Anyone using continuous Litermeter3 water changes?

[tonyespinoza]

I'm thinking of setting one up on my tank and having it do a continuous water change. Apparently, it can move 26 gallons a day!

In my case I'd just do 10% or 15% per week in volume (10 - 15 g), but do it in it's standard 150 increments per day.

Obviously this will necessitate having a big reservoir to dump the old water into, but I'm intrigued by the idea of small water changes and being able to setup a system that reduces changes to a monthly chore of dumping old water and mixing one batch of SW.

There's also an level alarm, so if the system went berserk, it would stop itself before overflowing the tanks.

It ain't cheap, but time isn't either.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone done it?

Seems like a great way to automate a tiny Nano or Pico as well. (And the related storage areas would be more easily hidden too.)

-tE

 

[Icefire]

You'll need to top off with diluted saltwater.

 

[ChuckLawson]

Icefire, I assume you're suggesting dilute to allow for evaporation?

I was thinking along the same line as Tony, except using the third channel of the Litermeter (since the constant water change takes one to pump out, and a second to pump in) to handle top off (with kalk, in my case).

Since the litermeter supposedly only energizes one pump at a time, if you could prioritize the order, you should be able to do the water change independent of top-off - pump out, pump in, and then back to normal top-off mode (controlled by float switch).

Does anyone know if it's possible to set up the litermeter in such a manner?

For that matter, since we're talking small volumes, if you pumped in the new before you pumped the old out (preferably at different locations (into the display, out of the sump, etc.), to minimize the amount of new water cycled back out), you should be able to do it without overriding any water-level based top-off scheme...

 

[tonyespinoza]

Bump

Bump

I actually have a Tunze Osmolator for the ATO.

So the litermeter3 would be for the continuous water changes. Or if that's not a good idea, I could at least use it to do the weekly water change over a couple days -- which should be less stressful for the tank.

You actually need 2 channels of Litermeter3 to make this work - so for those folks using the unit to dose TwoPart (which I think is the most popular usage) there's no way to do this without buying another Litermeter plus the Water eXchange Module. It's a pricey solution, so I'm interested to see if anyone's tried it.

If not, maybe I'll be the first!

-tE

 

[bureau13]

Intriguing idea actually! I hate water changes

You would have to use a controller to turn off the Osmolator when you start pumping water out and leave it off until you've replaced it with new water, or if you have sufficient excess room in your sump I guess you could add the new water first (but then you are potentially diluting your new water with old).

jds

 

[johnski]

I'm going to be implementing a continuous water change regime on my new tank, here is a pic of my initial design

this has changed a little in that i will be using a programmable dual-headed peri pump. as the fresh ro water i will be using will be unheated , evaporation loss is at a minimum.

i posted this on the UK forum where i spend most of my time, if you'd like to see the comments , it is here http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=211562

hope posting the link to the other forum is ok

 

[little_squid]

johnski thats what im going to do as well but instead of it being wasted water i was going to feed a 30 gallon breeder tank and use that as my qt

 

[johnski]

little_squid, great minds LOL , i'm going to use my waste from the main tank as the water change for my nano

 

[ChuckLawson]

This thread in the Spectrapure forum was fairly interesting...

 

[Serioussnaps]

Lazy fools!!!!!!!LOL this is great...only in America

 

[diverdick]

One question

One question

WHY?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Nice first post at RC diverdick...

Why? Becuase once you get ahead of the filtration, you stay ahead. You water remains clean. With weekly or monthly water changes, the water quality rises and falls from water change to water change. With a nonstop change the water quality remains the same. The environment is more stable for your corals, and less hassle for you to maintain.

I suggest reading any of a number of studies on the subject. Our own Randy Holmes Farley wrote a rather long piece on this subject. Check the reef chem forum sticky for a link, or use google.

 

[glassbox-design]

stability is everything, a constant replenishment of elements could do wonders for our animals.

have you guys checkedout the dialyseas unit? pretty cool toy...

 

[BeanAnimal]

Pretty expensive toy for what it does. A few here at RC have them.... ask around.

 

[AmosUSA]

I run my system just like that I have received great results

 

[diverdick]

Why thank you Animal.

I feel this question is largely overlooked by several people in life.

Not for nothing, great results can be attributed to literally tens of hundreds of methods ranging from pounds of gear and widgets to the simple water flow and lighting. Ooopps, left out the Ouija Board (yes, I had to look that one up) LMAO.

Anyway, thanks for making me feel welcome

---> Dick

 

[BeanAnimal]

Dick... I took you post as kind of flip. With each passing day, I find that more and more people have pretty crummy social skills.

That said, I may have assumed (we all know what that means). If your question was an honest attempt to garner the information, well then I apologize. And welcome to RC.

Bean

 

[Pauper]

I've been running a LM3 for water changes. I have 3 pumps. The first and second one does the water change from a 45G Brute with saltwater to my basement sink. The third pump does my top off. The setup works great for me since I used to add top off water every day and the monthly changes were a nightmare.

I don't know the exact stats but the LM3 can pull water up quite a ways so if you have a basement or utility sink not too far from your tank, it might be worthwhile to look into so you don't need to carry a lot of water back and forth every day/week.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Pulling water against head like that severely shortens the tubing set's life.

 

[Pauper]

I don't since I have my sump in the basement next to a utility sink but if I needed to I'd probably run it up 10 feet instead of carrying 3 gallons a day for evap and 10 gallons a week for water change.