Setting up LiterMeter III for Automatic Water Changes

[Slats]

Hello All,

Looking for advice on how much saltwater to replenish each day.

I currently have setup my LiterMeter III with two pumps, Pump A and Pump B.

Pump A: Adding 2.67 liters of saltwater per day
Pump B: Removing 2.67 liters of tank water per day

2.67 liters = 0.7 gallons




I believe I arrived at this amount by looking at what others have done on the forums, which seemed to be 1% of total water volume per day.

70 total gallons * 0.01 = 0.7 gallons per day.

Works out to:

14% - 9.8 gallons every 2 weeks
21% - 14.7 gallons every 3 weeks
28% - 19.6 gallons every 4 weeks


Just looking to see how much water volume others are changing at a daily rate and any recommendations are welcomed!

 

[mcgyvr]

Really depends on your tank/inhabitants and the reason you want to do it continuously..

If you are doing AWC for nitrates then change just enough to keep them from rising..
If doing it for alk/cal,etc.. then again change just enough to keep them stable..

Make sure both pumps are keeping a consistent rate overtime.. Even with peristaltics the flowrates can be different (calibrate them to each other and still watch it)

 

[Slats]

Really depends on your tank/inhabitants and the reason you want to do it continuously..

If you are doing AWC for nitrates then change just enough to keep them from rising..
If doing it for alk/cal,etc.. then again change just enough to keep them stable..

Make sure both pumps are keeping a consistent rate overtime.. Even with peristaltics the flowrates can be different (calibrate them to each other and still watch it)

Thanks for the reply.

I am doing the AWC to keep nitrates down. That makes perfect sense that there is no definite answer and I should do as much to the point where I see nitrates consistently at 0.

Yep, just calibrated them, and there is a setting on the LiterMeter to alarm after x amount of hours of run time for re-calibration.

 

[THE ROOK]

Can these pumps pull/push from the basement?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[texdoc77]

Hello All,

Looking for advice on how much saltwater to replenish each day.

I currently have setup my LiterMeter III with two pumps, Pump A and Pump B.

Pump A: Adding 2.67 liters of saltwater per day
Pump B: Removing 2.67 liters of tank water per day

2.67 liters = 0.7 gallons

I believe I arrived at this amount by looking at what others have done on the forums, which seemed to be 1% of total water volume per day.

70 total gallons * 0.01 = 0.7 gallons per day.

Works out to:

14% - 9.8 gallons every 2 weeks
21% - 14.7 gallons every 3 weeks
28% - 19.6 gallons every 4 weeks


Just looking to see how much water volume others are changing at a daily rate and any recommendations are welcomed!

There are a couple of great threads on just this topic. One is a build specifically for the litermeter III and another is a discussion of pros and cons of different pumps used to do this. I recommend reading through them both. They also reference a thread by Randy Holmes-Farley where he discusses the daily amount of water changes and how this equates to weekly and monthly water changes.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113252

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

Personally I think small daily water changes is the way to go as I am setting up my new 150 I will have a litermeter III system that goes through the attic to my tank. I have a build thread and will likely do a video to help with explaining my installation.

Really depends on your tank/inhabitants and the reason you want to do it continuously..

If you are doing AWC for nitrates then change just enough to keep them from rising..
If doing it for alk/cal,etc.. then again change just enough to keep them stable..

Make sure both pumps are keeping a consistent rate overtime.. Even with peristaltics the flowrates can be different (calibrate them to each other and still watch it)

I agree, do not do daily water changes for dosing, do it for waste export and tank stability. The pumps in the above discussions are exceptionally accurate, but as with anything continue to check SG and other parameters.

Can these pumps pull/push from the basement?

Yes, the litermeter is a very strong pump and should not have any issues with back siphoning.

 

[ganjero]

Can these pumps pull/push from the basement?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Yes, pull from up to 25ft or push up to 60ft.