Water change technique

[Guest beatle]

I've been changing water in my 90 about every two weeks. I change 10 gallons at a time. I do the mix and heat in a tub, then drain water from the display when the new water is ready. As I'm using an AC70 powerhead to pump the new water into the system from the floor, it can't push enough head to get all the way to the top since it loses pressure out of the little venturi hole. It will, however, push enough head to get the water into my sump, but of course the AC70 doesn't push as much water as my Eheim 1260 return, so I have to cycle the return pump on and off until I pump the tub mostly dry. If I don't do this, the return pump will run dry. Then I empty what's left in the tub into a bucket and pour this water into the display. As there's only about a gallon or two left, this isn't a problem. Lifting and pouring full buckets into a tank that's 64" tall is not my idea of a convenient water change.

 

I know there has to be an easier way to do this. Maybe I should just add salt to the display and then hook my Python up to the sink and fill it up?

[steveoutlaw]

This is the way I do it on my 210. I change 5g twice a week. Once the new water is mixed and ready to go I add it to my sump (I turn my skimmer off to keep it from overflowing). I then wait an hour or 2 and take 5g out of my sump. This way I never have to turn off my return pump.

[Guest Bemmer]

This is the way I do it on my 210. I change 5g twice a week. Once the new water is mixed and ready to go I add it to my sump (I turn my skimmer off to keep it from overflowing). I then wait an hour or 2 and take 5g out of my sump. This way I never have to turn off my return pump.

 

To be honest, I would not think that changing 5 gallons in a 210 would make that much of a difference. I know you do it twice a week but still that seems like twice as much work than doing one larger water change.

 

 

I change about 15-20% of my water once a week. I use a Mag-drive 500, which is in my large Brute trash can and put it into the main tank with the tube near the bottom of the tank. Then I shut off the return pump and let the water overflow into the sump. I have another Mag-drive in the sump and drain it to the sink. A 40g water change can take about 5-10 minutes. No fuss, no muss.

[Guest beatle]

I'd like to be able to turn on a pump in my sump and drain an adequate amount of water. I wonder if I can get enough water out of my sump to amount to a 10 gallon change.

[dhoch]

Matt,

 

Here is my methodology...

 

Turn off return pumps... filter off water from sump... pump new water into sump... turn return pumps back on.

 

Whole process takes me about 10-15 mins to do 10 gallons of water.

 

I change 10 gallons 3-4 times / 2 weeks. (system is a 180 + 40 gallon sump + 29 gallon refugium)

 

Dave

[Guest beatle]

I'll try turning off my return and letting the sump fill partially. Hopefully I can manage 10g (it's a 30g sump).

[madmax7774]

You guys should really talk to Dandy7200 about his water change system. It's all automatic. It's friggin amazing. His system automatically changes 1 gallon per day every day or something like that. I think he even has it tied to his aquacontroller, so it does it automatically. I've seen it in person, and I was astounded. I am working on my sump this weekend to finish installing a similar system for my setup. Once you understand the concept, it's actually not all that hard to setup. The most difficult thing is adding the drain line from the sump to a drain in the house so that the "old" water flows down the drain. The "new" water is pumped in from a water sump, and enters into the display, causing the level to rise in the sump, which then goes out an overflow to the drain. It really works.

[Guest beatle]

That would be nice to see. I have a few ideas of how an "ideal" water change system would function, but it would require additional holes in the tank, additional pumps, and additional plumbing, not to mention reservoirs of salt and fresh for topoff, mixing, etc. It would be nice to have the space/freedom to set something like that up!

[stevil]

I do something similar to dhoch, but I have a 90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump and I change 5 gallons a week. I just have 5 gallons in a old salt-bucket constantly being stirred by a small pump, I don't bother to heat the water, but it does get warmer than room-temp because of the pump.

 

I put a T in my return line and have a rubber hose going off of that with a valve I can turn on and off. When I need to do a water change, I just stick that hose in a 5 gal bucket and turn it on. The water takes the path of least resistance and goes out the hose instead of back up into my tank. Because I have a corner over-flow system, about 5 gallons will drain down into the sump, so my pump never runs dry.

 

Once the 5 gal is filled with old water, I just pump the 5 gallons of new water back into the system and mix up a new batch. This whole process takes me less than 10 minutes.

[NRehman]

Agree with madmax7774.

 

Dan's setup is quite elegant. I think he using a litermeter to dose x gal water into the tank. This raises the water level in the sump (built in drain) which then proceeds to drain out. I am looking forward to setting up a similar setup in a month or so.

 

Dan, where are you?

 

There are also threads in reefcentral on this topic.

Edited February 14, 2007 by NRehman

[Guest beatle]

Well, I did a water change tonight. It was slightly easier to drain from the sump, but I still "ran out of water" when pumping from the drain section. My skimmer pump and drain pipes keep me from getting the powerhead all the way down in the drain. I then moved the powerhead to the return chamber and pumped more water, but I was probably a quart or so short of filling the second bucket. I still had to pour the tub out into a bucket and then dump it into the display. Short of having the tub raised and drilled in the bottom with a pipe hooked to a pump, how do you get the last half gallon or so out of your mixing tub? Is this just a necessary evil?

