Water change equipment

acidblondie said:
I'm going to be using a Litermeter and changing about 4 gallons a day when I finally get my 210 system up and running. They say those pumps can lift water over 30 feet and push up around 60 feet IRC
Click to expand...
True... I thought about that, and honestly I would like the option of continuous change if I choose to. But... that's $350 for a pretty much continuous w/c operation only.

Spacey :D
 
This thread is right up my alley as I too have a 400+ system in the living room and my 60g drums are in the basement and the thought of having to lug 5g buckets up two flights of stairs makes me want to cry....
 
I have my rodi water and NSW cans hooked up to a little giant pump in the basement, from the pump I have PVC ran up to the tank and my RODI top off container. when I want to do a water change I syphen out how much I want to change then just flip a switch and NSW pumps into the tank from the basement. takes me about 10 min. to do a 30 gal. water change.
 
5pacey said:
True... I thought about that, and honestly I would like the option of continuous change if I choose to. But... that's $350 for a pretty much continuous w/c operation only.

Spacey :D
Click to expand...


True, but if you look at some of the other prices being tossed about here is it really all that much more? I am carrying 2-4 buckets for my 120 system up from the basement now, which would be 6 buckets a week for my 210. Not having to do that is worth quite a few dollars to me. Plus the added stability of continuous WC
 
acidblondie said:
True, but if you look at some of the other prices being tossed about here is it really all that much more? I am carrying 2-4 buckets for my 120 system up from the basement now, which would be 6 buckets a week for my 210. Not having to do that is worth quite a few dollars to me. Plus the added stability of continuous WC
Click to expand...

Actually... I have a question on that. I remember I thought about doing something like that a while ago. In the end I canned the project because this was for a 30gal dt and i decided that things are getting too complicated. But.. w/the continuous w/c setup don't u need two identical pumps working in parallel? One to pull water out and the other to pull it in? And they have to be perfectly balanced (have identical flow at the nozzle, not just on paper) or you are going to be adding or subtracting more, which is obviously not good, no?

Spacey :)
 
5pacey said:
Actually... I have a question on that. I remember I thought about doing something like that a while ago. In the end I canned the project because this was for a 30gal dt and i decided that things are getting too complicated. But.. w/the continuous w/c setup don't u need two identical pumps working in parallel? One to pull water out and the other to pull it in? And they have to be perfectly balanced (have identical flow at the nozzle, not just on paper) or you are going to be adding or subtracting more, which is obviously not good, no?

Spacey :)
Click to expand...

Yes
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1575129
This thread pretty much covers it
 
Sounds interesting acidblondie... I need to read up more to figure out how this works, because it looks like its not only the AquaLifer but also another pump module one needs for doing this using AquaLifters. Makes sense, need 2 pumps but thats' not only $350 for the main pump but also 170 for the secondary I think... but I could be off, haven't dug into how the WXM works yet.

On a different note...

Here is a good deal - http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/206447/i/7/product.web

Mag 18 on sale for $118,-. It looks like it could do ~500Gph @ 15ft head according to their chart and is "cheap" enough that if it burns out you can sort of not cry about it that much. Aaaaand it's submersible!

Now the question for me figure out is if I am going to go to trouble to drill holes through walls to run 1" PVC pipe to do water changes, why not just put the whole sump in the basement... there is an obvious disadvantage to this - one has to run a 190W pump 24/7 which comes out to $20,- / month where I live... the pump costs $3-400,- (reeflo if one goes for reliability) and if it croaks you need to spring for another $3-400... so it kind of hurts there.

Spacey :D
 
5pacey said:
Sounds interesting acidblondie... I need to read up more to figure out how this works, because it looks like its not only the AquaLifer but also another pump module one needs for doing this using AquaLifters.
Click to expand...
Sorry I just reread my post and I mean LiterMeter III's instead of AquaLifters... my bad.

Spacey :uhoh2:
 
acidblondie said:
Another option to think about is the reef filler pump. http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=17519&cat=0&page=1 I was leaning that direction until I read that they can be a little noisy. There is a thread on here somewhere about it, its what Randy was using on his tank
Click to expand...
Hmmm... I've never heard about this pump before. Why doesn't anybody re-sell it? Like any of the standard on-line places - MarineDepot's,, Premium Aquatic's etc of the world? In fact I don't recall even seeing any threads about it... in my 3 years or so of lurking... thats odd...

Spacey :)
 
Any high head pressure pump would be fine - including a peristaltic pump - they have very high head pressure. But, if you can get this hooked up, why not just plumb your whole sump system in the basement? It isn't nearly as hard as I thought it might be, and once you have it plumbed you are set - and much easier / more fun to play around in a dedicated fish room than banging your head on the cramped space under the tank.
If you just stay with a pump, check out for used ones - you can get a fine used pump for nearly nothing on craigslist or ebay - and why bother with a brand new one since this one is only used once in a while. Plumbing an external pump to a rubbermaid type container is REALLY easy, too.

Or, just keep your Eheim - six minutes to fill it up isn't too bad.
 
My WC system is still in the works.
I'm currently not utilizing my basement- yet anyways.

There are reasons why I don't want to do it yet.
- the temperature in my basement vs base floor of house
- the amount of flow I'd loose with my current Return pump, Marineland 5500
- Conservatively, I currenlty have 125g of water plus+; The larger sump, the larger my water changes would have ot be

I had ran my DI (It's actulaly RO/DI) into the basement, and was filling my large container there. I don't have a pump large enough, nor the piping or house to pump it from my colder basement- so I'd still have to somehow haul it up the stairs, etc.

So, I pulled the DI line from the basement and coil it up under my sink (about 12ft of 1/4 od polyethylene line).
I just did my first WC with my RO/DI water, by putting my 32G trash can with wheels from a closet to my dining room near my kitchen, and tun the line from there to it. This way it's on the same floor as my DT, and it's warmer.

I know people often have separate heaters for their WC's, and all sorts of lines from basements, ATO's, etc.
I"m still in my building stages, and so far, so good.
 
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