Show your Water Change "stuff"

[BLAKEJOHN]

Well in the end I am just your good ol' bucket changer. But to get there here are a couple of pics.


Starting off with the RO/DI (ignore my old crapity walls). I had to get a booster pump (upper left corner) to bring my pressure up from a whole wopping 30psi to 80psi.

The outlet for the RO/DI is routed throught a few walls and ends here. I have the outlet divided into two outputs. One fills the 32g holding container (float valve is on the way as we speak, yes I overfilled it a couple of times..OPPS) In the can I have a pump to fill the 20g tank with and my top off jugs. The other RO/DI line goes to the 20g long which I use to mix my water in. The purpose for this line is to adjust the salinity without pumping too much freshwater in. And from here its a siphon hose and buckets till I figure a way to make it easier being that my tank is clear on the other side of the house.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

I'll go first

Starting on the right, on the wall is my RO/DI unit which fills the first barrel. There's a float switch in the barrel, so the RO/DI unit knows when to turn itself off. A maxijet 1200 is switched to fill the second barrel when I need to make new saltwater. I flip a switch, and the RO/DI water is piped into the saltwater barrel.

The saltwater barrel has a heater, a mixing maxijet 1200, and an airstone running all the time. There is a switched maxijet 1200 in there, too. When I want to add nsw to the sump, I flip that switch and nsw is piped into the sump.

The sump is a 100g rubbermaid stock tub. The ASM G2 skimmer lives in there. Here's a picture for Lynn, because she loves ASM skimmers

There is a maxijet 1200 on a switch in the sump. I flip that switch when I want to take water from the system, and it goes down the drain to the city sanitary sewer system.

It's not pretty, but it's simple and it works great. That's exactly how I wanted it.

I use up the barrel of saltwater completely, then I make a new one. Takes about 2-3 weeks to do that. When I refill the saltwater barrel, I use 26 cups of Reef Crystals salt mix and that generally gets me to 1.025 salinity, with a pH around 8, calcium around 420, mg around 1300, alk around 8. I do have to fiddle with the amount of salt I add, occasionally. So, sometimes the barrel will be mixing for 48hrs before I'll consent to using it.

how much water do you change each week? calculating from 26 cups--that's about 50 gallon in the barrel--2-3 weeks assuming 10% change---working backwards to about 180-200 gal. system?
the reason i'm asking cause our set ups are very similar. with total volume of about 275 gal., i do abut 30 gal. change/week.
i just upgraded to the 200 gal. 36" wide tank and relocated everything to the basement....not all finished yet.the canopy is still a temporary one.


the ro/di and the mixing station is on one side of the basement, the equipment room and the display is on the other side.
i use two 44 gal. round rubbermaid containers up on stand for ro/di with two more underneath. the top containers are drilled and fitted with 1 " ballvalved pvc using the uniseal and gravity fed to the bottom right one. the right container is for mixing using aquaclear 70 with air pump and heater. after it's mixed/aerated for 2 days/adjust to the parameters i want, which is exactly the same as barbmazz's (also using reef crystals), it's pumped into the left container using a via aqua 2300 thru a strainer to catch any cruds from the mixing process from the mixing tank. the mixed sw holding container also has heater/seio's 820 and air line and pumped via a mag 36 (up above the drop ceiling and 50 feet across to the other side of the finished basement).

mag 36 is the only pump i bought new for that purpose everything else were spare or left over from various tanks over the years. we all accumulated extra equipments over time, so use them.lsmile:

the sump is pumped out to a dedicated drain pipe to the outside storm drain.
total time from start to finish for a 30 gal. change is about 25-30 minutes. with no wet hands.

just little side track...note the through the wall "show refugium" that can be viewed from both side of the equipment room. my buddy's idea....my kids think that's really cool.



a shot from the other side of the refugium from the equipment room.



newest prized addition....12+ heads aussie dendros from the barrier reef. with that addition, now i gotta tell my wife one of the kids won't be going to the summer camp...lol.

ps. barb, i like your avatar. check out mine.....that's what happened when you trusted a 2 1/2" angler with a 5" orange spotted blenny....even though they lived together for over a year. rip my friend, he was one of my favorites of all time.

 

[BarbMazz]

Aw, Tom, poor orange-spotted blenny!! lol The only fish I have in with my two anglers are two damsels that are meant to be food; so far they have evaded capture! I have two different types of angler together; a. maculatus and a. nummifer. A. nummifer hides 100% of the time. Probably avoiding a. maculatus!

I have three tanks; 65g display, with the 100g sump that's hooked into the system I have pictured. Then, I have two nano tanks... a 24g for the angler and a 28g clown/anemone tank. So, I'm using that 55 gallons for all three tanks. The 65g system has appr. 150g in it, I'm guessing, after figuring for sand and rock.

Nice setup you have there!

And welcome to RS!

 

[lcstorc]

I kind of forgot about this thread and I don't think I ever posted my set-up.

