Continuous Water Change? Protein Skimmer???

I saw this idea online and I was wondering if it would work. I couldn't find any info on it though.

So I ask you, all the protein skimming, water changing, reef perfecting experts, Would This Be A Good Idea??

Concept:
Use your protein skimmer to skim very very wet, removing a lot of water. This dirty water can dump into a large container by means of a tube from the skimmer's collection cup. Now, you have some kind of dosing pump or ATO with saltwater and you use it to top off your tank. This way, you can have a continuous water change always and not even have to work much!

The concept seemed wonderful to me, the only exception being monitoring salinity. Depending on what the skimmer pulls out, which may not always be a consistent salinity, it could throw your salinity levels out of normal parameters.

Anyone have any input or experience with this? I'd like to try it just for proof (or disproof) of concept. I haven't decided yet whether or not it would be worth trying. Well, Let me know what you think everyone, this seemed like a very interesting idea to me.

P.S. This is where I came across the idea.

Aquanerd

 

You need to figure out a way to get the exact amount of new SW in as old SW out. Doing it through a skimmer will not account for evaporation. This will immediately cause your salinity to spike.

 

Mike, I used to do this about 5 years ago. My tank would evaporate approx 2.5 gallons every day and I would skim out 2.5 gallons every day. I would alternate adding 5 gallons of fresh water and 5 gallons of salt every day. It became way to tedious and eventually gave up on it. It might have been easier if I had a smaller tank.

 

Ditto to what gcarroll said, I top off at least 15 gallons a week in my main 165 gallon tank and prob 5-7 gallons a week in the 45 gallon, and another 10 gallons or so in the 110 FW tank. So I feel your pain.

I keep 20 gallons of RO on hand all the time. My local aquarium store gives it to me for free. Ruff Water's has an AWSOME RO/DI set up.

My problem is space- I just dont have room for an auto top off system unless I remotely install it.

 

I get what you mean with the smaller tank, good thing I have a 29g! ;D So overall, did you feel it would be worth it? Did you have any noticeable differences? Any tips at all just in case I do decide to try it? I will definitely be getting a refractometer to do this, hydrometers aren't going to cut it.

Wow. That's a lot of top off. I usually can get by a week with 3 gallons, 4 max. I think I may try this out, did you ever do it alpha? I'm interested in your experiences as well. Was it worth it? Tips?


Thanks everyone.

 

I will be doing a daily 1g WC on my 75g reef. It won't be continues, but that is not quite as important.

-3timers
-2 aqua-lifter dosing pumps
-your ATO pump

Have a a timer on each of the three pumps. Find out how long it takes to do the full WC from a brute trash can(i.e. 1 hour total - 30min to pump 1g out, 30 min to pump 1 gal back in). While this occurs, have the ATO pump set to "off." Timer turns ATO back on when waterchange pumps turn off.

 

It is much more difficult to do it that way. Water changes have to equal what comes out with what goes in. No matter how small your tank is you can account for salt water leaving via skimmer ans pure water leaving via evaporation. Scale is irrelevant.

There are a few continuous water change schemes out there. Use one of those. I made one for my 90g with a Tunze Osmolator and spare pump. changed out 1g daily for 30g a month total. I probably could have done less. all I did was dump out my seven gallon jug once a week, and change my 7g salt water jug. Piece of cake. If you have a drain near by, even easier. what went in equaled what came out exactly. My salinity never moved.

 

That article grossly oversimplifies the process without going into a lot of detail. Nice in theory.

 

I have heard of someone that had this set up but I vaguely remember where. I think it was a tank that was completely covered in RBTA anemones. I'd try to find it if I weren't so lazy.

 

Randy Holmes-Farley has stated he does continuous water changes similar to what Powerman does with his aquarium... I think it's a great idea if you can keep up with it... for some it may be easier, for others it may be more of a chore.

Still, even if it's not continuos, you can do a water change through a skimmer... This is how I normally do water changes actually, I adjust my skimmer to skim really wet and have it fill up a five gallon bucket and then replace with five gallons of newly mixed salt water....

I would like to find a way to automate it, actually... If I could figure out a way to add a solenoid to my skimmer's output so that the solenoid closed off by a set amount, all while using float switches to monitor the skimmate level and activating a shut off to open the solenoid when it reaches a certain amount, then turns on a pump from the new salt mix back into the aquarium, which turns off when another float switch reaches the bottom of that container... I would use five gallon buckets for each, and it would be a small water change, but I could basically press a button on a controller and just watch it go.... I wouldn't do this without monitoring it, but it would still be better than the manual process I go through now.