Automatic Water Change Waste "Dirty" Water Sewage

[whitcory]

Hello fellow reefer experts. I am planning a new system and need your help/expertise. I am trying to set up an automatic water changing system and wondering how to handle the waste/"dirty" water. The location of my tank is not near a bathroom or sink. I want to drill down to the basement and out to the sewage line direct. Does anyone have any experience with this. It would be so sweet to have my pumps push the old water directly out the ultimate drain and to the sewer. I would consider this myself but may get a plumber out so I don't screw it up. If you have pics or ideas I would love to see how this has been handled. Thanks!

 

[Gtinnel]

I have a drain waste vent in my utility room that I just drilled a hole and siliconed my waste line into.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

You need a trap in the connection, a pump, check valve won’t cut it. Also if you are Drilling into Cast Iron, let me tell you from experience it is difficult and you can shatter the Cast Iron. Cause a Spark, and you could have an explosion. Do you have a Laundry sink? That would be a good place to dump the water. Also you are going to need a Syphon Break, up top, in your line. This is to keep from draining your Aquarium if something goes wrong. With water, something always goes wrong!

 

[ZoWhat]

 

[Joe31415]

I'd recommend just running the line to a sink or floor drain. When I set mine up, I just stuck the hose in a 5 gallon bucket.
I don't know how big your tank is, but with mine, that just means emptying it from time to time, it's not that it's filling up every day.

 

[whitcory]

Whoa! Thanks for all the quick responses. I have what looks like a plastic PVC pipe in my basement that runs to the sewage. I want to run 2 lines from my pump to the sewer. I suppose I could snake the pump lines back up to the kitchen sink but my plastic PVS waste exit pipe is directly beneath where my tank is. Has anyone simply drilled a hole and seamlessly connected out via this line? Any pics would be awesome also if you have it.

There has to be a way!

 

[whitcory]

I have a drain waste vent in my utility room that I just drilled a hole and siliconed my waste line into.

Thanks. I considered that. It is a hole where the AC condensation flows in my room. Can saltwater go down through there?

 

[Gtinnel]

Thanks. I considered that. It is a hole where the AC condensation flows in my room. Can saltwater go down through there?

If your condensate drain line is plastic I don't see what it would hurt if the drain goes into you sewage line. I was actually going to run my AWC waste line to the condensate drain on my water heater, but it put the waste line lower and I was trying to keep my line higher so that I didn't have to worry about siphoning.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Mine went into a basement laundry sink drain that was a couple of rooms away.

I had a different setup for my skimmer. I collected it into an old salt mix bucket that had a home depot basement sump pump in it. When that sump pump triggered, it sent the water through a line about 25 feet long and 4 feet up to an old unused p-trap, and then out to the sewer. I suspect that capped p-trap was left over from a remodeling project at least 50 years ago.

 

[homer1475]

My main drain line runs near my tank(about 4 foot away). I just drilled and tapped the 4" line to accept a john guest fitting(PVC waste line). Plugged the RO line that comes from my tank into the fitting and all done.

 

[Gtinnel]

My main drain line runs near my tank(about 4 foot away). I just drilled and tapped the 4" line to accept a john guest fitting(PVC waste line). Plugged the RO line that comes from my tank into the fitting and all done.

I never even thought about putting a threaded fitting into my vent line. I'm sure that looks much better than the way I did it. I think I may tap the line and add a fitting this evening.

 

[takitaj]

I'd say down the drain unless you have a septic system. I do and I don't know how the salt water would affect it so I run a line out into the dirt.

 

[homer1475]

I never even thought about putting a threaded fitting into my vent line. I'm sure that looks much better than the way I did it. I think I may tap the line and add a fitting this evening.

I'm not sure if I would tap the vent line.

What I did was tap the top of the pipe(waste line), so any back flow didn't go up my empty waste line from the tank.

 

[Gtinnel]

I'm not sure if I would tap the vent line.

What I did was tap the top of the pipe(waste line), so any back flow didn't go up my empty waste line from the tank.

I would just be tapping the hole in my vent line to put a threaded to push fitting, just because it's a cleaner installation than my current hole with a line shoved in it and covered with silicone. The hole in my vent line is high enough up that backflow shouldn't be an issue. If sewage were to ever back up to the AWC waste water line I would have much bigger problems than sewage in my AWC waste water line.