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A different approach to periodic waterchanges (very unique)

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cmsurfr22

i saw this in the TOTM thread on RC and though that this was a very cool idea that i never even thought about!

Unlike most systems that receive occasional, substantial water changes, I choose to do continuous water changes. This replenishes all of the important trace elements without shocking the system the way large water changes do. I change five and one-half gallons a day with the use of a Spectrum Litermeter III pump with two remote pumps. Five and one-half gallons of premixed saltwater are pumped into the sump of the system, spread out over a 24-hour period. One and one-half gallons are removed by the skimmer each day, and four gallons are pumped out of the tank. This happens every day. Instead of just pumping those four gallons of tank water into the drain, I have them routed into a separate aquarium that I maintain. From that second aquarium, four gallons are pumped out and go straight to the drain. Using the water removed from the main aquarium to feed the second aquarium lets me maintain perfect water quality in the second aquarium without using any filtration, since the water feeding it is being cleaned by all the filtration equipment in the main tank. However, unlike simply connecting the two systems in a traditional manner, this keeps the second system from being able to affect the main system (pests, water quality, etc.).
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i did some match using the RC Water Change Calc and it seems like this would be equivalent to a 12% water change bi-weekly. but he does have an amazing filtration system. i'm thinking with a little more water changed per day it would work for the every day reef keeper and it would be one less maintenance thing you would have to do. it would be one more thing that could go wrong too. it would be nice to be able to automate water changes though!
 
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NJ_ychung1

fw hobbyist do this sort of thing as well. i am sure it works but i bet your rate of using up reef salt mix and RODI water goes up substantially.
 
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evoIX

holy cow batman. that's expensive. i rather use the good old manual labor. unless I had an eeeenormormous tank then i would consider it.
 
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evoIX

no water changes! that's insane man!

riot! the fishes will start jumping out of the tank.

wouldn't a auto top off do the same thing though? (essentially) just have a saltwater tank premixed with the water parameters desired?

i just see it as an expensive ato with rodi unit ;x
 
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REEFLECTIONS

no, if you top off with salt water your salinity would go through the roof. water evaporates, salt does not.... you would have a major fish and coral revolt....
 
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cmsurfr22

NJ_ychung1 said:
auto top off w/o salt would lower ssalinity. still the same result. no tank inhabintant will be happy about that.
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adding fresh water to a salt water aquarium will in fact lower the salinity but evaporation causes the salinity to rise. so if you are topping off only what evaporates over time your salinity will stay close to what it needs to be.

if you did water changes where you removed salt water then you have to add salt water back in.

what this guy was proposing was that every day he has a pump that removes 4 gallons of salt water a day and his skimmer removes 1.5 gallons of salty skimmate totaling 5.5 gallons of salt water removed over 24 hours. he then has another pump that adds 5.5 gallons of salt water over 24 hours. i'm sure he has some sort of automatic top off system which adds whatever amount of water evaporates.
 
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