Continuous Water Change? Protein Skimmer???

josh26757 · May 6, 2011

This would be easy if you used the auto top off with saltwater. I just don't like the idea that I have a top off but still have to top off the tank by hand for fresh water. A friend of mine had a set up like this in a FW tank. He had an air hose siphoned out of his tank like a fast drip line. The the top off refilled the tank continuously. It seems salt will make it much harder.

mike007 · May 6, 2011

Powerman said: ↑

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.
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Thanks Powerman, I think I'll give this a try.

gabbagabbawill said: ↑

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.
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I took a look at Randy's article, good stuff. Thanks for your help.

Thank you everyone for the input as well!

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Continuous Water Change? Protein Skimmer???

josh26757 Astrea Snail

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Continuous Water Change? Protein Skimmer???

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