How do you do water changes?

[Aldemirgen]

Following i want to have auto water change too but not have any space May be i can find some solution from here

 

[Deep dive coral]

Looking for better ideas on water changes. I’m tired of carrying buckets from the garage. I really don’t have anywhere to set up a mixing station in the house so what’s some ideas on moving water. The only thing I can think of is using two different garbage cans on rollers and a pump. I thought about plumbing it to my tank from the garage but I really don’t want to get that in depth because we might be downsizing houses soon.

Here is my temp system.

 

[Deep dive coral]

Here is my temp system.

This can definitely be made to fit a smaller footprint. But this is done completely through my apex.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Bucket on remote control dolly, never carry a bucket again

So my mixing station is transportable. A 15 gallon drum on a regular dolly lol. I wheel to my ro/di when need to make water.
Goes into a small cabinet when done adding water and salt. The out line of my awc goes to a line on my drive way.
Can be scaled to size needs, and a container if needed for the old water.

 

[S2G]

Sometimes it's easy to miss some of the things these more experienced reefers have been doing. I wish someone would have told me from day one about awc. All of the time I spent doing 15-20 gallon saltwater changes twice a month. ;Facepalm

Now the only thing I lift is a few cups of salt to dump in the container.

Lol I haven't carried buckets in like 10yrs. I've been doing awc in fw for yrs but I couldn't figure out how to do it in sw. Well in a way I trust anyway. Right now its ran on DJ switches

 

[Aldemirgen]

is anyone using this awc device? or have a opinion about it? because we don't have Apex here. may be i can get this device.

 

[saltyhog]

I like your PC tubing attachment. With it going so low, how do you break the siphon? I currently use an old clip that came with a pump. Holds the tubing and I can lower to level I want removed (marks on tank for level of change) and then raise it when I add fresh SW back.

In my first picture you can see the tubing I use. It has a valve on it that I simply close, then turn the pump off and raise it up enough to empty it before removing it. I could reclaim the water in the tubing but it's only about 3 cups or so and I drain it in the sink.

 

[Waynerock]

Just finished mine, 5 gal per week water change on a 65 gal. Just use plain old clear tubing to suck up detritus in two dead zones dump in 5 gal fresh salt water I get from LFS (Fritz red box) at .50 a gallon. Every week I will top off dosing chems (cal and alk) and RECALIBRATE THE DOSERS! I feel weekly recalibration is super important and WILL keep you out of trouble. Then Just clean the skimmer and black micro bubble foam trap change floss and sock and call it a day. Takes me about 1-1.5 hour. Doing smaller more frequent water changes is easy, quick, and even after all these years I still enjoy getting my hands dirty(wet) and it gives me a chance to inspect corals and life support systems.

 

[turfster26]

Since going to GHL Maxi doser with AWC, it's literally been a game changer. And I don't like saying that often. But it's completely changed everything in relation to time, stable parameters, etc.

I use to do 25-30 gls every weekend. Now I do 5-gls daily 5 x's per week. Been a life saver in convenience.

 

[TheOne]

Since going to GHL Maxi doser with AWC, it's literally been a game changer. And I don't like saying that often. But it's completely changed everything in relation to time, stable parameters, etc.

I use to do 25-30 gls every weekend. Now I do 5-gls daily 5 x's per week. Been a life saver in convenience.

I wish I would have learned from day one. All the time it would have saved me.

 

[Tastee]

I’ll be moving to a mixing station and AWC later next year but for the last 2 years I have been using a furniture dolly upon which sits 2 barrels. On WC day I:

1. Roll the dolly over to the tank
2. Pull out the RODI hose located behind the tank connected to my external reservoir and fill the SW barrel to the calibrated line I put on it
3. Roll the dolly back to my spare room, add the required amount of salt (1,140g in my case)
4. Drop in a heater, digital thermometer probe and mixing pump (small 150 LPH)
5. Wait 2 hours or overnight (depending on whether it’s summer or winter to allow the water to heat to temp)
6. Take the 2nd barrel to the tank, shut down pumps etc and remove water from the DT into it to it’s fill line (= calibrated line in the SW barrel)
7. Remove the heater and thermometer probe, disconnect the mixing pump, roll the SW barrel to the tank
8. Connect a hose to the mixing pump and pump the SW into the sump
9. Turn the return back on and run it once or twice to move water back up into the DT and avoid the sump level getting too high during the pumping process
10. Clean sponges etc in the old SW if desired
11. Turn everything back on, empty old water, clean equipment and roll it away until next time.