automatic water change

Bob you can buy 90 murlok (sharkbite style) fittings but i find it safer to make water change tubing runs out of one complete line without chances to leak or draw in air. I use 90 murlok for my biopellet reactor return but its in a visible location and easy to tell if its leaking.
 
What a great thread!

The prices are better for fixed rate than they are for variable rate pumps. I also see some fixed rate double head pumps at 170gpd. I see the fixed rate double head Stenner at $290 (http://www.lockewell.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_6_31_38)

Am I understanding correctly that a 170gpd pump is actually 85 gallons per head?

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to getting one with a higher rate over lower rates?

I may have missed this but can the Stenner sit 40 feet away from input tanks and still pull the liquid? I have a tank in the family room. There is a large closet behind the tank. My wife allows me to use some of the closet. Our garage is behind the large closet. Our laundry room is next to the closet. My thought is to have my fresh saltwater in the garage pulled by a Stenner in the closet and deposited into the tank. Also to pull old saltwater from the tank and to deposit it down the laundry room drain.

Are there connectors to make 90 bends in the tubing easier to manage?

Even without setting up a hands free water change I find it would make life simpler to use a double head Stenner to do a once a week manually started water change.

Thanks,

Bob


Welcome Bob-

-Yes 170gph is 85 per head.
-Yes you can run it 40', I run it ~25 with zero issues, Dr. Thompson even has it going vertically into his attic.
-Your plan sounds good.
-I use one 90 with no issues but can see where Zaffor is coming from. I got mine at the plumbing department at Lowes.
 
I have multiple 90 elbows in my setup, no issues with leaking, but they are all located where they can be easily checked for leaks, all the long runs through walls and floor are solid lines, no splices on the runs in between pump, display, and water storage.
 
I have multiple 90 elbows in my setup, no issues with leaking, but they are all located where they can be easily checked for leaks, all the long runs through walls and floor are solid lines, no splices on the runs in between pump, display, and water storage.

Zachts- Curious- have you checked for equal volume going in and out?.

i have a negligible difference that i attribute to short run on OUT, and longer run on IN. With LM3 its calibration resolves this, but with Stenner you cant. Im using Stenner.
 
Zachts- Curious- have you checked for equal volume going in and out?.

i have a negligible difference that i attribute to short run on OUT, and longer run on IN. With LM3 its calibration resolves this, but with Stenner you cant. Im using Stenner.

I have, my setup is a three way water change, new salt water to display, display water to frag tank, frag tank water to drain. Using a three head cole parmer pump setup. Same number of elbows and connectors on each run. They are about the same lenght plus/minus around 10' horizontal. I didn't really ever measure just eyeballed the location of my pump relative to the SW bin, my display, and my frag tank, and the drain.

Two lines pump dead on accurate and the third head is a tiny bit faster. It moves about one gallon more over 24 gallons changed out which is perfect since I have it feeding new water to my display and that makes up for water removed by the skimmer perfectly. (incidentally it didn't matter which run this head was on it was the same amount faster all around, awesome accuracy with the cole parmer heads!)

I have a few extra heads and was going to swap them around to find three that were perfectly matched until I cleaned my skimmer one afternoon and realized I dump a little over a gallon of water out of the collection jug each month..........problem solved. Salinity has not shifted at all over the last 10 or so months since my system has been on AWC, and it's only a 55 gallon by the way.
 
E why not add a coil of line to the out to equalize the water exchange?

Zaffor- thats actually a very good idea. I even bought but never used a "pinch valve". I cant remember the difference I had between in and out, im sure its a few pages back, but when I did the numbers it really was insignificant in the full scheme of things.

I dont have salinity shifts like you would expect if it was a significant difference, so I have not done anything about it. All is fine.

I think Dr. Thompson and I are past the 1 year mark. He started a few months before I did.
 
I would think that adding a coil of line would be much easier to control vs fiddling with a valve and hoping nothing builds up inside of it.

Took some photos up in the attic while I was adding a line to my ATO container

B8E0E32C-8442-46C0-BDF1-B262FCF46682.jpg


EBB5ED4A-10F9-45AA-95B3-A01CC0CE45E7.jpg


1CB5ABC7-95AD-4D30-A8FD-275B0EBE295F.jpg
 
im thinking about using one of these pumps but my sw mixing is under my raised house by about 14f would the flow be balanced in and out whit it pumping up but sucking down out my sump? i was thinking of putign the pump by my mixing station
 
Are you guys using Stenners using the 100 or the 170? The 100 rotates slower so it might be quieter? What tube # are you using??

