Easy Water Change

[herpsandreefs]

Just came up with a pretty easy way to change small amounts of water more often, though it might take some work to install. Put a 5 gallon jug filled with new salt water above main tank with PVC running to the bottom of the main tank, or as far away from the overflow as you can get it,and put a valve on the PVC. On your sump, drill a hole right above your normal water level that you would top off or fill to. From this put a bulkhead on it and lead the PVC line to a drain or somewhere you can dump saltwater. The way it would work is when you opened the valve of new saltwater it would displace more water filling the sump higher. Because the new water is far from the overflow only old water would be going out the sump overflow. This system could even be automated by installing some kind of electronic water valve on a timer. It would also prevent an overflow if your topoff system malfunctioned.

One question though, how would you keep new salt water fresh over a 2 week period, lets say in a ten gallon tub?
Chris

 

[rabagley]

One question though, how would you keep new salt water fresh over a 2 week period, lets say in a ten gallon tub?

I normally make a new batch of change water just after changing the water. This way I've always got 55 gallons (~20%) of aged water ready to go in case it's needed. I've needed it in the past, especially when I was battling cyano. Since I do a 20% change every four weeks, that water usually has to stay fresh for a full month.

What I do to keep it fresh is to keep an air pump with a hard airline in the mix container going at all times. There is no airstone on the airline, the big bubbles to a good job of moving the water around and an airstone takes effort to keep clean (me == lazy). One thing to be careful of is that some salt will grow around where the bubbles pop (you don't want to leave this container uncovered or salt will get everywhere in that room) and once the salt has crystallized, not all of it will redissolve. To compensate for this, I mix my change water a very little bit stronger than my tank water and just before adding it to the tank, I add enough RO to the mix to match the tank water. Scrape off the crust into the trash every six months or so and all is well.

Regards,
Ross

 

[herpsandreefs]

Maybe a cheap rio would work better because there wouldn't be salt build up if bubbles weren't poping

 

[herpsandreefs]

Does this water changing setup seem like it would work?

 

[rabagley]

Maybe a cheap rio would work better because there wouldn't be salt build up if bubbles weren't poping

I don't buy Rio pumps after a 1400 melted down and released toxic goop into my tank (however, I will answer the question). If you pointed a pump at the surface such that there was a lot of surface turbulence and there was good air exchange into the storage container, that could also keep gas levels in the water from getting too out of whack.

The powerhead will cost more to run than an air pump, you'll need to make sure that clean air gets into the container so that the gas exchange is effective, and you'll still have salt creep to deal with, but you may not have to scrape it off as frequently as I do. Here's the thing: trying one approach won't prevent you from trying a different way later if you don't like the results. At this point, I'd suggest that you try something that looks good for your circumstances and see what happens...

Regards,
Ross