Water Changes

[littlenemo]

auto water changes well make life easy water changes

 

[ZoddyZod]

moved this to hardware/DIY....looks like a well thought out plan, but I'll let someone with experience tell you if it'll work or not...

 

[littlenemo]

cheers thank you

 

[DrRob]

As a thought, wouldn't using the main return pump, with a 2 way valve, to feed the water out tank, take a pump out of the system and remove an unsightly pump from the tank that would carry a risk of sucking up something important, or just getting blocked by plant matter?

Alternatively just put the hidden powerhead in the sump.

 

[littlenemo]

problem with doing it from sump is once the water drops below over flow box wont have any water and over flow is above a 20% water change.

as you can see over flow box is quite high

 

[ainsy]

I had a similar set up when I kept marines.

I would get rid of the extra pump from the tank and add a t-piece to the overflow with a ball valve on it. That way you can set the ball valve to remove just the right amount of water in balance to the fresh water that you are adding back in.

Also ditch the 'return' bucket and second return pump. Have the fresh water and dosing pump flowing straight into the sump.

That way you have removed two pumps that you didn't need (and save on the electricity!)

HTH

 

[littlenemo]

i wanted to take out 25 ltr of old water out evy sat and have 25 ltr in my other bucket warm and put back in. so that would be my weekly water change
need some thing to be lower than my over flow box to take more water out

 

[littlenemo]

what if i just used hand held sypon to drain water out and then just have a bucket with a mains tap to it filled up then when it time just pull my return pump out of my sump and plonk it in bucket to return water>??? and use dosing pump to add tape safe and plant food to bucket of water

 

[ainsy]

Right - I see now - I thought you were looking at a constant water changer.

Keep the t-piece and ball valve part - pipe straight to drain & then keep your 'return' side of things.

(have you considered the constant water changer? you wouldn't need to heat the water as you would only be changing a little at a time)

what if i just used hand held sypon to drain water out and then just have a bucket with a mains tap to it filled up then when it time just pull my return pump out of my sump and plonk it in bucket to return water>??? and use dosing pump to add tape safe and plant food to bucket of water

this would work but why bother moving the return? just pour the water into the sump.

 

[littlenemo]

just wanted so that i could just leave it and put it all on a weekly timer so it would just do it. if i did a constant water changer would i still need to do weekly big changes

 

[ainsy]

OK - back to plan A then!!!

Yes it could work BUT you would need two pumps that are identical and both on the same timer (to ensure that you remove and replace exactly the same volume of water)

You may need to try this a few times as a little trial and error may be involved in balancing input and output.

Because of this I would keep a very close eye on your levels!!