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How do you change your water?
- Thread starter MatteZ
- Start date
until recently i would run my ro hoses out a widow and hook the machine up to the garden hose. i also change about 20-25 gallons of water every 2 weeks. i put a pump into my dt and pump water into my "dirty" can and then take the pump out and then pump the same amount of water back into the tank
this weekend i cut my main water 2/4" supply coming into the house and installed a faucet into my basement. i wanted to make sure that i can add the extra membrane onto my new ro unit. then i hung the unit on the wall and added a line to under my kitchen sink.
i got tired of a frozen hose, the cold window being opened, my wife parking on the hose, or it raining out and having to remember to turn it off.
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this weekend i cut my main water 2/4" supply coming into the house and installed a faucet into my basement. i wanted to make sure that i can add the extra membrane onto my new ro unit. then i hung the unit on the wall and added a line to under my kitchen sink.
i got tired of a frozen hose, the cold window being opened, my wife parking on the hose, or it raining out and having to remember to turn it off.
I make my water right after a 25 gal. WC. I have a 32 gal. Brute with lid that I fill just above the hand holds, and aerate it for a day. I add a little more salt than I need to get a slightly higher salinity than I use. I have two old AquaClear 70 PH's, one for circulation at the bottom, and one with a venturi for aeration at the top. This will run until the next water change, usually two weeks, at which time I check the SG, and add the correct amount of RO/DI water to match the DT(1.026).
My WC method is a bucket brigade. Since my house is built on a concrete slab, and the tank is located in the foyer, I can't plumb anything into the tank, so it's humping buckets. I use an MJ 1200 to pump the water out of my sump into a 5 gal. bucket, which I dump in a toilet that isn't too far from the tank, until I've remove the 25 gal. I then hump the make up water from the garage, in the same 5 gal. bucket until I've replaced all the water I removed, and begin the process all over again.
PS I use a heater in the Brute, this time of year.
My WC method is a bucket brigade. Since my house is built on a concrete slab, and the tank is located in the foyer, I can't plumb anything into the tank, so it's humping buckets. I use an MJ 1200 to pump the water out of my sump into a 5 gal. bucket, which I dump in a toilet that isn't too far from the tank, until I've remove the 25 gal. I then hump the make up water from the garage, in the same 5 gal. bucket until I've replaced all the water I removed, and begin the process all over again.
PS I use a heater in the Brute, this time of year.
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We used to change 15% a month but it's too expensive with the salt and the RO/DI maintenance. For now, we wet skim, about a gallon a day, and with dumping the skim bucket every couple of days we replace the same amount of saltwater. To put the saltwater back we use a measuring bucket with a 1/4" line that gradually puts it in the sump. So it's like an 8% WC per month now, I think.
Hockeynut
NJRC Member
I mix up 12 gallons in a 15 gallon barrel with a heater and korilla power head usually on Friday let it sit till sunday and either pump it out of my sump if it looks dirty or siphon out of the display if i blow off the rock work. I change 12 gallons a week in my 90 which has a 70 gallon fuge sump with about 50 gallons of water in it.
I make my water (RODI) in two 32 gallon brute cans, it seems like im always making water I also change 5 gallons a week in my sons 20 gallon and 2 gallons in my 8 gallon pico with the same method in 5 gallon buckets.
I make my water (RODI) in two 32 gallon brute cans, it seems like im always making water I also change 5 gallons a week in my sons 20 gallon and 2 gallons in my 8 gallon pico with the same method in 5 gallon buckets.
No, I keep filling the 5 gal. bucket until I've removed the 25 gal. of tank water, then add the 25 gal. of make up water.
Every Thursday I turn on my RODI, aided by a booster pump, and fill a brute with about 30 gallons of water. The container will do 45 but I don't go that high normally. It takes about 7 hours for that amount to be made. I heat the water and have a circulation pump in it. Later that day I add my salt, It takes 7-8 cups of salt make this a perfect salinity for me. The next day I turn off my system (return pumps, reactors, skimmer etc). With everything off my sump fills with about 30 gallons of water. I use a siphon hooked up to my faucet to drain the sump. I clean the sump and try to scrap off any gunk. I then fill the sump back up with a hose hooked up to the circulation pump. Turn everything back on, done.
Overall its about 45 minutes of actual work.
My long term plan is to get a liter-meter and automate the process where a gallon or two are changed throughout 24 hours.
Overall its about 45 minutes of actual work.
My long term plan is to get a liter-meter and automate the process where a gallon or two are changed throughout 24 hours.
I keep a 32 gallon brute filled with SW. Once a week I'll fill a 5g bucket and throw a power head in it. I put a sock on my drain and ramp up my Vortechs while I blast my rocks with a MJ1200. After the dust clears, I shut down the return and Vortechs. Then I siphon as much detritus as possible from the sandbed. I then dump the new SW in the sump and turn all pumps on as normal. I usually leave the sock on the drain for an hour or so.
