Brand New 8 gallon bio cube

[12gallonsofhex]

I want to invent a standalone one that actually works. All the standalone ones now require intervention when they run. To me, that's not an AWC.

I was thinking about that one night as i was trying to fall asleep. Something that would only put in the sane volume that is pumped out. Something like an old balance scale with a 30 gallon barrel of new saltwater on one side and an empty 30 gallon barrel plus a balance weight on the other. As old saltwater is pumped into the empty barrel it would lift the new sw barrel emptying the fresh sw into the sump. Obviously i fell asleep before i worked it out, and nothing that mechanical would be adopted by modern reefers. We live in a world where a tail light on a bmw has its own computer module. Lol

 

[dantimdad]

Holy cow!

That's way too expensive!

I think it's time for the thinking cap. Anyone have any lemons?

(someone better get that reference!)

 

[Fin]

Never heard of them. I will check it out.

Probably cost prohibitive for me and not sure it is actually worth the price.
https://genesisreefsystems.com/

 

[12gallonsofhex]

I also had a thought that building a high duty-cycle dosing pump that drove 2 pumps off of the same drive shaft would work. One pump would pump out, one pump would pump in. Both would pump at the exact same rate. You could have one pull water out of the first chamber of the sump, and one dump new water into the return chamber. May not need to pause the ato

 

[dantimdad]

To me, the cost has to be justified. If you manually changed 2 gallons a day and had say 100 gallons mixed up. That's an hour every 50 days to make water. Literally 2 minutes a day to change out two gallons. so say another two hours every 50 days just to make it easy.

That's three hours or about $90 for the mean income in the US. every 50 days. If you paid yourself to do it. That's about $630 per year.

So, to me, if it costs more than half that, it's not worth it. Because, missing a two gallon water change because you forgot, will not hurt. But, the piece of equipment sticking on and doing something stupid can really hurt. So, it really has to be reliable and cost effective.

Not to mention that while you are changing out water everyday, you can check things visually to make sure all is well.


I think I just talked myself out of an AWC all together. LOL!

 

[Katrina71]

Not me. I wanna try it. Not give up regular maintenance, but I'd like to see how the tank responds.

 

[dantimdad]

I will work on it for you Katrina. Who knows, maybe I can make it work on my system and decide to keep using one.

:)

 

[NY_Caveman]

I do realize I'm probably the only one that has noticed this, but anyone ever notice how disappointing the blue ringed octopus art on the back of Octopussy's robe is? I would expect the Bond franchise to do better.

Lame. My daughters could do better. Your Kraken decals put it to shame.

 

[Fin]

The price of $979 is for both parts. The AWC and an ATO. The AWC system is only $599. :-)

 

[dantimdad]

The price of $979 is for both parts. The AWC and an ATO. The AWC system is only $599. :)

Well then I will buy two. HAHAHA!

 

[12gallonsofhex]

I think you just talked the whole thread out of an AWC, @dantimdad. Lol!
If i had, scratch that, when i have a giant reef tank i may do one for convenience sake. Maybe also for tinkering sake. But on my nano that holds stable 5-10 ppm nitrates doing a 2.5 gallon water change every 2 weeks it doesnt make sense.

 

[dantimdad]

I think you just talked the whole thread out of an AWC, @dantimdad. Lol!
If i had, scratch that, when i have a giant reef tank i may do one for convenience sake. Maybe also for tinkering sake. But on my nano that holds stable 5-10 ppm nitrates doing a 2.5 gallon water change every 2 weeks it doesnt make sense.

Agreed.

 

[NY_Caveman]

When I think about AWC I think we are approaching something more natural. Honestly, we filter our water in our systems then use additives and dosing trying to hit the “perfect” ocean level. We try to maintain several parameters with increasing technology ad infinitum. It just sounds prone to fail at some point. We do it and it works until it does not. May be months, may be years, but most of us have had an Alkalinity spike or even an all out crash. BTW, we rely on hobby level test kits to monitor it all.

I know systems are maintained this way with success. What is the expense and risk vs. a system relying on AWC alone? Skip the dosing and the trace and instead rely on an influx of new water and varied feeding to supplement normal filtration.

 

[Fin]

Ok, don't laugh. I never implemented this, but I had the idea to put a 5 gallon container inline with the sump with a dedicated pump, or off a manifold. It would have quick disconnects on it with auto shut off when they were disconnected. All I would have to do to change 5 gallons would be to disconnect one container with tank water and quickly replace it with another identical container with fresh salt water. Wouldn't even have to turn off the pump. Another small benefit of doing this, is some detritus would likely settle out in the container and be discarded when the old water was dumped.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Love that.

 

[sfin52]

I like my water station and 5 gallon buckets. The only reason I got my water stations is because heather said she was sick of always emptying the ro tank.

 

[12gallonsofhex]

Ok, don't laugh. I never implemented this, but I had the idea to put a 5 gallon container inline with the sump with a dedicated pump, or off a manifold. It would have quick disconnects on it with auto shut off when they were disconnected. All I would have to do to change 5 gallons would be to disconnect one container with tank water and quickly replace it with another identical container with fresh salt water. Wouldn't even have to turn off the pump. Another small benefit of doing this, is some detritus would likely settle out in the container and be discarded when the old water was dumped.

Sounds like a clever wc idea

 

[Katrina71]

@Fin I think you are onto something really smart.

 

[Fin]

@Fin I think you are onto something really smart.

Not sure how smart it is and it does still involve lugging heavy containers full of water. But I believe it might fall somewhere between an auto water change and a regular one for speed and ease. It also requires space near the aquarium. So, definitely not perfect.

 

[Katrina71]

Not sure how smart it is and it does still involve lugging heavy containers full of water. But I believe it might fall somewhere between an auto water change and a regular one for speed and ease. It also requires space near the aquarium. So, definitely not perfect.

I lift those 5g containers now. Either way you go it's pretty dang smart.