AWC, got an idea....

[reefinatl]

So brainstorming some things for an AWC. Need y'all to pick this idea apart because it seems to simple and cheap to actually work.

55g drum of SW in the garage (30" lower than the rest of the home) with a $30 maxi jet inside. Maxi jet runs through a bulkhead in the drum and dumps into the sump above the waterline.

Sump is drilled on the side with the bottom of the bulkhead right at or maybe 1/4" above "normal" waterline. That bulkhead runs into the crawlspace to a sink drain.

Put the maxijet on a timer to run 5 minutes? A day.

Assuming max water height in the storage is less than the height of the output but head on the maxijet is less than 5 feet, did I just complete a AWC for ~$100 all in and also plumb in an emergency ATO went crazy drain?

 

[ZoWhat]

My sump is a Rubbermaid 100g trough..... in my basement, where the DT is on the Main Floor

My return line plumbing leading back to the DT is Y-ed off right before it feds my external return-pump.

So bulkhead'ed out of the sump is a single PVC pipe but at the Y, one Y leads to the return-pump. the 2nd Y has a ball valve on it that leads plumbing to a floor drain in the basement by gravity. The 2nd Y is obviously closed at all times until I want sump water the drain into the floor drain.

Above my sump us a 55g drum of RODI

My nearly effortless,super quick WC steps:

1) I turn off my return-pump

2) I open the ball valve leading to the drain

3) I have a waterline marker in the sump to indicate how many gallons of old SW is going down the drain

4) at the appropriate level i close the ball valve to stop the drain

5) I pump in RODI water from the drum above,back up to "full" level. (Remember the DT is not being effected when pumping a bunch of rodi into the sump bc return-pump id O F F)

6) I measure out how how salt mix to put in the sump and use my refractometer to nail 1.025

7) Once sump water clears up in minutes, I turn back on the return pump. Vola! Done

I can do as little as a couple of gals... or the whole sump, up to the amt of RODI water i have on hand...... all in about 10mins or less.

Only thing physical is turning the ball valves and dumping salt mix in using measuring cups

About as simple and nearly effortless as I can imagine.

And I'm there MANAGING the quick process with confidence

My method insures truly OLD SW gets drained first and new SW gets mixed immediately after.

Easy peasey....

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So brainstorming some things for an AWC. Need y'all to pick this idea apart because it seems to simple and cheap to actually work.

55g drum of SW in the garage (30" lower than the rest of the home) with a $30 maxi jet inside. Maxi jet runs through a bulkhead in the drum and dumps into the sump above the waterline.

Sump is drilled on the side with the bottom of the bulkhead right at or maybe 1/4" above "normal" waterline. That bulkhead runs into the crawlspace to a sink drain.

Put the maxijet on a timer to run 5 minutes? A day.

Assuming max water height in the storage is less than the height of the output but head on the maxijet is less than 5 feet, did I just complete a AWC for ~$100 all in and also plumb in an emergency ATO went crazy drain?

This sounds like it would work to me. So basically your pumping in new saltwater and it's draining simultaneously by overflowing out of the drain, right? Are you pumping into a different chamber than the one that is draining?

 

[Auquanut]

Sounds feasible to me. Just 2 things.

1. I think you would want you're fresh water "in" to be slow enough that most of the drained water is not coming directly from the reservoir. I guess if you have your drain upstream from your water in, that would take care of that.

2. When you turn off or lose power to your return pump, you will lose the excess water down the drain. When the pump comes back on, you will have to top it off or the ATO will make up the difference with RO. Or am I overthinking it?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

When you turn off or lose power to your return pump, you will lose the excess water down the drain. When the pump comes back on, you will have to top it off or the ATO will make up the difference with RO. Or am I overthinking it?

This is a really good point. Something that definitely needs to be considered. Having a check valve on your return could help, but you'd still need to watch out for issues with that valve.

 

[Cory]

Im not sure if it would work but i thought id share my idea.

Put a 55g tub beside your sump. Fill it with clean saltwater. Put another slightly small but empty 40g tub on top of the tub and have it floating. Have a bulkhead in the 55g on the side. When you pump dirty tank water into the 40g its weight sinks pushing water out of the 55g drums bulkhead or overflow and goes into the sump as the old water fills the 40g. Use a cheap timer to turn on the maxijet. This would be a water displacement atw. Work or not?