I spend Monday-Friday filling up a 32gallon brute Friday night I add 15 cups 2 power heads top and bottom and a heater Sunday morning when lights come on I suck all the crap off the bottom and do a 30 gallon water change. Then I wheel the dirty water over to the toilet and pump it right in I do this every Sunday
I have a 32 gallon brute container filled with saltwater. My litermeter system pumps water out of my system 12 times a day to a drain and replaces it with equal amounts of fresh saltwater. No buckets, no fuss. About every 10 days I make up a fresh batch of saltwater.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4
Weekly, I take 10 gal or Ro/ di water. Heat it to tank temp and mix salt to specific gravity required. 5 gal go to my 40 gal frag tank, 5 gal to my 50 gal DT tank. Like Jim I hoof it up from the basement to the first and second floor. I take the spent water from the 55dt and use it for water change in my daughters 12 gal nano that has mostly lps. I wish I had a real basement.....sigh.
First off I make RO/DI water down in the basement, and fill five gallon water cooler jugs. Here are some empties sitting on the back of the couch:
I lug this upstairs and dump 15 gallons of water into a 20 gallon Brute. This Brute has an old Koralia K4, a MAG 7, a heater, and an old-school glass thermometer in it:
When mixing the salt, I run both the Koralia and the MAG 7. Once the salt is mixed (around an hour), I now only run the Koralia over night. I also use the MAG to pump the new water into the sump.
I use a Python siphon to take 15 gallons out of the tank. Here it is lying on the floor after a water change.
This “dirty” water is siphoned into three 5 gallon salt buckets, which are then dumped down the toilet in the bathroom just outside this room. I use this same siphon tube and hook it up to the MAG to pump the new water back into the sump.
I do 15 gallons a week on a 90 gallon DT.
I lug this upstairs and dump 15 gallons of water into a 20 gallon Brute. This Brute has an old Koralia K4, a MAG 7, a heater, and an old-school glass thermometer in it:
When mixing the salt, I run both the Koralia and the MAG 7. Once the salt is mixed (around an hour), I now only run the Koralia over night. I also use the MAG to pump the new water into the sump.
I use a Python siphon to take 15 gallons out of the tank. Here it is lying on the floor after a water change.
This “dirty” water is siphoned into three 5 gallon salt buckets, which are then dumped down the toilet in the bathroom just outside this room. I use this same siphon tube and hook it up to the MAG to pump the new water back into the sump.
I do 15 gallons a week on a 90 gallon DT.
make rodi in a brute can 40 gal add salt heat then powerhead let sit till next day ,siphon water into attatched pic bucket .Hose connected goes outside(dirty water). i take out like 1/3 in each 40 gal tank.Pump water from brute through garden hose to tanks . No moving any 5 gallon pails of water
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malulu
NJRC Member
I got the exact same AUTO-WATER change setup!
- a 40 gals of fresh saltwater container (refill every two weeks - 10 mins job, from fresh water + salt, a maxijet is inside ON all the time to keep water circulated)
- a 50 gals of fresh water barrel (refill every week with a timed-dial-switch, i turn the switch on and let it fill for 6 hours with KatiAni (10gals+ per hour), it will fill up the barrel, if fill-up sooner than 6 hours, an ATO switch will stop the water going in), a maxijet is inside ON all the time (split two ways, one to auto-top-off the sump, one back in the barrel to keep water circulating)
- a LetterMeter III will draw 2.5 gals of water per day, spread out 24 hours from SUMP to drain-line, then refill the same rate from saltwater container back into the sump
- since the litter-metter only draw very small amount of water per every minute, hence no need for heater in any of the water storage.
note:
an old thread with more details can be found here:
[url]http://www.njreefers.org/showthread.php?58016-How-to-store-clean-water-with-Cati-Ani-unit&p=664169&viewfull=1#post664169[/URL]
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I do the same procedure as Malulu, whom I got the idea from. But use 2 brute 20 gallons and 1 gallon a day on the litermeter to my 45.
For the RO, I am auto feeding my ato via solenoid valves and a apex controller. So have additional solenoids to turn on the water supply to the ro holding bucket when the water levels get to low. I use a float switches w/a latching switch from autotopoff.com. Been working great for 2 years. Only floods have been caused by human error. There are a number of fail safes built in as well.
For the RO, I am auto feeding my ato via solenoid valves and a apex controller. So have additional solenoids to turn on the water supply to the ro holding bucket when the water levels get to low. I use a float switches w/a latching switch from autotopoff.com. Been working great for 2 years. Only floods have been caused by human error. There are a number of fail safes built in as well.