Quarantine Tank, using AWC waste! Will it work??

[mikus]

I am in the process of cycling my first tank. Its a 120gal display w/ 55gal sump (approx. 1/2 being the fuge w/ kessil h380, rsk 300 skimmer, then Cor20 return). I'm 6 days into the cycle. Began by dosing aquavitro seed and tossing in a piece of frozen langostino lobster we had from Trader Joes. Checked levels today...Ammonia zero, Nitrite zero, as well as Nitrate...But the langostino is basically gone?? Figured not enough nutrients to get the cycle going, so I dropped in another, bigger, piece of langostino along with the last daily dose of aquavitro seed AND a bottle of Dr. Tims one and only and am going to give it more time for the cycling process. While I'm waiting out the cycling, I will be setting up a DOS to run auto water changes. In the layout/design process, I thought about running my AWC waste into a 10-20gal tank I will use for my QT and install a stand pipe overflow to the main drain. AWC to run between 1-2gal/day +- tbd. I Thought this would be a good way to utilize the waste one last time to provide same water conditions in the QT, QT always being topped off as well as being completely isolated from the main system. QT will have its own light source that will run on same time as display with a small ac pump for circulation/filtration. Has anyone ran a similar setup before? Any input to this design?? Any insight would be greatly appreciated for both cycling and QT! Thanks community!!

 

[KrisReef]

Should work ok, unless you need to put chemicals/medicine in the QT? Keeping an adequate a therapeutic dose in the qt could be a challenge.

Hey Mikus, I just noticed that you joined recently and have not been properly welcomed?

That said,
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

@Crabs McJones

 

[ca1ore]

I have my QT setup in exactly this way. Should it be necessary to treat the QT, you just direct the AWC old water directly down the stand pipe. The only thing you must be mindful of is that the salinity in the QT will climb over time because you are essentially using salt water as top off. The benefit is that if you reduce salinity of the tank to incoming, it’s an easy way to then get the levels back up. If I reduce my 20L to 1.018, it takes about ten days of AWC output to climb back up to 1.026.

 

[JoshH]

Lots of reefers do this and it's an excellent way of reusing water before sending it down the drain. The only thing to be wary of IMO is obviously if you have to medicate your QT the daily WC's will effect the doses of medications. One way to resolve this issue would be to have your AWC drain into a holding tank of some kind and then use that tank to perform WC's on the QT. Or have a bypass where you can run your AWC into your QT until you have to medicate then switch it to fill the tank and perform your WC's from there.

 

[mikus]

Thanks KrisReef for the welcome, and all ^^ for your replies!! I did not think about medicating, and I think simply placing the waste supply directly into the stand pipe would work great along with proper circulation maintained in the QT.

 

[MSB123]

That sounds great! I will also use this!

 

[Peter Clark]

I've been tempted to do this type setup for a coral/invert QT which then avoids the med issue but still leaves the salinity issue. Manually topping off periodically or having a slow pump on a timer to do it in theory could work once you figure out the amount needed and adjust as needed.

By the way, I love the standpipe idea. I had been thinking of a float switch to control pumping extra water out, but a standpipe would be far more reliable. Thanks for the idea!

 

[mikus]

I've been tempted to do this type setup for a coral/invert QT which then avoids the med issue but still leaves the salinity issue. Manually topping off periodically or having a slow pump on a timer to do it in theory could work once you figure out the amount needed and adjust as needed.

By the way, I love the standpipe idea. I had been thinking of a float switch to control pumping extra water out, but a standpipe would be far more reliable. Thanks for the idea!

This is a good point on salinity. Even though the QT will be consistently topped off, it will be with salt water thus rising the salinity as evaporation occurs. So maybe using the AWC waste to initially fill the QT when needed, divert the AWC waste to stand pipe while using either float valve (gravity fed from RODI tank) OR additional ATO to top off, then put the AWC waste back into the QT every other day or two to perform a WC in the QT using the AWC waste??

 

[ca1ore]

You can also put a bulkhead in the bottom as well tied into the same drain with a ball valve to easily drain the tank.

 

[mikus]

You can also put a bulkhead in the bottom as well tied into the same drain with a ball valve to easily drain the tank.

Great point!

 

[Reefpuck]

Never thought of this. Usually I do a larger water change to pull enough water out of my dt to fill my 20g qt. This would work better so I don't have to do these larger changes.

Thanks for the idea and welcome!

 

[ca1ore]

I generally fill my QT with a single, larger water change on my tank. Since most of the new fish are arriving at 1.015-8, this means diluting with some RODI. I then use the output of my AWC to gradually bring the salinity back up to 1.026 - this generally takes 10-14 days. At that point I direct the AWC output to the stand pipe drain and use a standard float-driven ATO to maintain. Bulkhead in the bottom of the tank allows me to easily drain it. I do not keep it running continuously.

 

[mikus]

I generally fill my QT with a single, larger water change on my tank. Since most of the new fish are arriving at 1.015-8, this means diluting with some RODI. I then use the output of my AWC to gradually bring the salinity back up to 1.026 - this generally takes 10-14 days. At that point I direct the AWC output to the stand pipe drain and use a standard float-driven ATO to maintain. Bulkhead in the bottom of the tank allows me to easily drain it. I do not keep it running continuously.

That make sense. What size is your QT and what is the volume/schedule of your AWC?

 

[ca1ore]

Main QT is a 20L; display is 450. AWC is 2 gallons per day.