Salt water mixing station -Remove tank water

[Protodad]

Hey all, setting up a mixing station and I was wondering if I could set it up so that I could also remove water from the DT using the same pump?

Anyone have a water removal setup to go with their mixing station.

 

[blaxsun]

You mean the pump for circulating the saltwater in a storage container or for the actual water change?

 

[oldmonk]

You mean the pump for circulating the saltwater in a storage container or for the actual water change?

No.
What he's intending is, the pump that transfers water from saltwater storage container, can that same pump be used to remove water from display tank. So intention is to eliminate siphoning water manually from DT.

Thanks

 

[Joe31415]

If you're just talking about a regular, submersible, pump. Sure. Toss it in the DT and pump out your water, then toss it in the new saltwater and fill the tank back up. That's pretty common.
If you're talking about something more along the lines of a dosing pump (ie BRS 50ml/min or a Versa)....yes and no.
Yes, in that you could potentially tell the pump to empty water for X minutes, then spin in the other direction for another X minutes.
However, that involves either moving a hose to the drain when it's emptying and back into the new salt water when it's refilling OR, a Tee along with a two check valves so it can drain into a drain but fill from the new saltwater bucket.

What's much more common is two dosing pumps, one to pump old water out, the other to pump new water in. Plus, with timers (or app control), you can very easily automate the entire process.

But again, if you're just talking about a cheap submersible pump, it's no problem.

 

[threebuoys]

I do what @Joe31415 outlined in his first paragraph. I bought a cheap pump and some "expensive" silicone hose (low memory, doesn't kink or coil) off of amazon.

Additionally, I always keep the brute full of mixed water to have it ready when needed, so I just drop the pump and silicone hose in the trashcan and leave the pump running to keep the water circulating between changes.

 

[Joe31415]

With my old fresh-water tank, I was using buckets and a siphon, and eventually upgraded to a python, but since that tank used tap water (directly from the tap, into the tank) and didn't require a pump, the python made it really easy.

When I set up the salt water tank, I was lucky, that the Versa pumps happened to show up on BRS, very briefly, while I was still cycling it.
Having two of those, one in, one out, makes life a lot easier. Plus, with the new water coming from a big brute can in my basement and the old water being pumped directly into a drain, the whole thing runs with very little help from me, short of making sure there's always fresh salt water ready to go (app starts and stops them on it's own, plumbed to a drain means there isn't a bucket somewhere that might overflow etc).

 

[Cell]

I would think with some tees and valves you should be able to rig something up?

 

[Joe31415]

I would think with some tees and valves you should be able to rig something up?

With a single dosing pump? Yes, but the pump would have to be able to run backwards (on a schedule or for a set amount of time, it would be difficult if you had to hold a 'reverse' button the entire time).

In any case, a dosing pump with, let's call it the input side, in the tank. On the 'output' side you'd have a T, and then each side of the T would have a check valve, pointing in opposite directions. The check valve allowing water to flow away from the pump, goes to the drain. The check valve allowing water to flow towards the pump goes to the new saltwater.
In normal operation, the pump will draw water from the DT, through the pump and send it to the drain while keeping the other valve closed. If you reverse the pump, it'll draw water up from the new saltwater bucket and send it to the tank while the valve on the waste side remains closed.

My gut says it would be easier to just use two pumps and eliminate all the valves. But, OTOH, this seems like a fairly elegant solution to both empty and fill the tank with a single pump. A bit of extra maintenance since those cheap valves go bad from time to time (and it may be hard to notice, depending on how things are set up) and a some extra connections where things can leak. But with that, it would also give you the ability to do everything with a single app/single pump.

Anyone have a water removal setup to go with their mixing station.

And to get back to this question, a lot of people have a 'water removal setup'. Look for "Auto water changer" and you'll find plenty of examples. Pre-built, homemade, apps/controllers that can handle it etc.

 

[n2585722]

Are you wanting to setup a pump for auto water changes using a dosing pump? They make dual head dosing pumps that will do this. I modified a Intllab pump to a dual head pump and use it for auto water changes. The only issue is you have to have some way to catch the problem if one of the heads has an issue and quits pumping. I have a high and low sump sensor but my ATO usually will catch it and start sending alerts before the level gets to either sensor. Below is a photo of my dosing pumps in the garage where the storage tanks are. The one with the two green pump heads is my AWC pump. The one to the right of it is the ATO pump. The one above the ATO is my All For Reef pump. The remaining pump is a spare.

 

[Stephensx04]

Crude drawing but based on what you are looking to do this would work. Just involve Turing a couple valves on or off to get water to flow in direction you want it to go. Just use an external pump like a Jebeo like I use for my mixing station.

Pretty self explanatory