How to do 150 water changes a day...

[Chad]

Y'all may remember me asking about auto water changers last week... well, I decided to bite the bullet and bought a Litermeter with two water exchange modules and a whole bunch of plumbing parts to make it happen...

 

I mounted it on the left side of my refugium, accessible, but not intrusive (this is in a corner, there is a wall about a foot to the left of the picture).

 

 

Here what it looks like in my sump (this is before I trimmed the lines to length in the sump and set the water level).

The two clear acrylic tubes are pressure switches, the lower (left) one is for the ATO, and the higher (right) one is the system shutoff if the sump level gets too high.

As far as the tubes go, the leftmost one is the drain, the middle one is the new saltwater, and the right one is for the ATO.

 

 

Following the fill lines behind the couch and across the room you get a glimpse of Jeff's (NAGA's) excellent (and inexpensive) work on the top off tanks.

 

 

And here is a better view of these tanks. Thanks Jeff, these are awesome!

 

 

That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how you do 150, 37 mililiter water changes a day.

 

[Chad]

Which, by the way, adds up to about 10 gallons (7%) a week.

[ctenophore]

Very nice Chad. I completely forgot to show you my auto change system yesterday! Sorry I was distracted by football.

[Coral Hind]

Very nice job Chad. Automation really makes the hobby much more enjoyable.

[Chad]

Thanks all!

Justin, I actually forgot about it when I was there!! I think I would have asked, thanks for showing me your setup!

David, I totally agree... At some point, I will add a computer for the added safety functions and notifications, but it wont be tomorrow!

[reefhunter]

Very nice Chad! I am going to duplicate this. I am sick of water changes.

[Coral Hind]

Can you detail exactly what pieces of hardware you used to make this system? I have never used a litermeter system before, are the pressure switches part of that setup?

[Chad]

Thanks Hunter, I agree with you, after 8 years of wanting this setup, I finally had enough things telling me to get it... so I got it, you should do the same!

 

David, It is three separate parts, the litermeter base unit (which has one internal pump and two control outputs) and two "water exchange modules" which is basically just a peristaltic pump with built in pressure shut off switch. (plus a bunch of 1/4" poly tubing)

 

Of the three pumps, I have the internal pump as the drain pump (amount it could possibly drain is limited by the drain line's 2" depth into the sump), and the pumps with shutoff are for the new saltwater and fresh water top off. The sump's water level should never get to the level of the second pressure switch.

 

I didnt need to get two modules with the shutoff since the fill pump moves such a small amount in a day that I would have probably 4-5 days (or more) to notice my sump level was high and take action, but I like putting two failures in place before a consequence occurs.

[Coral Hind]

Thanks, that makes more sense now. I was trying to figure out where the pressure switches went to and it is clear now.

Edited November 8, 2010 by Coral Hind

[Chad]

I got the report tonight that the salinity has not shifted at all under the new system, yay!! I was pretty worried about the calibration, but so far, so good!

[Origami]

Great job! I've been thinking about putting the twin-head that I have for my Masterflex on and using it to implement the constant water change idea myself. I have a quick question for you: What, if any, safeguard to you have in place to stop the water change activity should the reservoir go dry? Also, do you put a lid over the salt reservoir to keep it's salinity from climbing due to evaporation?

[Chad]

Thanks Tom, I didnt put a safeguard in place for the reservoirs running dry. The litermeter wont suffer any damage by running dry (in fact I ran it dry for about 24 hours straight before I calibrated it), so I didn't think anything was necessary on that front. Thinking about it now, though, I did add a small powerhead to the salt tank that I may want to protect, so I may put a low level switch on it at some point. The reservoir holds close to three weeks worth of water changes, so I have a fair amount of buffer involved before it happens.

 

Both of the top off tanks have lids that are pretty tight fitting, only a small triangle cut out of the corners for tubes/wires to pass through.

 

 

[Origami]

My thinking is that, (God forbid) I get too complacent with mixing up a new batch of saltwater and the system continues to drain the tank while failing to replenish it. It would be nice in that case to have a level sensor override the water change system.

[L8 2 RISE]

Would you mind saying how much you think this cost you? (not including the water change tank). I'm considering buying an automatic water changer but if this diy route is cheaper I might go that way.

[Chad]

Sam, I dont think this way is a cheap route by any means... I am sure there are cheaper ways. The LM3 was $323 and the other pumps were $170 each plus about $100 for misc. fittings and tubing (I went nuts on the JG fittings, I think I used 37!!). I was going for a reliable and proven product that would always have a place on one of my tanks and be cleanly installed and I paid the price for it.

[reefhunter]

Thank you!