The RO/DI is fed from the cold water line of the washing machine. The wast water goes through the garage door and outside to water a garden there. The RO/DI water goes into the top contain which holds 60 gallons of RO/DI at all times. There is a float switch in the container to shut off the RO/DI when the container is full. There is a hose connected to the RO/DO barell that has a long hose with a valve on the end which we use to fill the auto topoff container. I am not brave enough to feed directly to the top-off. The saltwater mixing container is under the RO/DI and we can just turn the valve to allow the RO/DI water into the salt mixing container which is also 60 gallons. Our old return pump is in there to keep things mixed up and is running at all times. There is also a long hose attached to this unit that connects to the pump and that is used for water changes. We use a simple hose and siphon to remove the water.
So, I have 60g fresh and 60g salt at any time. This gives me enough to do my standard 20% water change on all three tanks or to do a 50% change on any of the tanks in an emergency and then I have another 60 gallons that I can add salt to and do more water changes if needed.
We are still working on ways to "lynn proof" the system. I tend to be very clumsy and can manage to break most anything.
Oh and the 20g is done by the old bucket and hose method. It is on the other end of the house so I have a bit of both worlds.

 

[Basile]

Thanks guys for your pics, it gives me ideals for my futurset up.


A simple "bucketnear" here lolverhere:

 

[BigAl07]

I'm LOVING these set-ups! I am already designing the one for the new house

Lynn I've never seen a 10000-stage RO/DI before! Is that NASA issue? I think I read somewhere that there was a missing RO/DI unit from the Russian Space station..... ROFL!!

 

[lcstorc]

ROFL.
Actually it was a raffle prize at MACNA a couple of years ago. I have been known to go overboard with things but not that one.

 

[themanthelegond]

What can go wrong will!!!!!

I thought I should say this here. I did my WC last night all proud of my new setup for quick easy water changes. I turned off the ATO and RTN pumps. drain the water from the sump, then drop the handy FSW hose in and open the valve and continue to feed my new acans.....well I forgot that it was filling a 20 gallon sump from a 32 gallon FSW tank dumping a few gallons of fresh saltwater in my sump. I am so glad there is a drain in the sump for my accidents!...after closing the valve and cleaning up the water from the sump area I decided to refill the SW tank in the garage. While I was waiting for it to fill my wife ask for some assistance... well i forgot about the tank filling and it dumped about 10 gallons of water on the garage floor before I remembered! Did I mention I had an audience through most of this ordeal.
:sinking:

now that my ego has been put in check. I wanted to pass along the experience. Is there any smart way to make this "easy" way Joe proof?

 

[Dentoid]

ROFL.
Actually it was a raffle prize at MACNA a couple of years ago. I have been known to go overboard with things but not that one.

When Lynn and I met for the first time at MACNA, we both went to the registration table together to pick up our raffle tickets. Naturally, where her raffle ticket numbers left off, mine picked up. When they were calling the numbers for her now owned RO/DI unit, I was on the edge of my seat until they called the last number, I was one away from her winning number!

Oh the memories!

 

[lcstorc]

Sorry Scott.
And yet you still stay friends with me. If it helps we spent as much on the rest of the set-up as the RO/DI would have cost in the first place.

 

[Dentoid]

That's ok Lynn, seeing that thing now, my basement isn't big enough!

 

[BigAl07]

now that my ego has been put in check. I wanted to pass along the experience. Is there any smart way to make this "easy" way Joe proof?

I'd start off by marking in your 32g container the 20g amount and try to keep my quantities fairly equal. Other than that adding "Float Valves" (which are notorious for sticking at the WORSE possible time) is a possibility!

I love the idea of having "drains" close like that. I'm designing mine with two drains in the tank room and two drains in the equipment room.

GREAT ideas!

Lynn, HOUSTON called and asked if they could PLEASE have some RO/DI water from your system ASAP! Theirs isn't large enough! ROFL!!!

 

[lcstorc]

Why would Houston need it? The shuttle is right here sitting on the launch pad. It's not going to launch for a month, so I have time to fill the tanks there as well. I run through membranes fast when I help them out.

 

[BarbMazz]

Lynn, you can tell you're married to a rocket scientist by looking at your set up. I really like that your waste water is feeding your garden.

Would that happen to be a VEGETABLE garden?

 

[lcstorc]

:laughroll:
Why would I have one of those? I guess the racoons and other wildlife would enjoy the snack.

 

[Dentoid]

Lynn, you better get that thing fired up as NASA going to need enough water for the SSWS to flood the launcher pad on lift off.

 

[BigAl07]

Lynn, you better get that thing fired up as NASA going to need enough water for the SSWS to flood the launcher pad on lift off.

With that unit I suspect it will take about 5.4 hours

 

[Rhodes19]

I kind of forgot about this thread and I don't think I ever posted my set-up.

Holy Mackeral Lynn! You wouldn't happen to have a heavy water reactor in there would you? (I'm jealous, I don't have an RO/DI system yet).


Oh, I just graduated from 5 g buckets to 2, 32 g Brute trash cans. One for FW and the other for SW make up. No stands for them yet, just sitting on the garage floor.

 

[BLAKEJOHN]

oh yeah, I forgot about this thread. I have upgraded my water changes. From this.....

To this..Using a Pan World 250 pump..I still have yet to hardline an outlet to my sump..

 

[Frankie]

Here is my old setup. I tapped into the cold water on my water heater here:

That feeds my RODI unit that then go's into the top water container that only holds fresh water. There is a float switch in here so it ATO by itself.

I have a valve in the bottom that feeds the salt mixing tank under like this:

And also from the fresh water I have an ATO line tapped into the rear like this:

Under the salt mixing container I have a valve that I can open and dump NSW into the sump like this:

There is a pump in the container that mixes the salt 24/7.
This is the whole unit. I still have it up and running for a frag tank in my office. minus the ATO now.