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Re: Water Changing
Ivo Busko replied regarding the Aquarium Products: Meridian Automatic Water
Changer
> That said, there are some drawbacks. First, I don't know how effective is
> the water squirting to remove chlorine. Since the rate of water change is
> so slow, and my tap water probably has chloramine as well, I just add some
> AmQuel to the tank while the device is running.
>
> Second, it only works with tap water at about 30 psi pressure. No way to
> pre-treat the water.
I may run the water first through a undersink-type carbon cartridge to
handle the chlorine (chloramine isn't in my water per water dept.).
> Third, the water squirting into the tank degasses too much CO2. I made a
> contraption with a long clear pipe standing horizontaly above the water
and
> made the water squirt inside one end of the pipe. So at the other end it
> just trickles smoothly into the tank.
Good to know and good idea.
> Fourth, the rate of change is too small to be practical in a large tank as
a
> 120. Mine is a 46 gal and it takes about 6.5 hours to replace 50% of the
> water. This is due partially to the small water flow and partially due to
> the fact the water level is kept constant in the tank. This results in a
> logarithic dependency of the time it takes to replace a given amount of
> water, with that amount of water. Due to this logarithmic dependency it
> is also not practical for large water changes, say more than 50%. On the
> other hand, this is good for the fish since there is absolutely no pH
shock.
> And the input water can be cold, since the tank heater has plenty of time
> to warm it up as it trickles into the tank.
I thought that I could plumb two runs of cpvc from the basement and end it
in the wall behind the aquarium inside of an empty outlet box (so I could
cap the pipes and cover the hole with a blank plate if I sell the house). I
could then attach the water changer's poly pipe to the cpvc mounted in the
wall. Quick connects would make removal easy. The basement end of the
supply line would be plumbed into the house supply with a timer-controled
solenoid value controling the flow. Time would no longer be an issue and I
could change small amounts daily without lifting a finger. If I want to do
a larger change because of a tank upset of some kind, I could resort to the
old garden hose.
> Fifth, it uses a syphon to draw water from the tank. The syphon is
constantly
> driven by the input water, so therev is some bypas and some water is
wasted.
> The very same problem exists with the Python system though.
Good to know. I would like to find out how much water is wasted. As an
option, I could drill the tank and add an overflow standpipe to the tank
instead of using the Meridian. That wouldn't waste any water but would add
some complexity to the tank (and a possible leak point). I could maybe use
the water emitters used for garden drip systems to give me a slow flow into
the tank using the same cpvc setup described above.
> Despite the drawbacks, I liked the idea so much that in my future 120 I'll
use
> the same principle, but with a larger water flow to keep the changing time
> within reasonable limits. I also will get rid of the squirt and venturi by
> using a overflow standpipe in the sump and a simple hose with ball valve
to
> regulate the input into the sump.
Sounds good, but I don't think I want to deal with a sump and the
possibility of overflow often associated with them.
> Hope these ideas help,
>
> - - Ivo Busko
> Baltimore, MD
Yes it does, thanks. Any comments on my reply to Ivo's post will be
appreciated.
Scott Page
Salt Lake City, Utah