Automatic Water Change - Solution

[attilak]

Hi,

I wanted to get some feedback as to the solution some of you have setup to do your automatic water changes. I have been so frustrated with AutoAqua that now I am just looking to setup something different. In all honesty, AutoAqua works for 6 - 8 weeks and it's great, but I have sent units now 4 times to CoralVue for repair and I am pretty much done trying to get it fixed. Perhaps AutoAqua is not meant for a large aquarium, maybe nano - I don't know. But I am trying to do a 10 gal water change daily on a 210 gal.

Thanks!

 

[SuncrestReef]

I've been using a Neptune DOS controlled by my Apex to do auto water changes daily for over 2 years with no problems. I normally do 2 gallons per day on a Reefer XL 425 (~100 gallon system) but on occasion have increased it to as much as 15 gallons in a day. The maximum the DOS can pump is about 31 gallons in 24 hours.

If you already have an Apex, the DOS would be a good choice. If you don't yet have an Apex, then it might be cost prohibitive just for water changes.

 

[attilak]

Thank you! yes, I am running Apex and completely forgot that there is an APEX solution for this but as I recall the reason why I chose Autoaqua is because the APEX DOS was expensive. I will look into this now...

 

[K7BMG]

+1 on the Apex with a Dos.

I have to ask you, why so much water 10g a day?
Every reefer has there reasons but this seems like a huge wast of money.
The cost of salt and RO/DI consumables must be extensive.
If you have an Apex already as stated the Dos unit is $300.00.

That sounds like a drop in the bucket compaired to the expense of the rest.

 

[attilak]

That's a good point on the amount of water changes I do ... what would be recommended? I mean should it be 5 gal / day? I guess I am looking at how my parameters are and they look good as before I did 1 large water change, about 30 gal / week.

As for the APEX DOS; so now I know why I did not go with this product - mainly didn't know how I should handle the RODI ATO as I have 50 gal holding container which is gravity fed. So with autoaqua, they provide an option for a solenoid that I installed in-line to the float valve. Anyway, with this system when AWC starts, it will power solenoid to stop ATO. I guess I can somehow make this work with APEX DOS by plugging solenoid into the EB8 and schedule to turn on when AWC starts with DOS.

 

[attilak]

Sorry, one more to add regards to amount of water changes, not sure if it matters but with sump the total water volume is around 300 gal.

 

[K7BMG]

Yes even so.

If you review many threads the average monthly water change is about 20%.
So in your case around 60 gallons a month vs the 300 you are curently doing.

I am not saying you need to change your ways but something to think about.

 

[Obsessed]

I’ve set up two BRS 50ml pumps to change 1.5g a day on my 200g system, both run on the same timer so no ATO issues. Even if they don’t swap exactly the same amount of water it’s not a big deal salinity wise as it’s only a little bit of water for my system.

 

[radiata]

I do a 5GPD automatic water change with my Apex, in a system of maybe 350 Gallons.

Here's the logic:
I flip the Apex controlled ATO input from RODI/FW to Fresh-SW.
I remove 5 gallons of tank water.
I let the ATO run with SW until the system's 5 gallons has been replaced.
Then I flip the Apex ATO back to RODI/FW from Fresh-SW.

I do this in 10 minutes every afternoon. My pumps are Mags. The 5 gallon removal amount is calculated with the time I know that this particular Mag takes to remove 5 gallons. (One minute in my setup).

You'll be using Mag pumps (or better, like Eheims), and not dosing pumps (that happen to take forever). You'll need some reliable float valves (I'm using Apex optical water-level sensors and an Apex FMM.)

I hope this makes sense.