How do you get new water into your tank?

[scolley]

I am somewhat puzzled about the comment concerning continuos drip systems with a tank overflow to maintain tank water level. It is my understanding that many (maybe most) commercial setups utilize a continual drip that results in a 20-50% daily WC...

But, water is cheap...

I am fortunate to have excellent waster out of the tap...

As well noted, continuous drip is a wonderful method if your water is cheap, and usable right out of the tap. It's also so easy to set up. Easy enough that I'm not sure it merits any work to create a "solution". I think one thread explaining how to do it would pretty much address that need. It should be very easy to set up for most people.

It has the huge advantages of eliminating any aging tanks, eliminating lots of extra pluming, and being (potentially) significantly cheaper to set up. And the fish don't even know it's happening, as you say.

But water is not cheap for everyone. And it is not plentiful everywhere. Most of the Asian breeders that use it are in areas where water in nearly free. In fact, to a very large extent, breeding discus has follow two economic factors - cheap water and low heating requirements. If you live in a warm country with bountiful, cheap water, it's a great place to raise discus.

Water is certainly not cheap for me. And goodness knows heating water is not cheap for me. And continuous drip is hugely water wasteful, and (if you live in a cooler climate) heat wasteful, because you have to cycle many times the volume that you desire to change to effect that change.

So I'm going to tackle the "water replacement" problem for people that can't afford to turn over so much water and heat.

It would be nice if someone else started a really informative thread on continuous-drip systems for people in areas that can use those.

[ralphtran]

I use a continous non-recirculatory drip system on 75% of my tanks (2gph). I use well water that is relatively soft. The water goes through a temperature regulator that automatically mixes the water to a pre-determined temperature (84F).

My problem so far has been tanks that I can not drill (temperated glass). I'm not quite sure what to do for those (any suggestions??). I guess I could use over-flow boxes that hang on the front?

[scolley]

Any high quality overflow - that will not lose its siphon (!) - like one of these should do.

[ralphtran]

Any high quality overflow - that will not lose its siphon (!) - like one of these should do.

Thanks. i use similar overflow boxes for my reeftanks. For some reason I never thought of using them on the freshwater tanks I couldn't drill until this morning

[pcsb23]

But, water is cheap (my overflow waters my yard).

Not in the UK my friend, water is expensive here, it costs me £86 month for water. That is over $100 a month!!!

[Cosmo]

Ok, I voted for water pumped into the tank with an electric pump, but there wasn't an option to say how I turned it off

Soooo... for the record, I have a float controlled solenoid switch wired in series with the on/off switch for the pump. When the float floats, it turns off the pump.

Works quite nicely

[scolley]

Thanks Cosmo. But I'm missing what the solenoid is for... you are using a float switch to turn off the pump. And I assume the solenoid is not used to prevent back flow, because a nice check valve should be much cheaper.

So where does your solenoid come into your fill process?

[davejep]

The water goes through a temperature regulator that automatically mixes the water to a pre-determined temperature (84F).

Any chance you could elaborate on which product you used, maybe a part # or picture. Been thinking of going this route but no luck finding the right thing

[William-LIC]

i know this thread is old and the last post was made almost a year ago but i wanted to ask about a previous comment.
It was said that a drip system with an over flow was very inefficient and wasteful.
If i have a 45 gallon tank and do a 50% WC each day(using a hose and a bucket) how would that be any different in the amount of water used per day or the amount of nitrate build up in the tank compared to a drip of 1 gallon per hour?
Other than 50% = 22.5 gallons and the drip being 24 gallons.
It seems to me the water use is the same and the nitrate buildup would be the same but the level would be constant as opposed to a build up over 24 hours then a 50% drop and then repeat.

Any one have thoughts?

[Moon]

Any chance you could elaborate on which product you used, maybe a part # or picture. Been thinking of going this route but no luck finding the right thing

I am thinking of doing the same and would like some info on the "temprature regulator"

[DiscusOnly]

Other than 50% = 22.5 gallons and the drip being 24 gallons.

You are forgetting that when you drip, you are draining away new water that is mixed with the old. Not sure how accurate this calculator is but you get the idea.

http://http://www.angelfish.net/DripSystemcalc.php

[William-LIC]

true...
calculator link doesn't work for me today.
seems to me that the 50% change once per day would reduce the maxumum nitrate buildup (say 10 ppm) to 5 ppm, then it would slowly go back to 10 ppm.
I think that would make the average 7.5.
The drip system would start at 10 ppm and it would take awhile to reach its final stable level. I think this level would be 7.5.. but i'm not a mathematician.

So if i'm correct (IF) then the level of nitrate buildup is the same, the amount of water use is the same, and i see drip - overflow as having stable water conditions, PH, nitrates, and so on. and it doesn't require lifting buckets. Also the aquarium heater could mantain a stable temp even with 1 gallon per hour of cold water being added.

[tcyiu]

So if i'm correct (IF) ... the amount of water use is the same ....

Let's compare the two scenarios using some made up numbers. let's say I have a 10 gallon tank:

Case 1: Simple water change
Every day, I remove 1 gal of old water, and then add 1 gal of new. 10% change.

Case 2: Continuous drip.
The overflow removes 1 gal of water every day. The drip system adds 1 gal of water every day. So far it looks the same.

But when the overflow removes the 1 gallon from the tank, part of that is the new water coming in. Without doing the complicated calculus, only 90% (approximately) of the outgoing water is old water. Versus 100% in Case 1. This is where the waste comes in.

So to sum up this scenario here, for every gallon of new water you add, roughly 10% of that new water goes straight down the drain. The percentage of waste will be different for different setups.

In California where we have water wars, throwing good water down the drain is a bad idea. However, if the outgoing water goes to drip irrigation of your garden, this might not be a bad idea.

[Hattawi]

Imagine a system where there is a machine that will filter the water accross a semi-permeable membrane (like R/O systems), will return the good filtered water to the tank and will discard concentrated water with waste (NH3, NO2, No3 etc..). For the other good electrolytes (phosphate, Mg etc..) they can added back with the good, new water or can be kept constant against a certain concentration that can be kept on the other side of the R/O membrane. This concept is exactly like dialysis machines used for kidney failure patients to replace the function of the kidneys.

That would be the most effecient water saving system, and it will give you really clean water back.

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Imagine a system where there is a machine that will filter the water accross a semi-permeable membrane (like R/O systems), will return the good filtered water to the tank and will discard concentrated water with waste (NH3, NO2, No3 etc..). For the other good electrolytes (phosphate, Mg etc..) they can added back with the good, new water or can be kept constant against a certain concentration that can be kept on the other side of the R/O membrane. This concept is exactly like dialysis machines used for kidney failure patients to replace the function of the kidneys.

That would be the most effecient water saving system, and it will give you really clean water back.

Such a system exists....Google: Dialyseas. It is geared for reef systems, but it does exactly as you described.

-Ryan