New construction/experiment for me

[mori30]

hiya guys, today im gonna put into paper more or less the list of what i need to create something that i been wanting to create and as of yet i still need to convince the wife that it's OK...lol

ok let me say here how im set up then what im trying to acomplish

my tank its 100gal high, its on a normal stand, underneath i have a trigger sump, there is about 4 foot of space on each side before you reach the wall
now on the left wall its outside, so nothing been done here. on the right side wall there its a small bathroom about 5 foot wide till the other wall On the otherside its my laundry room, i figure from faucet there to tank its about 15-20 feet.

now comes the goodies.

sooner or later im gonna have to get a RO/DI witch i would like to install it to the line in the laundry room that its used for the washer
now i think THAT on it self it shouldnt be to hard just split the cold line one for washer the other for the RO, done, the hard part its gonna come trying to add the rest of my plan.

what i wanna acomplish :

i want somewhat of an automated or semi-automated top off and water change system to go from Laundry room to sump

what i had plan in my head :

2 trash cans one for salt water and another for fresh water the RO will of course have a line to the fresh AND salt buckets (trash cans)
i will have a small pump in the fresh water to pump water to the salt one when the need to do water changes arrive

i will drill a big enough hole in to the 2 walls and everything that its in between to put in a pcv pipe that will extend from laundry to sump
now thats all i got so far.

since im removing my current mag24 as a return pump in my tank , i was thinking of using this one to pump water either salt or fresh to the sump from the laundry (If it has enough power to do so)

now i was gonna add an auto top off to the sump and here is where i will run into issues.

i dunno what else to do to finish this product on my mind,, i was thinking of buying a genesis system to do the ATO and water change for me. but they assume that ur sump will be RIGHT there not 15-20 feet away,, i can still buy the system... it would be much easier, but how can i rig it to extend all the piping,and the sensors etc etc...sigh fustrating,,,lol

let me know if you guys have any ideas or if u have it done,
http://www.genesisreefsystems.com/proddetail.php?prod=01-000258-02
this its the one i was thinking on getting sooner or later

pls advice.. getting burn out doing water changes and top offs

thanks

 

[mnat]

Take a look at solenoid valves which you can control and just running a lot of wire.

 

[thirty5]

Well your top off should not matter how long you need to run it as long as you have a pump that is strong enough. I have a 1200 pump for my ATO since it needs to get up and over the top of the brute can. That should not be an issue, and the same exact thing for your water change pump. You should be able to just get basic ATO like from autotopoff.com and then just get a pump that is strong enough to pump the distance that you want. But just thinking out loud, that may not work with that long distance, since when the float triggers you will have alot of water in the line that will dump into the sump.

The thing with the Genesis, is that i think that it is all gravity fed, so as long as you can get it up above the sump height then you will be fine. Not sure about how strong the pumps are that come with it though if you need to pump it that far. You do not need to rig anything to make it longer.. You just need to make the tubes longer to get the water to the sump. You want the Genesis where your water supply is, because you will have overflows. So you really will just have 2 tubes going to your sump. One with pump to pump water into genesis, and then one to drain from genesis to the sump.

I am actually going to be doing the same thing as the genesis, but only using my APEX and for about 1/10th of the price . Push a button and it will do a water change, and not just 1 gallon (i think) like the genesis. But it will be about 4.5 gallons.

 

[mori30]

i was thinking about that as in the line will have water in it, i mean we talking about 20 feets of line that along can take a few gal of water to just reach the other end,, sigh
the genesis can be set up to do up to 99 gal of water i think if not more you just have to have a tank of water ready to feed the reservior

i think im just gonna move my tank to the wall of the laundry room and have the sump in the laundry room. it just seems like a lotta work,,lol. but good thing i dotn have any special corals or anything like that

 

[thirty5]

i was thinking about that as in the line will have water in it, i mean we talking about 20 feets of line that along can take a few gal of water to just reach the other end,, sigh
the genesis can be set up to do up to 99 gal of water i think if not more you just have to have a tank of water ready to feed the reservior

i think im just gonna move my tank to the wall of the laundry room and have the sump in the laundry room. it just seems like a lotta work,,lol. but good thing i dotn have any special corals or anything like that

Well yes the genesis can be set to do multiple water changes. But it actually does 1 gallon at a time. I think that your biggest problem is the distance for the ATO, unless you can use a Toms Aqua Lifter type pump with will use very small tubing, but can push it horizontally over pretty long distances. Do you have a controller?? Mnat has a point of using solenoids, but then I would not know how you can configure them to work with the genesis. I am lucky in my build that my sump room is in my basement and my water change devices are right next to my sump.

 

[mori30]

nah no controller YET, i think im gonna just move the tank LIKE i should had done. to the other front wall of my laundry room, then i will have the sump IN there and would be able to do all the crazy things in there, directly to the sump.. im just scare to move a 110high tank. crap its heavy as hell. and then of course it wontbe 100% empty per say,, we will see i have to plan this first i havent really though of it yet,,

 

[trivan]

You can also use a litermeter for consistent water changes. That's what I do. I have it in my basement pumping up to the living room so probably a run of 10 feet across and 8 feet up.

 

[mori30]

You can also use a litermeter for consistent water changes. That's what I do. I have it in my basement pumping up to the living room so probably a run of 10 feet across and 8 feet up.

humm i dunno what that is but im on a search mission now to learn about it... smile...thanks

 

[thirty5]

A litremeter is a brand. It is basically a dosing pump that stays running all the time an drips into the sump so that the level never changes. Or you can bvae it on a timer so that it will turn on for a set period of time. They do work. But I am not toally sold on them. Since IMO they need to be tuned in so that with weather changes and evaporation changes they will not be as consistant. If they are tuned in they may be better than a standard top off because the water level will really not change so salinity will not have that swing. You are also not dumping a larger amount of top off into your sump.

Litremeters are not cheap either...

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mori30]

yeah that is an issue in my house, evaporation changes a lot, so i would have to be tweeking this thing over and over, i might just go with a normal top off valve attached to my ro reservoir