Continuous Water Change in Practice

Chameleon · Apr 30, 2012

Hey yall,
There has been a lot of activity on the forums about water changes. I have always wandered about doing continuous water changes or semi-continuous water changes on my system. Right now I don't keep up with water changes like I should but am thinking of ways to improve.

Does anyone practice continuous water changes. I was thinking of matching two 1mL per min dosing pumps one from a reservoir of new salt water and one going from the tank to a drain. If I put these on a timer for a few hours a day I would have a semi continuous water change going on every day.

Does anyone have any experience with a similar setup? please share your experiences and setups for continuous water changes.
-Cham

revsgirl · May 1, 2012

:bump:

pumarjr · May 1, 2012

No matter how you slice it, you still need good husbandry practices. I've ran both setups. I found it hard to keep saltwater fresh beyond 72 hours personally unless using a power head to maintain flow in the reservoir. If no flow is present, I found a slime coat forming on the walls of my container.

Eggs · May 1, 2012

I don't have a setup like this, but if I was setting a sump up all over again I would essentially install an overflow in it (low enough to handle a power outage, and the subsequent tank water that would flow into the sump) - at the opposide end of a return pump, and maintain the sump water level there. For water changes, add the fresh water to the return pump end, which will cause the sump water to increase and exit via the overflow (plumbed to a drain) - also a valve to keep the plumbing closed, in the event of a power outage which would cause the sump water level to increase, I wouldn't lose water.
For your application, you could use this except no closed valve on the overflow plumbing; use a timer to add fresh saltwater - the excess tank water would then exit automically via the overflow. Myself, I would be leary in trying to match two pumps for input and output. Of course, if you lose power (or return pump), you would lose water out of the system.

Eggs · May 1, 2012

Edited version:

I don't have a setup like this, but if I was setting a sump up all over again I would essentially install an overflow in it (low enough to handle a power outage, and the subsequent tank water that would flow into the sump) - near the point where the display tank water is draining into the sump, with the return pump located at the opposite end of the sump; Maintain the sump water at that overflow level. For water changes, add the fresh saltwaterwater to the return pump end, which will cause the sump water to increase and exit via the overflow (plumbed to a drain) - also a valve to keep the plumbing closed during normal operation, in the event of a power outage which would cause the sump water level to increase; I wouldn't lose tank system saltwater.
Note: if using an ATO, that would also have to be set for the same water level as the overflow system.

For your application, you could use this except no closed valve on the overflow plumbing; use a timer to add fresh saltwater - the excess tank water would then exit automically via the overflow. Myself, I would be leary in trying to match two pumps for input and output. Of course, if you lose power (or return pump), you would lose water out of the system.

Thatgrimguy · May 1, 2012

A few ways to do this. For true continuous you will need a dual diaphragm pump. You will never match exactly traditional pumps to each other.

1.) If you can install this pump in a room where noise is no issue then reeffiller 15gpd 2 head diaphram pump is extremely reliable and doesn't effect the ATO.

2.) A litermeter3 is also a reliable pump to perform this function, albeit more expensive, it's much quieter and equally reliable.

3.) You can also search for google for Tunze osmolator auto water change. There are a couple threads on other sites of how to cheaply add on to the functionality of a Tunze ato to make it serve as an auto water change system. (you will need a controller to make it work)

All 3 are very reliable and none of them mess with the ato. They are also all under $500 which is saying a lot compared to the likes of things like the genesis system.

Chameleon · May 1, 2012

ooo i just saw the reeffiller 3gpd...that would be perfect ~90 gallons a month if done continuously. Can I not match peristaltic pumps?? I have some nice ones where I work that we can regulate all the way down to .01 mL per minute. granted they cost $2k a piece, but I would think some less accurate peristaltic pumps could be matched.
here is a link to our fancy pump...lol...imagine putting $4k into doing auto continuous water changes. talk about a high end tank...lol

Thatgrimguy · May 1, 2012

Chameleon said:
ooo i just saw the reeffiller 3gpd...that would be perfect ~90 gallons a month if done continuously. Can I not match peristaltic pumps?? I have some nice ones where I work that we can regulate all the way down to .01 mL per minute. granted they cost $2k a piece, but I would think some less accurate peristaltic pumps could be matched.
here is a link to our fancy pump...lol...imagine putting $4k into doing auto continuous water changes. talk about a high end tank...lol

As long as thy are adjustable you can. Just check and make sure they still match from time to time. But like you said... Pretty pricey at that point. I even used a 50ml a minute brs peristaltic pumps at one point. But the small differences in speed between them called for constant manual adjustments to keep salinity constant.

Sent from my iPhone4s using Tapatalk