auto water changer equipment

[Mattl22]

Duke do u have kids?

 

[duke62]

Yes I hear what your saying but the actual water change is the fastest part of maintenance. Why complicate it by adding all these gizmos and barrels. If there was someway of measuring my salt adding all the components, mix it up test the salinity then do the water change I can see doing it but the actual water change is so quick I don't see a purpose. Maybe I'm the minority and everyone wants to save 15 minutes I don't know. I just don't see any value in it

 

[lnevo]

Cause your looking at it like its a lazy reefer thing. I would argue its more work overall...

Over on the water change / bloodletting thread...

IMOP Water changes are the single most effective /least expensive additive thing you can do for your tank.

Think of it this way some people dose manually and some use dosing pumps..dosing over time in smaller increments is better and keeps things more stable. Manual dosing had its benefits too. If you think of water change not just as a form of nutrient export but also trace element supplementation then this method makes sense.

You are still exporting nutrients that the dead rotting fish creates and its no excuse for leaving the dead rotten fish in the tank but your sps don't have to suffer as much till you go get the dead fish out (which you should still do!) - from your analogy...

 

[Tonyscoots84]

OP asks what we think. And the Duke himself spoke up....and after this, I'm truly afraid to post what I think.

Please dont be afraid to post what you think. As stated most posts from members are just opinions. In other cases thats why us moderators are here ...

 

[duke62]

Yes I have kids doing all sorts of sports and when i wasnt hurt i worked anywhere from 40 to 70 hours a week still doing the same routine. Inevo what your talking about is the way you do it. Little water change everyday. I personally dont know anyone who does it this way. Im referring to the once per week water change and if all people are doing is syphoning out water then putting water back into the tank without the removing of deitrus and doing maitenence and cleaning out dead macro algae and removing algae on the glass etc etc on tanks 200 and under which takes 15 minutes I dont see a need for this system. Maybe if you are doing monster water changes like 40 per week and up but a simple 20 and under water change is no time at all especially if all your doing is a simple water change. Like i said I do 20 per week every 4 weeks i do 30 and its not the actual water change that takes the time its everything in between,especially the actually making of the water and testing. If there was a machine that did all that I would be all over this
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[Tonyscoots84]

Hell why do a water change at all to begin with... You don't see a man upstairs doing a 30% water change on the ocean... just lots of top off and skimming...

I haven't done a WC in about 10 months...

Skene the guy upstairs doesnt have an enclosed system.

 

[lnevo]

Well I unfortunately don't do it that way yet...one day maybe. But that is one of the goals of these systems. I can tell you I did it the manual way for a while and it definitely took me more than 15 minutes just to haul water upstairs and get everything setup. Let alone get things clean. My tanks in the living room so all my gear is downstairs which doesn't help. Maybe even the OP was trying to be lazy idk but to shoot the system down based on that one angle was a narrow view, though I think we're past that.

I still have not watched the video and post an opinion like the OP did want...

 

[lnevo]

Wow that was completely ridiculous. So it worked properly but its using a ton of float switches. Yeah it's a no brainer but so many switches like that you are likely to see a failure in at least one. They are also known to leak stray voltage. These do look nice with the snail guards. Do you know if it comes with brackets. That would add to the value of the package.

The ReefAngel has coming soon a. 5 port pressure level sensor that you can know digitally the level of water in each chamber. I know cmantis who asked about this... It's an I2C device so it should be addressable by any arduino.

Anyway the other issue i see is that they had 2 pumps doing the same performance, I never saw the refill pump stop/start to maintain the level so you never actually see this thing do anything but monitor non-moving float switches...

Here. This is mine

http://youtu.be/Ovn9oD6PxCQ

 

[duke62]

Yes they have a system like that. Its called dialyseas. Thats the company i believe. How much water are you changing? You are putting the "clean" in it. I am referring to just removing water and putting water in. Not counting the water making,testing the salinity you have to do that either way with automation or not. All im referring to is taking water out then putting it back in. Also not talking about lugging water up your stairs. Not many people have to do that either. Its the simplest part of doing maintenance and to have extra storage tanks near the tank,more pumps and float switches all to do the easy part i see no value thats all. If you work 70 hours per week or have 5 kids all in different hobbies or are away alot i can see this may be useful for for most of us that is not the case. Plus I look at it like this ,you spend hours per week to know your kids,wife,friends,doing a water change is sort of the same thing. You get to know your system and what it needs. You do alot of observation while doing water changes i dont see how you can do that pushing a button. Sort of like having kids and having the nanny do all the work LOL

 

[skene]

Sort of like having kids and having the nanny do all the work LOL

You mean that's not what they are for?!?!?!?!
Man I got it all backwards then... Have wifey pump out the kid and pass kid off to nanny/grandparents...

 

[nuch]

cono where u at? lol

 

[gholtmeyer]

I have a 180 gallon display tank that is connected to a 150 gallon stock tank. The stock tank is plumbed to a drain in the floor. It takes me 5 min to do a 50 gallon water change. I open the valve, let the stock tank drain to a fixed point. Shut the valve. The I flip a light switch that is connected to a mag pump that sits in a 55 gallon water barrel. I also clean the rock, suck stuff off the bed of the tank before I do the water change. So ok, that takes 5 minutes longer. I don't trust all of those gizmo's.