Automated water changes

[Scooterman]

Sorry I had more plans from a tank that someone already started designs, don't know how well it worked, I came up with the Big Wave Idea, that too also had problems so now I'm working on a similar design but the expense of experimenting was getting higher than I wanted to proceed with at this time, so I backed away. I have improved ideas but think I will test them out realistically first when I can afford it. I think at this time we have lighting down to the point where we can grow anything we want. I think one major problem 99% of us have is sucking out waste, I think we need it done daily & constantly, that is difficult to say the least. I want not to be lazy but to be innovative & actually make something that really works, no new gimmick, new toy or whatever, all I want is a way to remove waste & DonW has something in the works I like & need more input on. I want to move water in waves constantly shifting enough to push waste off rocks, keep water cycled (Dons idea) & suck out waste constantly, in a manner that skimming isn't as critical as it is now. It can be done, It needs to be done but how is the problem. I can make the waves but as I found out closed loops & the soft wide flow of a Tunze stream will not do what nature does, so I don't like that, also it is expensive & takes constant work unless you can afford an elaborate system. If you take a look back ten years you will find mechanical resources failed to meet the needs of a Living Reef. I can take a pump & directly blow it on a rock & still not clean settled waste & algae but I can wave my hand forcefully & do a better job. So not letting waste settle is very important & very difficult to achieve to the point where you get all of your rocks constantly having water flowing across them never letting anything settle & we still will need to remove the waste constantly, daily, 24/7. All this is just some thoughts & ideas from my experiences & learning, I don't know of anyone honestly enough to say that they never have problems. If you ask me I say Algae is the most common problem, always & at the same time we need it but not more than is necessary, even outside your aquarium algae affects our daily lives in one way or another, just like water & air your reef needs it but within limits. Closed loops & plumbing is cheap, & needed to make the movement but the export isn't, you can skim, move water like crazy, blow rocks & vacuum but who will do it enough to really be where it needs to be, you need to stay on top of it & realistically most of us can't accomplish that. I wonder if we can take Dons one more step & constantly change water but recycle at the same time without breaking the bank?

Sorry Don, I didn't mean to rob or bore people with some concepts so back to your thread, hope I don't get shot for those ideas. Ok I guess I'll get hammered for some of that LOL!

 

[DonW]

I think there alot of good concepts out there as far as the automated water change idea goes. I'm working on a system that is time, temp and PH based. Since the waterchange can be automated, why not use it to control other parameters like PH and salinity. We just need to expand on the waterchange system or combine the many systems that we already have and use daily.
For example a 4" muffin fan mounted 2" over the top of your sump will cause evaporation to increase. A controller can easily boost evaportaion rate by starting the fan and increasing the amount that the kalk reactor dumps into the tank. Or on the other side can switch between kalk and plain rodi water depending on the tanks ph. Assuming that to much kalk could be a problem we could control the quantity or time that the kalk is allowed to run. If it is taking excess kalk to keep ph up we can then do a automated water change to stabilize the ph.
I sure hope this all makes sense. Sounds complicated but really its not with the right controller and hardware.
As far as recycling goes, we all know that processing will come at a cost, as of right now I'm not there yet. I will be experimenting with a dialisys sp? type set up soon.

Don

 

[dnjan]

Question for DonW

Do you have a problem with plugging of the outlet line from starting and stopping a kalk reactor? Since the effluent from a kalk reactor is generally cloudy (excess calcium hydroxide kept in suspension from the stirring), does the excess kalk settle out in the hose when you stop the flow? Or does it just get pushed out with no problems the next time the reactor flow comes on?

 

[DonW]

Do you have a problem with plugging of the outlet line from starting and stopping a kalk reactor? Since the effluent from a kalk reactor is generally cloudy (excess calcium hydroxide kept in suspension from the stirring), does the excess kalk settle out in the hose when you stop the flow? Or does it just get pushed out with no problems the next time the reactor flow comes on?

I'm just now building a new reactor with a magnetic stirrer. I have had problems with this in the past with the bucket method. I should be able to overcome this by using a 3/8 or 1/2" outlet tube. One nice thing about the magnetic stirrer is they dont fog the entire chamber. They pull water from the top down to the magnet with a vortex.
Also as the water switches between rodi and kalk it should wash out excess.
Don

 

[dnjan]

Looking forward to regular updates ...

 

[Scooterman]

dialisys sp, humm that's the idea. How can we pump our used water into a RO/DI unit filter it with all the salt in it, that is a bug!

 

[ldrhawke]

dialisys sp, humm that's the idea. How can we pump our used water into a RO/DI unit filter it with all the salt in it, that is a bug!

You can but the cost of the replacement RO and DI filters will cost a lot more than the water you recover. Of course you'd then have to put an RO/DI unit on that RO/DI waste, and then another on that waste, and so on and so on........

 

[DonW]

dialisys sp, humm that's the idea. How can we pump our used water into a RO/DI unit filter it with all the salt in it, that is a bug!

I think thats a ways off. Right now I'm playing with force resistors to monitor levels and flows. They are very reliable and under $1. We'll see how that goes.

Don

 

[Angelscrx]

Why not design something that drains the sump since that is where all the water that is skimmed from the main display goes and and then fills it with fresh SW? You can have something that would turn off the return pump the sump would fill up, drain, fill up with fresh water, and the return pump would start again pumping the fresh water into the display. I guess the size of the sump would determine the amount of water that would be changed at any given time but it sounds like an easy enough way to do it.:idea: