Auto Water Change Pump "Group" Buy

R

rjinct

New member
During this past Sunday's club meeting, we got on the topic of automated water changes. There are a few of us in the club that do automated water changes (although the solutions are different)...I was part of that club until 2 months ago when my current pump I was using broke. For the last 3 years, I had been doing automated water changes using a Peristaltic Masterflex pump coupled with 2 pump heads on the single unit. It worked flawlessly and helped keep my parameters rock solid (let alone saving my back from water changes). 2 months ago the masterflex pump broke and I found no way to repair it -- and the used market seems to have skyrocketed from when I originally bought the pump 3 years ago on eBAY. So, while looking at alternative solutions, I came across the below thread and the brand of pump these folks were using. The concept is the same as what I had been doing but the pumps these guys found are a far better replacement than the Masteflex I was using. The link below has all the details you need for my particular setup. But the pros in a nutshell are:

  • Your salt water reservoir and drain for removed saltwater can be remote (garage, basement, etc.)...i.e. no head pressure concerns
  • The tubes to run the salt water and drain are very small (1/4" tubes)...so could blend in with baseboards, easily routed up/through walls
  • Unlike the Masterflex pump, the Stenner pump parts are replaceable and accessible for purchase -- plus much cheaper new.
  • This particular solution will allow you to exchange very small amounts of water all day long...just need a controller. Therefore, there is no need to heat the water before placing into the tank
  • Best of all, it makes water changes a breeze. All you will ever need to do is make a big batch of water every month or few weeks and make sure your Salt Water Reservoir does not run empty. That's it! The system will just work in the background.

If you want all the gory details and tests the folks down in FLA club have done, you can read the thread, but as I've said, I've been doing water changes this way for the last 3 years and it works great. Since my system broke, I had not been keeping up with weekly water changes and my SPS are letting me know, so getting my water change system back up and running is a priority for me.

Here's the thread:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2349824&referrerid=223485


I'm about to move fwd with an order of the below pump. Another local reefer is planning to join me and split shipping. If anyone else is interested, let me know and I can add you to our order. This really isn't a group buy since we aren't going to receive any sort of discount unless we get to around 10 pumps (and even then it's not significant). But you will save on shipping if you join us. I realize it's short notice, but I'm planning to order tomorrow. If you would like to join, please reply to this thread and/or PM me. I will only place the order without prepayment if you are an current ARK member.

Here are the pumps I plan on ordering (or similar GPD variant).

http://www.lockewell.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_6_30_33&products_id=161

Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in joining. It's a pricey investment (but relatively small when compared to our tanks and what we put in them)...but it really makes water changes 100x easier (provided you have a place to stick a big container of mixed up saltwater.
 
I am very interested in the water storage aspect of awc. I have been looking at purchasing two 100 gallon vertical tanks, but shipping to ct costs more than the tanks. If anyone is interested in a water tank group buy I would be more than happy to go in.
 
AQUAholic91 said:
I am very interested in the water storage aspect of awc. I have been looking at purchasing two 100 gallon vertical tanks, but shipping to ct costs more than the tanks. If anyone is interested in a water tank group buy I would be more than happy to go in.
Click to expand...

There is a place in Cheshire called Cultured Aquatic Life. They sell the large 55gal barrels for $20 each. Smaller, but local and cheap.
 
I'm wondering if the ATO would be thrown off by the Auto Water Change system? Is there any flucuation in the water levels in the sump with this system. I'm assuming the water is pumped in and drawn out from the sump....
 
The water is drawn out from whatever you want. I plan on having my apex shut down my pumps in the middle of the night and have the water drawn from the display and replaced into the sump that way I am sure of getting 100% "old" water out. Since I currently do weekly 30 gallon changes, it will be easier to do nightly 4-5 gallon ones.
 
That sounds good, wouldn't it be better to draw from sump and replace in the display? That way you wouldn't need to have a tube in the display.... But I if you replace in the display then it would drain into the sump and you possibly could be drawing new water...... It's a trade off I guess
 
Just what you said- if I turn off the pumps, wait 5 minutes for the water levels to equalize and then do the change, I will be sure of getting 5 gallons of old water out. As for the tube, its a small RO type tube that I can hide behind one of my Koralias.
 
S14Swap240sx said:
Question in regards to the dual head stenner is that 100 gpd or 2 50gpd heads equalling 100gpd?
Click to expand...

Great question. I was just testing mine last night and discovered this- its 100GPD for both heads. 50GPD per head so if you want to do a 5 gallon change, it takes almost 2 1/2 hours. Definitely longer than I expected but it gets the job done. The only question is on the durability of the pump itself running it that long every day. Its made for industrial use so it certainly seems like it will hold up well. I tested it and both heads definitely run at the same rate.
 
Update on the Stenner pump- Worked as advertised though the motor was a bit hot after a 2 hour 20 minute run (5 gallons). Perhaps these things aren't supposed to be run that long?Also a bit odd that when I restarted my sump level was a bit lower than normal. Perhaps evaporation? Will continue to monitor.
 
I finally hooked mine up tonight. It's nice to have auto water changes again! The only difference is that I'm running "continuous" ... well, I'm changing a small amount of water every hour. Will continue to monitor, but so far I like these Stenner pumps. You do lose a little efficiency doing it that way, but I'm not going to sweat it. There's a post about doing a bit every hour vs all at once somewhere here on RC. I'll post the link when I come across it.
 
