crazy filter idea for a nano

[jhale]

I'm thinking of ideas for a small tank to set up while I'm between large tanks. I have a 45G cube, a 24G AP, or my old school 15G tank to work with.

whatever I set up I want to run using the least equipment possible.
no sump and no skimmer would be great. that brought me to my idea for filtering. I have a 2 pump aquamedic reef doser I thought about using for a continuous water change. Think of it as a poor mans dailyseas.

One pump could be set to remove water and the other set to input fresh salt water. Top off would be handled by an ATO hooked to the RO under the sink.

The pump can dose about 9.5 gallons a day. I have a 55 gallon water drum I can hook it to for the water change.

With a low bioload I think changing 2 gallons a day would be adequate.

I don't foresee any problems with this but I wanted to run it by everyone first to make sure.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Very interesting. It would be a constant water change.

 

[jhale]

almost constant. You can set the pumps to go on and off for any time period. I'd probably try to do the changes at four intervals during the day.

I'm wondering if the constant small water change will make a difference in the water quality. vs one larger change once a week.

 

[Wes]

the only problem I van think of would be if the "new water" pump decides to add more water than the other pump. Then coming home to a bunch of water on the floor. The litermeter 3 can be set up for a constant water change with a pressure switch that turns off the pump if the water level gets too high.

Maybe use a float switch that kills power if the water level rises too high?

 

[jhale]

I have an extra floodstop I can set up with sensors at the base of the tank.
If the pump does add to much water the floodstop would shut the incoming water off.
I also have an aquatronica controller, I could set a level control to shut the pump off if a flood is about to happen.

 

[Wes]

nice sounds like u have it covered!

 

[NYreefNoob]

john as i had said before on my 12g ap i dont do crap to it, 4 gallons total of wc in 4 months, i did make my own phos reactor that i run pura complete in, other then that different macro's and really never have to clean the glass, maybe once a month, i have 1 seahorse 2 yellow watchman gobies and just added 2 pipefish, as far as doing daily small wc's read both sides of view on that on rc, your not pulling out enough to really make a difference, even doing it daily

 

[jhale]

but Rick that takes all the fun away

you think if it's just a few small critters, and some softies and LPS type coral I can get away with only a small reactor?

 

[duke62]

sounds expensive.figure 2 gallons a day.thats 14 gallons of water a week that will be alot of salt.also souds like alot of work .

 

[nanoreefer22]

J,

Honestly it seems like you'd be throwing money away doing it. Like duke said you'd be going through a lot of salt, unnecessarily. Maybe instead you could set the system up to do a 9.5g WC at the end of the week instead.

I've done maybe 3 WC's this entire year. Mainly after fragging to get all the crap outta the tank. I go through very little salt and things for my tnak have never been better.

 

[jhale]

I guess I'm used to large water changes on my 120, so that amount did not seem like much. I was actually trying to eliminate some work by changing a small amount each day instead of all at once. That way you would just have to add salt to the water barrel and let the doser do the changing If you don't need to do the water changes then even better.

 

[fernandokng]

I don't think it's bad idea. By doing continuous salt water, you can:

1. ensure wastes are removed (you save on phosphate reactor/skimmer)
2. calcium/alkalinity is always maintained - most of the time (you save money on calcium media/dosing).
3. you probably won't need carbon. you save money on that as well.

All of this stuff is more expensive than salt in my opinion.

At the end of the day, water change is always the best way to go - so this is a pretty good idea indeed.

 

[mikey3165]

my boss was tellin me about this sort of idea he tried. he had a 120 reef tank and chnged out a gallon a day and he said the tank never looked better

 

[Wes]

i think it's a great idea. alot of people do this on a larger scale with larger tanks. I think it will be even more beneficial in this case since you won't be using a skimmer, etc.

 

[meschaefer]

sounds expensive.figure 2 gallons a day.thats 14 gallons of water a week that will be alot of salt.also souds like alot of work .

Coming from a large tank, 14 gallons worth of salt a week is not necessarily a lot.

 

[fernandokng]

Tank of the month for December on Reefcentral uses Dialyseas for continuous water change.

 

[tosiek]

I think it would be more beneficial on a much larger tank Jhale. Your bioload is gonna be alot smaller in a 24 or lower so i don't know if it warrants a gallon a day to swap out. Also remember you need a timed or drip ATO. Once the water starts swapping out its gonna fill your tank with ATO water too to make up for the differences changing your salinity.

 

[tosiek]

Also think about the ammonia build up in water change water people have been seeing. your gonna see it alot more in the smaller water volumes where larger tanks can handle and convert the extra ammo easier.

 

[jhale]

Also remember you need a timed or drip ATO. Once the water starts swapping out its gonna fill your tank with ATO water too to make up for the differences changing your salinity.

that part is tricky, but the dosing pumps come on the same time, so the water level should not change at all, in theory. I'd have to test it out of course.

I also still have to figure out where I'm going to send the waste water if I'm going to try this. Maybe a container that I empty each day. Or just run it out to the balcony drain.

 

[fernandokng]

How is this going?