it accordingly. Best of luck on your project. I know that link is dangerous. I wasted a whole day reading it. lol

[StephenA]

I use a Pond Pump I found at Home Depot to pump water from my Mix tank to the tank. I got it because it has a 7Ft height it can pump and it was cheap.

[wkopplin]

I have a "Y" splitter in the pipe coming off my return pump with a ball valve above the "Y" on the line feeding water to the rest of my system. There is a union with a cap on the end of the pipe. I can unscrew the union and replace the part with a drain pipe that reaches to the sink. I then can turn on the return pump and pump the water right out of the system. I then have a Mag 9.5 in the pre-mixed seawater tank, which I can turn on via power strip and pump the water back into the system. Pretty easy if you have a drain nearby.