Itchy Trigger
Active member
Is it ok to post freshwater questions here? Or will I be banned for blasphemy?
I've just bought a new house in the Hudson Valley with a nice sized basement. I'm starting with a large freshwater system of several hundred gallons. I want to do a continuous drip system on the tank that will turnover 200% of the tank's volume each week (there are going to be big, messy fish in there).
The house is on well water (there's a water softener as well), and the water is a little too high in alkalinity/TDS/pH for the South American cichlids I keep, while my CA cichlids could probably handle it. Actually they could all PROBABLY handle it and maybe I'm being overly cautious. But I thought the best/safest way to do this would be to go with RO/DI water.
So... For the continuous drip I'd be running a line off my cold supply line. Would I be able to just run this through the RO/DI unit and straight to the tank? I would have to then dose the tank with buffer to replenish the water with what would make ideal parameters for the fish. I just want to be able to have everything automated. So if the water goes through RO unit and then drips to the tank, I can then use dosing pumps on the sump to add buffer or whatever is essential back to the tank. Or something like that...
Can anyone offer any suggestions to help me accomplish what I'm going for (i.e. total automation)? Or should I throw caution to the wind and just acclimate my fish slowly to the new water and see how they do?
I realize I could just start over and keep rift lake cichlids or something but I already have a few tanks' worth of CA/SA fish that I'd like to move into the new house.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone?
I've just bought a new house in the Hudson Valley with a nice sized basement. I'm starting with a large freshwater system of several hundred gallons. I want to do a continuous drip system on the tank that will turnover 200% of the tank's volume each week (there are going to be big, messy fish in there).
The house is on well water (there's a water softener as well), and the water is a little too high in alkalinity/TDS/pH for the South American cichlids I keep, while my CA cichlids could probably handle it. Actually they could all PROBABLY handle it and maybe I'm being overly cautious. But I thought the best/safest way to do this would be to go with RO/DI water.
So... For the continuous drip I'd be running a line off my cold supply line. Would I be able to just run this through the RO/DI unit and straight to the tank? I would have to then dose the tank with buffer to replenish the water with what would make ideal parameters for the fish. I just want to be able to have everything automated. So if the water goes through RO unit and then drips to the tank, I can then use dosing pumps on the sump to add buffer or whatever is essential back to the tank. Or something like that...
Can anyone offer any suggestions to help me accomplish what I'm going for (i.e. total automation)? Or should I throw caution to the wind and just acclimate my fish slowly to the new water and see how they do?
I realize I could just start over and keep rift lake cichlids or something but I already have a few tanks' worth of CA/SA fish that I'd like to move into the new house.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone?
