Auto Water Change System

Me to!

 

This is genius!!! This would be awesome to have!!! My next tank will have that if There on the market

Also if u need a beta tester I'm in

 

My AWC system cost me $25. Two matching pumps and a timer with dual outlets. Is yours going to be cheaper?

 

I'm sure it won't be cheaper, but it will be a lot more accurate. Yours removes water in a certain amount of time, so they can be many variables as to how much is removed and replaced. Theirs removes a certain amount of water, no variables.

 

No matter how "matched" you think they are... they are not. There is no way you can do a AWC with two pumps and make them remove and add the exact same amount of water every time. Over time you will have a shift in salinity which is not the point.

There are dual head peristaltic pumps that pump both fluids at the same time from the same driver. Those are accurate, but expensive.

 

And noisy.

 

I always love a challenge. I hope you are man or woman enough to admit you are dead wrong. I did an experiment to prove it. I put two maxijet1200's in a bucket with the same length of hose attached going into two identical buckets. See the pictures. I ran it 10 times for 30 seconds each run and EVERY time the water level came back the same in each bucket.

For an AWC, you would have some differential depending on how careful you are with matching the source location for each pump, and the hose length, et cetera to minimize variables. This could EASILY work with a little planning and thought.

I don't claim to be a reef expert, but I've been mixing salt water for over a year for my tanks and it is not an exact science. I use a milwaukee MA887 (verified accurate by two LFS) to measure salinity. If you regularly maintain your tank and use a salinity meter or one of the expensive electronic monitors you would know if your mix is off. If you religiously mix your salt water in the first place, using a two pump AWC on a good sized (55g+?) system it is not going to cause the problems you mention as facts. It could happen, but it would be unlikely if you manage a reef tank like you should do to maintain water quality.

Additionally, I personally would only use this on my 125g + 55g sump setup to change ~7 gallons per week depending on water quality. If I can save the hassle of a WC (the way I do it now) with this simple system, then check salinity after the system runs...(which I do ANYWAY) I doubt I will ever have swings in salinity that 1.) could not be corrected immediately 2.) would ever be measurable. Once you tune the system, it would work perfectly. Just like your expensive options.

Did I mention that EVERY time I ran the experiment the water level distributed was the same? I even switch the hoses to the other bucket each time and the slight (less than 1/8") difference in water level from each pump moved to the other bucket. The pumps were both plugged into a belkin surge protector. on/off...simple.

Not everyone on 3reef has thousands to spend on equipment. I really do despise the way so many people on this forum and others jump on ideas to trash/troll them so quickly without any rational discussion. You don't know me, and you don't know what I think. Perhaps you should learn to think before you speak.

the pumps:


the receptacles... classic HD buckets.

 

Hinged you aren't the first person to debate your thought and if you use it long enough you won't be the first person to cause a mini tank wipe doing it. Many have made the mistake before. Aver time the two pumps will wear differently and quickly become very different. After a few weeks your salinity is off. One rapid adjustment and oops all corals are dead. Many have made the mistake you are making. Many have lost livestock doing it. It isn't an attack on you, it is simple fact that we all discovered years ago. Pumps do not match.

 

I can appreciate the experiment in OCD, seriously, buy you completely ignored the real world.

You have to have a pump in your system, and a pump in your reservoir. The discharge lines and head levels will never be identical every single time. The pump in the tank will get colonized and will not remain clean as the one in the reservoir. Over time, you will never be able to ensure both pumps, operate, wear and pump the same volumes. You can not ensure EXACT same amounts will be pumped EVERY time over their life span.

The other glaring problem is that you do not need to. You do not need to engineer some incredible exact setup to make this work. An ATO like I had will do it. And yes, the possibility does exist for a slight shift depending on how it is done, but in the real world it was negligible and I never noticed one over the very minute natural shifts just because there is a human involved.

When looking into AWC there are some that have done it and there are many pit falls discussed. I did not want to use a dual head pump and dual metering pumps would have to be on too long. They are not cheap and the longer they run the the faster they wear out. Those too have shifts as the tubing deteriorates.

So then you have to come up with a way to match what you are taking out with what you are putting in. Doing that once a day, or even better a few times a day... a small difference magnifies quickly. It is unrealistic to put so much effort in the way you discuss. So how do we keep it SIMPLE and yet accurate with minimal fuss? Well the answer does not involve matching pumps, because we know that is darn near impossible and we do not need to ADD a problem to solve another.

 

My point made two more times.