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semi-automated water changes
I do hope this topic hasn't been done to death. I did search the
archives and came up with the following approach.
My situation is a 30 gallon tank. I would like to do 10% water changes
with a minimum of fuss. We have very hard water (Madison, WI) so I
buy RO water for 2/3 of the new water. The local tap water has a
small amount of chlorine, no cloramine.
My proposed approach involves having a 4 or 5 gallon overflow
container under my tank which I would empty manually. I would also
have two additional containers on the floor: one with RO water and one
with aged tap water.
The goal is to
move 3 gallons out into the overflow
move 2 gallons of RO and 1 gallon of aged
tap water in from separate containers on the floor.
with no lifting and minimum intervention (low cost is a plus).
I can easily set up an exit siphon to empty the tank to a preset
level. My question is, what is the best way to get the correct
mixture of new water into the tank from the two sources. Is there a
way to pump both sources of water at once (1/3 coming from the tap
container and 2/3 from the RO container)? I would also like to be
able to just start the pump and have it shut off manually using (I
guess) a float valve or timer.
I would rather avoid pre-mixing the 2 water sources by hand since that
involves more lifting and more buckets.
TIA, - Mary