I'm looking at the 170FL5 which would be 170GPD, so roughly 3.5 gallons per hour of change, right? (170/2 heads = 85/24 hours a day = 3.54 gallons per head per hour?) So I figured an hour a day to start...

Are you all doing Santoprene or Tygothene?
 
Are you guys using Stenners using the 100 or the 170? The 100 rotates slower so it might be quieter? What tube # are you using??

I'm looking at the 170FL5 which would be 170GPD, so roughly 3.5 gallons per hour of change, right? (170/2 heads = 85/24 hours a day = 3.54 gallons per head per hour?) So I figured an hour a day to start...

Are you all doing Santoprene or Tygothene?

i used the tubing it came with. an mine is a 100.
 
im thinking about using one of these pumps but my sw mixing is under my raised house by about 14f would the flow be balanced in and out whit it pumping up but sucking down out my sump? i was thinking of putign the pump by my mixing station

I think Dr. Thompson has a similar set up but he goes up to his attic then back down. check his set up at the beginnin of this thread. Im almost sure he describes it.
 
Thanks Eddie. After the ebay fiasco I had a few months ago, this is what I've ordered:

Stenner 170DM:170FL5
170.0 gpd (25 psi)
Suction & Discharge Tubing :1 = 1/4" White
Tube Material:T = Tygothane

Will probably start with running it one or two hours a day to change 3-6 gallons a day on the 180.
 
Finally installed our Neptune DoS.

I have it feeding new saltwater from a 50 gallon barrel to the area of the sump with the returns. I then have old tank water being pulled from near the skimmer and then drained to our washing machine drain.

 
Finally installed our Neptune DoS.

I have it feeding new saltwater from a 50 gallon barrel to the area of the sump with the returns. I then have old tank water being pulled from near the skimmer and then drained to our washing machine drain.

Just a word of caution with the DoS. They have had reports of back siphon issues. Couldn't tell from the description of video but make sure your waste water line at the drain is higher than your sump water level, and that the new saltwater line going into your sump is also above the water level in the sump.
 
Just a word of caution with the DoS. They have had reports of back siphon issues. Couldn't tell from the description of video but make sure your waste water line at the drain is higher than your sump water level, and that the new saltwater line going into your sump is also above the water level in the sump.

Both levels of the sump are lower than the new saltwater and drain. Also the DoS is higher than everything.

Would adding a check a valve to the lines help? Just in case, actually the feed for new saltwater to the sump is lower then the sump.
 
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Both levels of the sump are lower than the new saltwater and drain. Also the DoS is higher than everything.

Would adding a check a valve to the lines help? Just in case, actually the feed for new saltwater to the sump is lower then the sump.

Check valves aren't very reliable with tank or salt water.

As long as water can't potentially siphon into or out of the sump its fine. If water could potentially siphon from the New saltwater bin into the sump a float valve like used with ATO systems would be an inexpensive and wise safety measure but would not prevent water from continuing to siphon in slowly due to evaporation once the level raised up and closed the valve. It would prevent draining the whole bin into the tank and onto the floor though and would mitigate any dangerously fast salinity swings if something went wrong.

The best thing would be a solenoid valve that opens when the pump runs.
 
I would think that adding a coil of line would be much easier to control vs fiddling with a valve and hoping nothing builds up inside of it.

Took some photos up in the attic while I was adding a line to my ATO container

B8E0E32C-8442-46C0-BDF1-B262FCF46682.jpg


EBB5ED4A-10F9-45AA-95B3-A01CC0CE45E7.jpg


1CB5ABC7-95AD-4D30-A8FD-275B0EBE295F.jpg

These Stenner Pumps can push 25psi, just how much of a coil are you going to need to tune it? How long would it take to tune it? Valve is good.... clean it every so often.
As far as Stenner tubing, I have a 100 DMP5 (#5 tubing) and Dr.T has the #4 tubing I believe.
They say #5 tubing is 100 gal/day but it seems more like 25-30/24hrs. (Going by memory here) Using DOS now.
I know someone with a Stenner DMP5 for sale ;)
 
Check valves aren't very reliable with tank or salt water.

As long as water can't potentially siphon into or out of the sump its fine. If water could potentially siphon from the New saltwater bin into the sump a float valve like used with ATO systems would be an inexpensive and wise safety measure but would not prevent water from continuing to siphon in slowly due to evaporation once the level raised up and closed the valve. It would prevent draining the whole bin into the tank and onto the floor though and would mitigate any dangerously fast salinity swings if something went wrong.

The best thing would be a solenoid valve that opens when the pump runs.

Great idea on the float value!

The DoS tubing ins 4mm/6mm, very close to 1/4", wonder if it would work with 1/4" float valves...
 
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