[idea] continuous water flow into discus tank

[Md. Shafiqual Alam]

I have a discus display tank (180gal) with sump. There are around 40pcs 5+ inch discus there. Usually I do 80%water change every day. I was using direct tap water. Now I have planned for a constant water supply from a 3 stage water filter (10micron, 1micron & carbon without RO) and using existing sump line as a drain line when overflow.

Accordingly I have stopped sump and ON the filter water supply continuously in such a small volume that every 12 hours it refills 180g. So water quality is seems better than ever. Now only using a overhead filter with few media and 2X500w heater into tank.

Please put your observation about the idea, do i need to include more filtration ?

[Hart24601]

I am using almost the exact same thing on my system right now. Water from the tap passes through 1st stages of the RO (sediment and carbon block), but before the RO and a drain line in the sump to floor drain. I do have two backups in the sump if the drain gets clogged, there is a float valve that shuts off the water, and as the 2nd backup I have another float valve that controls a solenoid that also shuts off the water supply.

Many commercial operations use drip systems just fine. In theory the live stock isn't as stressed since the water changed is constant and there are no temp or other parameter variations. At least that is the argument for continuous waterchange systems in reef tanks.

Of course it's not as efficient as single batch changes, but the calculator below shows how much the equivalent large batch change would be. Generally speaking the higher % change the drip becomes less efficient. If you are changing 360g every day (24 hr) it's similar to a 86% daily large batch WC when 180g dripped is 63% batch change equivalent so doubling the amount dripped in your situation from 180 to 360 gives 23% more exchange. Nothing wrong with that, just the numbers. I just manually siphon a couple gallons every night to get the detritus out and let the drip fill the sump back up since a drip can't get detritus.


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

[afriend]

I have a discus display tank (180gal) with sump. There are around 40pcs 5+ inch discus there. Usually I do 80%water change every day. I was using direct tap water. Now I have planned for a constant water supply from a 3 stage water filter (10micron, 1micron & carbon without RO) and using existing sump line as a drain line when overflow.

Accordingly I have stopped sump and ON the filter water supply continuously in such a small volume that every 12 hours it refills 180g. So water quality is seems better than ever. Now only using a overhead filter with few media and 2X500w heater into tank.

Please put your observation about the idea, do i need to include more filtration ?

Shibly,

First, I want to be sure that I understand what you are doing. I'm assuming that you have a 180 gal tank and that you are placing 15 gal each hour into the tank by the drip method (15 gal/hour X 24 hours/day = 360 gal per day) , and that there is good mixing of new and old water. With this in mind, your approach will be approximately equivalent to 86% daily water change done by the displacement method. Be sure that you also syphon the bottom of the tank to remove detritus as mentioned by Hart24601.

Using just an overhead filter may create a problem because your tank should still have a biological filter in order to remove ammonia and nitrite. Providing you account for this and you are willing to use an additional 216 gal of water each day (360 - 180 x 0.8 = 216) your approach seems reasonable.

However placing 40 x 5+ inch fish in a 180 gal tank is excessive in my book.

Another consideration is the cost of heating 360 gal of new water each day. I don't know your cost of electrical power in Bangladesh or the temperature of your source water, so I did the following estimate based on my case if I had a 180 gal tank and I placed 360 gal of new water in it each day.

Electrical cost per month = G x T x C x 0.07 USD/month

G = gal per day (360 gal)

T = temperature difference between tank and source water in Fahrenheit (84 - 64 = 20)

C = Electrical cost in US dollars per kilowatt hour ($0.085 for my area)

Electrical cost per month = 360 x 20 x 0.085 x 0.07 = $43 per month.

This is only the cost of heating the new water and does not include the cost of maintaining the tank temperature.

Hope this is some use to you.

Paul