Auto water change setup

[KnH]

Greetings
Looking for ideas on putting together a auto water change setup
Saltwater mixing station is the laundry room tank is in the bedroom

Any ideas or critique of my plan?

Turn off tank return pump in the sump
Tank water drains into sump settling to the highest water level in the sump
Sump overflow level set to this water level
Pump new saltwater from laundry room the top of the aquarium, excess water flows from tank into sump
Old saltwater flows out of the sump overflow into the drain
Turn on return pump, water level in sump drops as excess water is returned to aquarium.

 

[foxt]

That could work, you are essentially creating a new "return" line to your tank from your saltwater reservoir. How will you make sure that that line can't siphon back from the DT to the saltwater reservoir after the pump shuts down? About how many gallons of water will you be changing at a time?

 

[Silent]

You could get the aquaauto water changer and switch out the pumps for stronger ones.

 

[coseal]

sounds solid! i dont have the luxury of a drain near the tank so i use stepper driven dosing pumps, one pump pulls out other pumps in..

 

[foxt]

If you are using stepper driven dosers for this, have you considered just pulling water from the sump ahead of the return and simultaneously feeding the same amount of new saltwater to the return section? I use a dual-headed peristaltic pump to do this for AWC, and since the flow rates on both lines are exactly the same, works fine.

 

[Jay Z]

Only thing simpler I can think of is run the new salt water into the sump. Just let it flow in while the old flows out the other side. You would only need to keep track of what has left the tank.

Then a good gate valve to seal her up when your done.

I did this on my sump in the basement. I open up the gate valve, let the little pump run for 10-20 gallons. Shut off when done. Water change with limited hassle.

Added a bulkhead right above my water level. Don’t mind my catch can. It runs a small pump twice a day to pull the uglies off the top of the return chamber water.

 

[KnH]

Tank size is 150g, new saltwater reservoir will be 40g / 55g poly barrel, and I will have a siphon break at the high point above the saltwater reservoir


I don't trust the peristaltic roller pumps, 2 single pumps or double head pump, to many points of failure, continuous water change via peristaltic pumps is less effective than a batch water change

 

[foxt]

Sorry, I misread the post taking about stepper driven dosing motors, thought that was you.

Your plan seems well thought out to me. Will you be running it truly auto, unattended, or will you be there?

 

[KnH]

Sorry, I misread the post taking about stepper driven dosing motors, thought that was you.

Your plan seems well thought out to me. Will you be running it truly auto, unattended, or will you be there?

This is my reentry into a reef tank after 10 years of being dry, other than FW tanks. So Im having to reevaluate every process in setting up a Reef tank

Stepper motor roller pumps just have to many moving parts that are prone to failure for me to trust them

It will not be a True auto water change setup, Not sure it would be worth the effort to make it truly automatic. I could probably set up a remote apex EB4 with a 100 ft USB cable to the Apex control unit. Turn off the Aquarium return pump for 5 minutes and then turn on the new salt water supply pump for 4 minutes, turn on return pump