Here's the link: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/#12

And the excerpt from the article about changing water "continuously"

Continuous water changes: Continuous water changes, despite their name, are not necessarily performed every minute of every day. The distinguishing feature of these changes is that water is added at the same time that it is removed. The actual rate of addition can be high or low. Reef aquarists (myself included) most often perform these types of water changes with two matched pumps, one that removes the old water and one that adds the new water. Often these pumps are part of the same mechanism (such as two sets of tubing on a peristaltic pump or two heads on a diaphragm pump), but that is not a requirement. I use a dual head diaphragm pump capable of a maximum of 30 gallons per day for each head (a Reef Filler pump from Champion Lighting). In my setup, once I have a 44-gallon trash can full of new salt water, all I do to perform a 44 gallon or smaller water change is plug in the pump. The wastewater is sent down the drain. Sometimes I change 44 gallons in one shot, taking about a day and a half. Sometimes I pump for a few hours at a time, and then wait for a few days.

These changes are slightly less efficient than single batch water changes of the same total volume. A continuous water change of 30% exactly matches one batch 26% water change. As with very small batch water changes, these have the advantage of neither stressing the organisms (assuming the change is done reasonably slowly), nor altering the water level in the aquarium. The ease of doing such changes automatically also makes it far more likely that busy or lazy aquarists will actually do them.
Click to expand...
 
I'm wondering if anyone has gotten their pumps in and hooked them up yet? I am very interested in doing this on my new setup. I'm wondering how people have faired with this system...
 
Can somebody check me on this? I want to have the pump come on for 3 minutes 15 seconds every half hour continually. This seems to do it but I just want to confirm before I put it in:

OSC 000:00/003:15/026:45 Then ON

Thanks in advance.
 
from what I read they are rated for continuous use. im going to have mine come on for 2 hours strait three times a day, for a 21 +/- g water change during the day.

its for fresh water discus, and 21 gallons in 30% of my volume daily.

I purchased the 170 since I rather the pump run for less time a day and not overly concerned with where my salt levels are at haha

Honestly if I ever did a larger tank or better yet when I do a larger tank, I would add a second pump so im not running the same pump for so many hours in the day. have it cycle one on for 2 hours the other on for 2 and so on

I will be sure to update this thread, im praying for some good luck

heres a pic of the clean up process during my change up.. stenner and ato will be on the other side, still need to cut some brackets for that tho

 
Not to get completely off topic here but I just set mine up about a month ago using Steve's methodology and it works wonderfully. You guys will be able to see it at the May meeting. The only downside is that it uses 3 ports on my controller.
 
RTMA said:
Not to get completely off topic here but I just set mine up about a month ago using Steve's methodology and it works wonderfully. You guys will be able to see it at the May meeting. The only downside is that it uses 3 ports on my controller.
Click to expand...

can you get into a little more detail or link to where you got into the system and how you set it up? mine comes in Friday, and im not looking to reinvent the wheel but have some ideas
 
Sure, read this thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1677003

Major differences between what Steve is running and what i am running are:

The relay I am using is 110v activated and 110V switching (controls 110V Maxiject pumps). Steve uses 110V activating I believe and 12V switching (controls 12v Tunze pumps)

So if you don't know how a relay works, It has 8 blade connectors. 1 pair for power, 1 pair to pump A, 1 pair to Pump B and 1 pair for Relay activation. When no power is applied, Pump A gets the power from the power lines (when power is applied). When the relay is activated, Pump B gets the power from the power line (when power is applied).

So for me. My standard ATO (RODI Pump) is plugged into Pump A, when I want to dose salt water I active the Relay and Pump B pumps salt water.

To make this work with my Reefkeeper it uses three ports and uses three pumps total -
(ATO (RODI) pump, Salt water pump and Drain pump)

1 Port for standard ATO (RODI).
1 Port for Relay Activation
1 port for a pump for draining

So what I do is at 10 PM, I activate the drain pump port for 2 minutes (and also activate the Salt port for 5 minutes - which activates the Relay). Drain pump: Using a Maxijet 1200 at two/ three feet head removes almost 2 gallons of water from my sump.

At the same time that activates, the RKE signals an alarm that shuts off the ATO port (so it doesnt fill as I drain).

After 2 minutes, the port turns off and the ATO port activates based on my float switch that refill is needed. Since the Relay port is now on, the Salt pump refills the sump to the set height of the float switch.

This usually takes 4/5 minutes to complete. So on my system it looks like this

10:00:00 pm - Drain starts
10:00:00 pm - Relay Active
10:00:00 pm - RKE alarm shuts down ATO port preventing refill as I drain
10:02:00 PM - Drain Stops
10:02:00 pm - Alarm Clears
10:02:01 pm - ATO activates as float switch reports top off required.
10:02:01 pm - Relay Still active
10:02:01 pm - Salt pump refills sump (since relay is active)
10:04 pm - 2 gallons has been replaced.
10:04 pm - ATO turns off reaching desired level of float switch.
10:05 pm - Relay port is turned off
10:05 pm - ATO resumes with freshwater as relay is now turned off.

I'll post a picture of what this looks like.
 
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