DIY "contiuous" water change system?

[jumpfreak26]

Ok so would this work. Say un your sump(where the water level changes due to evap....that place..) what if you had a bulkhead at the waterline in ur sump, connected to a ball valve, then to a drain. You then have a sW reservoir, and you either 1) open the sump valve, and add fresh SW, as the sump fills up, it drains away to the drain. or 2) continually add fresh SW every hour, and either leave the valve open or have both the sw "fill pump" and an electric solenoid valve open at the same time. The only problem I see with option 2 is maintaining salinity, and te problem with leaving the valve open is iff ur return quits, your draining till it either closes or pump kicks in. thoughts? i have just been tossing this around my head, wondering if it would work or not......

 

[x947]

I'm thinking the same thing. I want to have a container that fills with RO water with the water level maintained by a float valve. In the container I want to keep a powerhead circulating the water. I will add salt to the container to the proper salinity. I will have another pump on a timer to run once a week that pumps the saltwater from the holding tank to the sump. As the sump fills, a bulkead will drain the excess water out of the sump to a drain. That would be for a "water change" with the sump being flushed with salt water. A float switch in the sump connected to a freshwater RO resevoir will trigger when the water level drops due to evaporation so the the replacement water is fresh and the salinity would remain stable. Those two functions need to be "segregated" in my mind so that you aren't replacing evaporated water with any pre-mixed salt water. I think it's gonna work fine. Planning it all out as we speak.

Mike

 

[Vegas RN]

my only question is that if all this is taking place in the sump wouldnt most of the new sw just be flushed out? I guess if you put the drain upstream from new sw and return by the new sw it could work.

 

[jumpfreak26]

Depends on the size of your sump. you can always do a little at a time too, like evry other day or so, abd you woulnt waste as much new sw, cuz it still wouldnt have reached the sump yet

 

[Xavier613]

Wouldn't this continuously raise your salinity because topoff water is supposed to be just filtered water.... evap is jsut the water not salt so adding more salt = bad?

I might bewrong but i think i saw someone kill everything in their tank topping off with SW because the salinity got to be about 1.035+

 

[coralfragger101]

There was just a thread on here within the past month that covered all of this. I can't seem to find it right now though. Do some searching. It covered a lot of ideas, possibilities, etc.

 

[areze]

that one involved an active pumping of the water out of the sump instead of an overflow. the fresh saltwater pump was matched to the disposal pump, ATO still functions as normal. but your relying on matching pump rates...

your method would require active salinity monitoring is the only way I see it.

 

[Acipenser]

The nicest and simplest idea that I have seen included an additional mixing tank in the water change/tank system. The mixing tank was plumbed into the system, but was also capable of being bypassed. It also had a drain.

The way it was used was as follows. Normal operations the mixing tank is part of the entire system. To do a water change, re-route system water around mixing tank using a series of valves and plumbing (real easy). Drain the mixing tank, and refill with RO water. Add salt and allow to mix using a powerhead. When mixed and adjusted, return mixing tank to the normal operating state.

The new SW is then slowly added to the entire system.

 

[areze]

man, thats my idea, I thought I was being new and inventive lol.

not operational yet. its not quite a continuous water change, but it will take a few hours if not days depending on the flow through that tank for the water in it to fully mix with the tank water.

 

[Doahh]

But it relys on your float switch being EXACT... Most float switches activate in about .5 inches... If your SW starts at the top of that then your good... if it always activates at the bottom of the float switch your basically screwed...
My Sprinkler Dripper system works flawlessly so far

 

[pencil3]

I think the Litermeter has something that can do this?

 

[Doahh]

Yeah... For around $600 Bucks
My system costs about $30 new

 

[areze]

but its somewhat low volume and you check it somewhat frequently. also, the trick of it is that it works till it doesnt. which with any luck it will work forever. its no foolproof though... 1 pump fails and you COULD have an issue. keeping the salt water supply small so it cant hit the tank too hard or overflow too much, stuff like that can minimize damage.

not sure if there is a better option out there, not that I can think of.

 

[Doahh]

You could run 2 float switches and a relay... One to shut off the system when the SW container is empty and an emergency water level too high float switch... One would be the New SW one would be NO and the in sump one would be NC

 

[EnderG60]

2 DIY parastaltic pumps, two digital timers and a holding tank.

aside from the tank(which will vary depeding on the system) the rest can be done for $60-80, and can do as little as 5ml a day to a few hundred gallons a day.

might not be as cheap as some other setups but its the most accurate way to do it. Plus if you have a auto top off system it will still work, you just have to set it on a timer so it go off when the WC pumps are on.

 

[Doahh]

But you still have to match pump rates...

 

[areze]

well parataltic pumps are considered to be constant I think... not sure what DIY ones are, but yeah... Ill assume they exist, and its a valid option, I suppose? if a pump fails, your still in trouble. I think true matched peristaltic pumps(the expensive kind) are connected to know if 1 has stopped, so the other stops.

 

[Doahh]

and You could also use float switches and relays with that system... a Low system water and a High system water level to shut off the whole system. It's still a lot more expensive than my system though

 

[areze]

your ATO could be an issue there. you would need to gaurentee that its topped off consistantly(not sure if a float valve can be that consistant, but it should be randomly inconsistant lol, so you start off low as often as you do high... and end up netting 0) to the high water level before each change was to take place.

 

[Doahh]

No the float switches are a safety thing... like if one pump quit, came disconnected, cat removes the line from intake, etc.