water changes made easy?

[rogergolf66]

I am setting up my new 125 inwall. I am thinking about setting up a system to do water changes. let me know what you think?


I am going to drill a hole in the ceiling and put a 1/2 in pipe in the attic going to the the outside of the house. I am going to leave it capped when not used. I will put the pipe from the ceiling so it is a couple of inches short of reaching the top of the water in the tank. when I have to do a water change I will attach a coupler and the submersible pump to the line. the pipe attached the the coupler will very in length as to how much water I need to change. fire the pump up and in minutes the water is out of the tank.

I also want to add a hose from my RO system that is under my sink in the kitchen. I am going to add the hose to go throught the cabinets out to the garage and up into the attic down into the fish tank room. There I will have a container with a hole drilled out on the top that the hose from the RO will be sealed into the top. I will drill a hole in the bottom of that container with a valve on it that I can attach a hose to so it can just sit in the sump.

After the pump removes the water from the tank I will just open the valve in the container to replenish fresh salt water. (the container will have to have a top that I can get into so I can add the saltwater. also I will have a small powerhead in that container to circulate the water in the container.

What do you think will this work will I run into any problems that I am unaware of?


Thanks Roger

I hope this was easy to read and understand.

[cdangel0]

First thought - how high are you planning on pumping the water out of the tank through the attic. It will take a serious pump to move water 8, 10, 12 feet vertically.

[mr_o98]

How do you plan to have the water from the RO pushed outside and up into the attic?

[mr_o98]

Most pumps that are available to push water vertically 8-12 feet are not submersible. Where would the used water be draining into?

[charlie863]

Good Idea but what goes up will go back down water in the pipe going up will come down pretty fast in your tank like one big power head

[charlie863]

Good Idea but what goes up will go back down water in the pipe going up will come down pretty fast(When you turni it off) in your tank like one big power head

[rogergolf66]

well I have a submersable pump that I used for my main pump in my 90gallon system. it will push plenty of water. it is a 1 inch in and out I am going to reduce it to 1/2 inch so the presure should be no problem. besides I don't need it to be fast the water will pump from the attic down the side of the house out side and into the yard. that is were I will cap it off when I am not using it so a critter dosen't set up a home in the pipe.

As far as the RO unit I have seen some pumps for them that are made to pump the water to a storage area. I don't know how high they will pump. I do have low ceiling 7 1/2 feet, and the tank is on a stand that is pretty tall the pump will only have to pump water about 4 1/2 feet.

If I can't do the RO part then I will still install the container and run a line through the house and fill it up when I need it, and mix the salt in it then use it in 3 days or so. I would like to set it up throgh the attic but that was one of my questions also.

as far as the water coming back down after the pump is shut off that is true about 4 1/2 feet of water in a 1/2 inch pipe will come back in, but I think that is only like 1/2 gallon of water. I will have to take the pump off by hand, so I can just deflect it with my hand. as I will be there watching it. I will have to unplug the pump.

So what do you think will it work? anything else I might not be thinking about?

I think it will. I thinkt that it will save me a lot of time in the long run and also I will spill a lot less water on the floor in the house this way.

Roger

[henryjd]

Roger,
if the saltwater ends up in the yard, the grass will die!
I have a RO/DI system in my basement. I have a shut-off in a 5 gallon bucket and then a Mag 5 pump reduced down to 1/4" tubing which tops off my sump 14 feel up in my living room. To do water changes, I make saltwater in my basement in a 32 gallon trash can. When I am ready to do my water change, I put a mag 7 pump in my tank and pump into a 32 gallon trash can. I then us the same pump to pump the saltwater in the basement up to the tank. Last I pump the 32 gallon of old water, into the bathroom sink. I tried to pump it outside but after some yellow grass, it now goes out the drain.

[rogergolf66]

henryjd that is what I do now. It is still a lot more work then what I want to do. I hate setting up the trash can then when you plug in the pump I am always thinking the hose will fall out of the sink when I turn the pump on. (and it has) as far as the grass goes. It will just kill the weeds. The lawn dosn't look good anyway.

[jdjeff58]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10167359#post10167359 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rogergolf66
as far as the water coming back down after the pump is shut off that is true about 4 1/2 feet of water in a 1/2 inch pipe will come back in, but I think that is only like 1/2 gallon of water. I will have to take the pump off by hand, so I can just deflect it with my hand. as I will be there watching it. I will have to unplug the pump.



You could use a check valve and a tee just above it to drain the pipe after you shut the pump off. If you don't mind the water in the pipe...forget the tee. With a bit of ingenuity, you could also set up a level control switch at the desired level to shut the pump off so it doesn't run dry. You could use another level switch to shut off the fresh water coming in. If you don't want a level switch, wire a mechanical switch to the pump. It's much easier to throw a switch than reach for and yank out a cord in a panic.

I'm eventually going to do something along those lines...I like the idea.

[Playa-1]

If you spring a leak or if a mouse chews through one of those water lines in the attic then you will be hating life. I would first consider other otptions like going under or around as opposed to going through the attic with a water line.

[Playa-1]

You could also be in for some undesirable syphoning issues during the water changing process. Too much water in or out would be difficult to control.

[Aquarist007]

I am using a mag3600 to pump with seven feet of head from a basement refugium to the main tank in the room above. Even with this height the mag 3600 drops off to 2000-2200 gph.
After the pump reaches the max head it drops off very quickly so measure exactly how many feet and check with the calculator on the home page

[sanababit]

salt+water=death to grass and flowers, if its to high you are going to need a serious pump to get water out of tank, go up the pump and push a check valve wich you will need so the water doesn't come back and create a mess, 1/4" hose is ok but if something breaks it or chews on it you are going to be mad as hell when you get the clean up bill, you are better of going under the house, if you have a diagram of what you are doing i could probably give you a hand, just post it here, talk to you later

sana

[sanababit]

"go up the pump" was suppose to say go up the pipe

[rogergolf66]

well not to scale this was a 30 drawing but here is the layout of my home.

Roger


http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb173/rogergolf66/File0015.jpg

[Aquarist007]

do you have any kind of a basement underneath the tank room?

[rogergolf66]

florida dosn't have basements. we are only about 5 feet above the ocean level. if is a one story house.

Roger

[sanababit]

ok you could probably run a line to the drain in the bathroom, you could do it with pvc thru the roof or along the bottom of walls, this way you wont have to pump the water up and creating a lot of head, now for the r/o water if you could do it the same way then you will be set, if not, then another sugestions is to move or get another r/o and run city water from bathroom and hook it up in your fishroom, since you dont have basement then it's the only thing i could think off, good luck


sana

[Aquarist007]

that's an excellent idea--I was going to suggest that after I found out that there was no crawl space or basement.