Small, apartment friendly, AWC system

[EmdeReef]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has come up with a creative and effective auto water change system that could be implemented in an apartment? I have a reefer 350and trying to minimize the hassle of water changes

(Believe me guys I envy you for being able to have all those big mixing stations etc[emoji30]) but unless I were to put that brute in one of my bedrooms....

Looking forward to ideas!
Thanks in advance!

 

[monkiboy]

I have two friends in apartments with stenner pumps and they hide their fresh saltwater under the kitchen sink or a coat closet and once in the linen closet then run lines through floor boards or plenum to avoid anything being seen for super clean install. anything is possible with some creativity.

 

[EmdeReef]

Thanks! I haven't thought of using a closet. I'm not very handy...can change a light-bulb type

 

[willtheld]

In a small apartment too. I have a public laundry room in our 3 flat building that I put my mixing station in along with my apex dos. Being a laundry room there was conveniently a drain to dump old saltwater down. A couple of small holes drilled through the wall so I could pass 3 1/4 tubes through and a cat5 to run the aquabus signal over and I was in business. When I move out, a little spackle over the holes and no one will ever know.

 

[Breadman03]

I’m using my basement with DOS pumps, but you could easily do it anywhere you can run some RO tube.

I like my DOS, but there are good industrial pumps that would work great as well.

 

[HolisticBear]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has come up with a creative and effective auto water change system that could be implemented in an apartment? I have a reefer 350and trying to minimize the hassle of water changes

(Believe me guys I envy you for being able to have all those big mixing stations etc[emoji30]) but unless I were to put that brute in one of my bedrooms....

Looking forward to ideas!
Thanks in advance!

You use use a Apex DOS or GHL doser to do the water changes, they work over a long distance. I think the issue is hiding the two containers and R/O tubing. You could run the R/O tubing into a closet and maybe stack two 10 gallon containers. At 1% a day, 10G gets you almost two weeks, larger buys you more time. I've got a 170 in a small NY apartment as well and it's a space challenge. Places like Blue Tide Acrylic will make custom containers for a very reasonable price, so have him make you two for whatever corner spot you've got.

 

[EmdeReef]

You use use a Apex DOS or GHL doser to do the water changes, they work over a long distance. I think the issue is hiding the two containers and R/O tubing. You could run the R/O tubing into a closet and maybe stack two 10 gallon containers. At 1% a day, 10G gets you almost two weeks, larger buys you more time. I've got a 170 in a small NY apartment as well and it's a space challenge. Places like Blue Tide Acrylic will make custom containers for a very reasonable price, so have him make you two for whatever corner spot you've got.

Thank you! Didn't know GHL doser would work over a long distance/longer time. I was going to convert a walk-in closet but yeah the issue is hiding the R/O tubing. I had a contractor take a look yesterday and he suggested either running it along with the ethernet cables in the walls - a bit scary for leaks, or trying to hide along floor molding in which case it would have to be manually connected every time.

 

[HolisticBear]

Thank you! Didn't know GHL doser would work over a long distance/longer time. I was going to convert a walk-in closet but yeah the issue is hiding the R/O tubing. I had a contractor take a look yesterday and he suggested either running it along with the ethernet cables in the walls - a bit scary for leaks, or trying to hide along floor molding in which case it would have to be manually connected every time.

A buddy of mine ran them thru the walls and put the tubes inside a conduit to provide a little extra safety. I'd think running them along the corner of the trim using some type of cable hider (like you'd hide coax cable) would look ok. GHL makes a special doser for water changes, more heavy duty, but the regular one may suffice.

I know I've read some AWC threads, @d2mini has a nice AWC setup I think.

 

[willtheld]

I don’t know about the ghl. But with the dos it has a suction of 10’ vertical and push of 10’ vertical. From what I was taught, 1’ vertical head pressure works out to be 10’ horizontal head pressure.