Automated Water Changers (AWC's) - Use One? DIY or Commerical Offering? What Scale (AWC tankage and aquarium tankage)? -

[Iwannaflyguy]

Automated Water Changers (AWC's) - Use One? DIY or Commerical Offering? What Scale (AWC tankage and aquarium tankage)?

I am back into reef-keeping after over 10 years of being away from that particular science. In that time there has been quite an explosion of methodology, technology and product offerings to simplify and remove manual steps. One that I am very interested in is automated water changing systems. I have seen some DIY systems and a few Commerical systems out there. I would like to know how many of us in the R2R community use AWC's and thoughts on the following:

1. usability
2. risks associated with AWC systems
3. labor savings over manual weekly water changes
4. what size/volumes are you employing
5. data comparing water chemistry stability
6. Any other feedback you are wiling to share

I appreciate your sharing of any insights. Happy reef-keeping!

 

[Iwannaflyguy]

My rock structure only touches on a few points, so the power heads on top are angled down and blow all the detritus out from under the rock. The MP40s on the front bottom kick up everything into the overflow.

It works, no detritus accumulation on the bottom. I only do auto water changes. Downside is a filter sock lasts 2 days at best.

Thank you for sharing your setup. I think it is a great approach.

 

[Iwannaflyguy]

Thank you all for sharing your feedback on AWC's. It is really helpful as I look for ways to improve the quality of life for my fish, inverts and coral. I appreciate it.

 

[R-balljunkie]

Nice system, I see you have the pump to get your new water in. How do you get the same amount of old water out?

the pump has a dual head. the same amount in is exactly the same amount out.

 

[R-balljunkie]

This is great, thank you for sharing. I have also thought through all of the valves, pumps, level meters, etc. and have been concerned over reliability. I like the simplistic design you've achieved. I also use a filter roller system and like it for the most part. I have had some issues with the water level sensors to where the twice the roller has erroneously rolled up 1/2 a roll of filter membrane overnight. I don't want something like that to happen with a AWC.

my worst-case scenario is that I do a 15-gallon water change on a 100-gallon system all at one time....

 

[JoshH]

I currently don't run an AWC but I did run one when I used to work at an LFS. I used the spectrapure litermeter to change 10 gallons a day on a 500 gallon coral system.

My experience was that it did positively effect the corals and helped to even out trace elements. In a store system element usage varies alot because corals are constantly going in and out of the system.

My disappointment was that the AWC could never replace manual waterchanges because it would not remove detritus. Despite the daily AWC detritus still accumulated and manual water changes were still needed on a weekly basis to keep the bare bottom clean. Since this experience I have never done another AWC system because the biggest selling point was less work and I found that this just isn't the case.

That is a good point. Detritis removal through siphoning would not be accomplished by an AWC. Thank you for sharing your experience!

To compensate for this I plumbed a Y fitting with a valve and barbed fitting into my emergency drain. And at the other end of my emergency drain I had a filter sock holder designed into my sump. When I want to clean some detritus up I just pop a sock in at the end of the line. Open a valve at the Y and start my siphon. I can siphon all the live long day if I wanted to and my only limiting factor is how much the sock can hold but it's easy to swap them out.