Auto Water Change who uses it and how do you like it?

((FORDTECH))

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It seems like a lot of people complain about the noise of the DOS. I have my 100 gallon tank in my office on the second floor and my mixing station in the basement. All told it's about 10 feet total from the bottom of my mixing tank to the top of my sump, plus about 10 feet horizontally. The DOS has a max head of 24' and the Versa is 14', so I don't think I want to risk it. So my question is, can this pump be placed in my basement where I won't hear the noise? Can they be programmed and then run standalone without a controller, or would I have to buy a new controller?
Yes It can be in basement and even go to second floor no problem you still may hear the pump run tho cause they are loud. You will need an apex controller to use dos. It can not be used stand alone.
 

((FORDTECH))

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I store my water in the garage. I run RO tubing up the wall, through the attic, down the wall next to the tank and into the sump. The drain line runs back up the wall, through the attic all the way to the other side of my house to the drain for my water heater. I use the apex dose pump and it has no problem with this.

I use regular old instant ocean. I don't heat it, but I do let it mix for 48 hours. Every 6 months ill blast out the container with a pressure washer.

I love my automatic water change system for the simple fact i've never had to haul water. I only change a small amount a day with hope of replacing trace elements and slowly diluting any pollutants in the tank. Takes about 10 minutes a month to fill the container, dump the salt in, turn on the mixing pump and done.
Hmmm pressure washer actually blasts the brown crud off without any damage? I never thought of that. I’ve gone thru soooo many gallons of vinegar and 50+ pounds of citric acid to do this chore.
 

Ken Good

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I have a water mixing station in the garage storage room which is two walls from my home office where the aquarium is located. The room between is the laundry room. I ran tubing between the garage and the home office. I use the ghl maxi doser and change out a little over a gallon a day in saltwater. The water removed from the aquarium goes down the washing machine line for used water. It runs every night at midnight. I love it. It is everything a techie nerd lover could wish for.

I also have a small container under the tank that is connected to the RO/DI system and it stays full of 2.5 gallons of top off water.

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LVReefer94

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I enjoy it! Im still playing around with using the dos for auto or push button manual. Both make my life easier. Its very loud so running it remote from the tank and spending the extra coin long ro line and aquabus extensions makes it even better.
 

Rewd

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I'm setting up a 90G and just got my AWC all situated. Used 2 Versa pumps and will be changing about a gallon and a half per day from mixed up saltwater containers that are in my basement on the opposite side of the house. I also ran a line from a 3rd container that stores RO water to use for auto top off reservoir that is controlled by a Tunze connected to a BRS 50ML pump.
 

MONTANTK

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After reading this thread it’s making me second guess about getting a DOS. I was planning on changing aroun .5 gallons per day and keeping the DOS under my stand. Any input on noise level from underneath a stand?
 
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AlwaysHatingNathan

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After reading this thread it’s making me second guess about getting a DOS. I was planning on changing aroun .5 gallons per day and keeping the DOS under my stand. Any input on noise level from underneath a stand?
As from what I’ve read in my thread that they are loud
 

schuby

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I've been using a DOS to change out two gallons a day for over two years now. Works great. Having it change the two gallons over 24 hours and staggering the add/remove times makes it the quietest it can be. My 150 gallon DT is in my living room. The DOS is underneath in closed stand with two, 5-gallon buckets: one with new saltwater and one for the old. I calibrate it a few times a year if my salinity starts to drift.

For my previous, 90 gallon tank, I did manual water changes. It was too easy to not do them when I got busy and the tank deteriorated from that. With this new tank, I wanted to make it the most convenient to keep up with necessary maintenance. I believe it is completely worth it.
 

User

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i'll dig up with https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/e...water-change-setup-for-your-amusement.745766/

so far it has been working perfectly. Zero change in salinity. ATO compensates for evap. I'd be interested in how many people using AWC based purely on calibrated pumps can go without having to recalibrate pumps or tweak salinity back to set point.
I like that

like a diy genesis renew, but cooler looking. Not those big black bins.

I’ve been thinking about doing something similar, but using pumps to fill reservoirs to a float sensor set point, then having apex open a solenoid in the bottom to release to tank/waste
 
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