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QT Tank - Would this work?

trivan

trivan

Now that my tank has seemed to settle in, I am going to be in the market for a number of frags. The flatworm issue and other pests which I have read/heard about has convinced me that having a QT even for coral is one of the best preventative measures to protecting the DT.

So here is my idea which I'm looking for comments on:
I just installed the Litermeter to do automatic water changes, I do 1 gallon a day on my 45 cube, probably total water volume is roughly 55 gallons. I am thinking of setting up a 5 or 10 gallon QT, with the waste water from the DT goes into the QT tank, then another pump dumping the water from the QT down the drain, effectively reusing the 1 gallon per day in QT. The QT would be getting a 10/20% water change every day, with what I think is still good water for a QT. This set up will allow me to not have to set up a mini system, just the cost of the additional litermeter pump, tank and heater. I have the Redsand light which will be used since its just sitting around after being replaced by the AI Sol. I'm saving water as well which is a good thing to do these days.

Any thoughts are welcome.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Is there a constant presence of water between the two tanks with the litermeter? Essentially is there any ways something could "swim" up the litermeter and into your DT? The only reason I ask is I know when you do a treatment for red bugs you have to treat the whole tank because they can get into everything (including equipment). For flatworms it would be great as they really are not free swimmers.

As far as the concept I think it is a great idea beacuse the two tanks water params would be really close which would make the transition on over much easier. Also, by limiting maintanence you are giving yourself a better chance of success. We have our coral QT tank seperate and it can be tough to keep a 20g in line if you are not on top of it every day.
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

And by that he means if your wife forgets to monitor things like evaporation. I think reusing water from the dt in the qt is a good idea. The only thing I would say relates to evaporation- you will still need to monitor evaporation in the small qt.
Good luck!
 
trivan

trivan

Thanks for the feedback, your words of wisdom always welcome (I remember you introduced me to the 45 gal cube :))
I would highly doubt that anything can "swim" up the water, as the rollers are pretty tight. But as a precaution I can just keep the "waste" water tube from the DT above the water line in the QT.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I think it's a great idea too. I think to solve the issue that Mike was asking about... all you would need to do is make sure the tube from litermeter into the QT is raised above the water level an inch or two. That way there's no way any treatment chemicals or pests can flow back into the DT.

How are you going to setup the "water change" on the QT? Do you have a controller that will pump a gallon out, then pump the gallon back in from the DT? You don't want the water going in before the water draining out... or else you got a flood.

The other thing you need to make sure of is what might get affected when the QT is 10/20% lower than normal level. It might affect things like powerheads, etc.

I'd recommend keeping the QT bare bottom too. Less to clean/replace during maintenance.
 
trivan

trivan

I will have 3 pumps on the Litermeter
1. DT-> QT
2. "New water" -> DT
3. QT -> Sink

The Litermeter rotates pumps and splits the 1 gallon (3.78 liters) across 150 cycles a day, so there shouldn't be too much change in the water levels. As a back up, I have a float sensor in the sump, that if triggered, it means that I have something putting water into the tank/sump and will shut the entire system down. I use the Apex Neptune for all the automation, I'm so lazy...

Thanks Nikki on the Top off, I forgot about that. For now that will be a manual process, maybe put a glass cover on it to slow it down.
 
thirty5

thirty5

I LOVE this IDEA!!!!!! I am going to look at that autochange device that you are looking at. I may not even need another pump. I will set up a smaller tank and drill an overflow into it, and just have it above my slop sink, so the water will just pump into the QT and then overflow the tank and push it out into the sink.
 
trivan

trivan

The Litermeter is just adosing pump :) a expensive one at that, but thanks to the group buy it wasn't so bad.

There are others which are less, mnat has posted about the ones he uses with great success.
 
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