What's your water change schedule?
- Thread starter tsciarini
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I'll admit that I was big on water changes in the past but I got lazy. I was fortunate to have a low bio-load, fed lightly and had an established system.
Every 7 to 10 days. Try to do it on a saturaday or sunday afternoon. Time to make up some what.
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Wow, that is huge... I think I do 8 gallons on my 90 every week. Seriously, after Tom's talk last year, I've been a lot better about it.
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100 Gallons a week
OK this got me thinking how easy would it be to do a water change system cheaply and on the least amount of parts. This assumes you have an auto-top-off system with a float switch already.
I think I can do it with two aqualifters, three timers and a 2way power spliter. First aqualifter is salt water resivoir to sump, second aqualifter is sump to drain. The top off power outlet gets the power spliter. First timer goes on a standard power outlet and is set for 30 minutes say at 1AM. Second timer goes on the splitter and is set for 1:05AM for 35 minutes. The last timer goes on the splitter and is set for 1:45AM till 12:55AM (basically the rest of the time with a buffer). Plug the sump to drain aqualifter into the 1AM always on timer. Put the hose in the sump somewhere in the middle of the water line so it can't drain it dry just in case also it should be on the drain side of the sump. Plug the salt res to sump into the 1:05AM timer and place its sump line near the return. Plug the autotopoff into the last timer that runs most of the day. You can play with the times to get the amount of waterchange you want done.
At 12:55AM the autotopoff stops. At 1AM the aqualifter starts and pumps sump water to drain for 30 minutes or until the line is no longer submerged just in case you forget to fill the salt res. At 1:05AM the system begins pumping fresh salt water into the system, but shuts off whenever the float switch tells it to. At 1:45AM autotopoff resumes. Worse case scenario you didn't fill up the res and replaced about 1/2 gallon of salt with fresh.
If you want a backup, put a float vavle in the salt res and hook the sump to drain timer to that power outlet. If there isn't enough salt in the res, the drain pump never comes on.
Total cost:
2 Aqualifters: $25
3 Garden Timers: $30
1 Power Splitter: $5
Safety Float Switch: $50 autotopoff.com
Total simple water exchange module: $60. Little extra safety: $110.
Thoughts?
I think I can do it with two aqualifters, three timers and a 2way power spliter. First aqualifter is salt water resivoir to sump, second aqualifter is sump to drain. The top off power outlet gets the power spliter. First timer goes on a standard power outlet and is set for 30 minutes say at 1AM. Second timer goes on the splitter and is set for 1:05AM for 35 minutes. The last timer goes on the splitter and is set for 1:45AM till 12:55AM (basically the rest of the time with a buffer). Plug the sump to drain aqualifter into the 1AM always on timer. Put the hose in the sump somewhere in the middle of the water line so it can't drain it dry just in case also it should be on the drain side of the sump. Plug the salt res to sump into the 1:05AM timer and place its sump line near the return. Plug the autotopoff into the last timer that runs most of the day. You can play with the times to get the amount of waterchange you want done.
At 12:55AM the autotopoff stops. At 1AM the aqualifter starts and pumps sump water to drain for 30 minutes or until the line is no longer submerged just in case you forget to fill the salt res. At 1:05AM the system begins pumping fresh salt water into the system, but shuts off whenever the float switch tells it to. At 1:45AM autotopoff resumes. Worse case scenario you didn't fill up the res and replaced about 1/2 gallon of salt with fresh.
If you want a backup, put a float vavle in the salt res and hook the sump to drain timer to that power outlet. If there isn't enough salt in the res, the drain pump never comes on.
Total cost:
2 Aqualifters: $25
3 Garden Timers: $30
1 Power Splitter: $5
Safety Float Switch: $50 autotopoff.com
Total simple water exchange module: $60. Little extra safety: $110.
Thoughts?
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lol who put the vote on the last one?
I did it. :doh: Silly me.
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you goober
