Water changer built into return plumbing

[The Curious]

So this isn't exactly a full on "water changer", but it will take random siphon hoses out of my normal arsenal...which makes the girlfriend happy...in turn making me happy .

Its pretty simple really. I just kill the power to the return pump, turn the 1" ball valve shut, push the lock line in the Display Tank down so that it will keep a siphon, attach the extra hose to the Eheim tubing, and open the 5/8" Eheim ball valve...and I am overflowing from the Display Tank directly to a 5 gallon bucket.

[The Curious]

1 more

[Cymonous]

Not a bad idea. You need one less pump for siphoning out the old water and you can just add the new to the sump. How much water are you able to get out from your sump doing it this way though?

[rocking]

cymonous it only lits you take out what can flow in from the dt

[mameroo2000]

I like your idea

[kimle]

Why not skip the quick connect and just leave a tube permanently connected via a ball valve. Just let the tube hang inside your sump.

[SoLiD]

It would have worked better from the other side (Intake) of the pump. Now you are competing with the head pressure of the return pump somewhat. Unless to you cut it off during the water change???

[NanoReefWanabe]

It would have worked better from the other side (Intake) of the pump. Now you are competing with the head pressure of the return pump somewhat. Unless to you cut it off during the water change???

pretty tricky to get a siphon through the return line while the pump is on...

be sure to give the rocks a good blasting to make sure there is a lot of poop water borne, changing just the water column water without sucking out the crap that is actually effecting the water seems silly to me...

my next sump will have a bulkhead and valve drilled low, and a small piece of hose inthe sump that can be used to suck the water out of the sump (dry) if necessary to remove all the stuff that settles in there, then simply fill the sump back to operaing levels..

[The Curious]

kimle
Personally...I really like the quick connect there. A ball valve would work perfectly...but the quick connect I already had laying around.

Cymonous
I actually can drain the whole tank If I wanted to. I need to get pics of this part. My return line is "lock line" in the DT that is split 3-ways. I can plug 2 of the open tubes, and shove a short tube onto the exposed line and there you go. I can vacuum sand...do whatever I need, but without having a tube hanging out over the front of the tank or hanging out of the sump. As far as draining the sump is concerned, I just do a lil spot cleaning to get the small amount of settled detritus.

SoLiD
"I just kill the power to the return pump..." step #1

NanoReefWanabe
The tube shoved on my DT lock line gives me full access to all the poop I can get.

[NanoReefWanabe]

kimle
NanoReefWanabe
The tube shoved on my DT lock line gives me full access to all the poop I can get.

sounds good to me. just make sure the tube you use is shaped similar to a python vac (or hopefully a python vac can fit into your lockline), otherwise if you hit the sand with a 1/2" or 3/4" hose you will remove all the sand too...

[Sethjamto]

I like that idea and will incorporate it or something similar to my next build (hoping to move up to a 240 in a year)!

[The Curious]

sounds good to me. just make sure the tube you use is shaped similar to a python vac (or hopefully a python vac can fit into your lockline), otherwise if you hit the sand with a 1/2" or 3/4" hose you will remove all the sand too...

Yup...not planning on vacuuming up my sand. I just used it for the first time. it worked just as planned. I'm actually looking forward to future water changes...never thought id say that...hehe

[The Curious]

I just put a thread out there of my new build. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2276952
Check it out.