 

I'll probably look into installing a cheap pump or some such that can pump water from the drain chamber at a lower level than the powerhead, but I still don't think I'll get a full 10 gallons out of it. My sump is not brimming with water after I shut off the return.

[Folta]

I think the key to keeping up with water changes is to make them easy and convenient.

 

Lately here's what I've been doing:

 

1. I get out my two empty 5g salt buckets. I fill each with RO/DI water.

2. I put a mini jet 404 in each to start circulating water

3. I scoop 6 scoops of salt mix for each bucket. (Make sure you add your water to the bucket first!)

4. I wait until the next day.

5. I put in two capfuls of seachem reef complete into each bucket.

6. I wait a little while longer.

7. I dump both buckets all at once into my sump. I don't worry about my skimmer overflowing because I get 10g of water out of the display quick enough that it doesn't have time to overflow.

8. I scoop 10g of water out of my display.

9. I rinse out the buckets with tap water (chlorinated), then let dry out. Done!

 

Setting up the buckets on day 1 takes like 2 minutes.

Doing the actual water change takes about 2 minutes.

 

 

One thing to note: If you have a 100 gallon tank and for 30 days do a 1 gallon change, it does NOT come out to the same as doing a 30g change on one day. The reason is that when you do a water change, the water you add gets mixed in. So each water change I am actually pulling out some of the 'new' water from the last change.

 

Another thing to note, is that in most our cases where our nitrates are already down to around 10 or below, doing a water change really won't help them get any lower. Think of it this way; if you have a 100 gallon tank and your nitrates are at 10, after doing a 50% water change at best your nitrates are only 5. Then if you do another 50g water change, you nitrates are only 2 1/2. I'm not saying there aren't other advantages for doing water changes, I'm just saying that it is not a very efficient way of getting things like nitrates down.

[Guest beatle]

I'm not able to dump anything into my sump that's larger than a gallon jug. I just don't have the clearance to pour an entire 5g bucket (full or not) into the sump, so I have to use a pump. I might be able to add 10 gallons to my sump if I don't turn off my return, but things would be pretty full. My goal in water changes is to remove all old water and replace with new, rather than draining some of the good water by draining after adding.

 

My nitrates are already below 10 due to the giant ball of chaeto in my fuge, and I'm guessing the DSB in the fuge helps a bit as well. I just change water because I hear it's a good thing.

[Guest seantadez]

you guys have to see the Chris Bashaw's system, is awesome, less than 1 minute for a water change...

Edited February 15, 2007 by seantadez

[dandy7200]

I posted something for you guys in the DIY forum.

[geofloors]

On my 280g I have a GenX40 plumbed into the sump which is a 100g stocktank. I plug the pump in an pump the sump dry. It takes less then 10 minutes to drain 65-70 gallons. I have two 44 g brute trash cans with fresh RO/DI saltwater each with a Mag 7 in them. I place a 3/4" hose on the pump and pump the sump back to full. Total time is about 20 minutes for 65-70 gallons every 2 weeks. Since this water change is hands free I use the down time to clean the skimmer, and any other maintenance near the sump which is needed.

 

 

George

[flowerseller]

This is the way I do it on my 210. I change 5g twice a week. Once the new water is mixed and ready to go I add it to my sump (I turn my skimmer off to keep it from overflowing). I then wait an hour or 2 and take 5g out of my sump. This way I never have to turn off my return pump.

 

I do like Steve except I change anywhere from 10-15g once a week for my 300g system.

[Ingo]

I run a garden hose from the Aquarium to the shower. Gravity feed works fine. My make up water is sitting higher than the sump. gravity feed with a one inch hose.

30 gallon water change in about 15- 20 minutes with little or no hands on.

[Rascal]

Another way to do it is to put the T with ball valve on your drain line instead of your return. Then you just turn on the pump from your mixing container and open the ball valve enough so that the flow out matches the flow in from your mixing container. This way you never have to turn off your return pump. To minimize the amount of "new" water that gets mixed in and emptied, I keep my new salt water at a slightly lower temperature than my tank, and turn off all other circulation pumps in the display before I start the process. The theory is that the slightly colder (and cleaner) water being pumped in from the return will sink to the bottom and the water that goes over the overflow -- and ultimately out of the system -- will be primarly the old, dirtier water.

 

Through trial and error I have decided the MJ1200 is the best cheap pump for adding water. It seems to deal a little better with head than some other pumps with similar circulation rates. Also, I highly recommend putting a cord switch on your powerhead if you are going to be using these to move water around, just for convenience. It's really easy to do. As far as getting the last bit out of your mixing tub, just tilt it and keep the inlet of the powerhead submerged in the corner as long as possible.

 

HTH