Easiest water change concept. Advice welcome

[NotMyFirstMoneyPit]

So I had a thought the other day... Water changes can be a stress (although needed) especially if one would like to go on vacation for more than a week.

What if there was a way to continually change ones water without all the effort(gravel vac aside)

Think of how a Turbo works in a car. Air is pushed through tube with a fan which is a attached to a spindle that connects to another fan wich pulls air.

This is more than likely not a new idea, but would be greatly beneficial to me if i got it working. (very Rough diagram attached)

You could leave the system on 24/7 and simply meter the gp/h to reflect: gallons of water changed normally per week/168

for me this setup would replace .5 gp/h

This would not replace the need for gravel vac'ing or wiping the tank down, but could prove Extremely helpful in providing my discus with fresh water when i am not arround or if i get lazy...... we all do.

Comments? advice?

[Don Trinko]

drip system is similar to what you describe. It is automatic but it requires drains in tanks and drips above tanks and uses more water than the standard drain/fill routine. IMO; Don T.

[NotMyFirstMoneyPit]

Interesting

this is quite different however as it would not use any more water than a regular water change. no drains required.

care to elaborate?

[DiscusKeeper403]

Drip systems are probably easier. At work we have very simple drip systems. There is a small outlet at the back of the tank, a simple grated tube pointed not quite upwards, about 40 or 45 degrees. This tube leads straight to a gray water drain. Then there is a clean water main and sticking out of the main is a small 3/4" tube. There is a valve at the top of this 3/4" tube that helps to shut it properly so that only a few drips get out at a time. As the drips fill the tank and it gets to a certain point, it starts to overflow into the grated outlet in the back of the tank, plain and simple and these are hooked up to almost all our tanks. You will probably need a decent sized water holding tank though as tap water will not work.

[NotMyFirstMoneyPit]

Lucky for me, i live in the country so my well water is without chlorine and flouride. i will have to look into hooking up some grating at the top of my tank, if i cant find that peice im looking for

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

Interesting

this is quite different however as it would not use any more water than a regular water change. no drains required.

care to elaborate?

I think what Don means is that due to the mixing effect of a drip system, it will take more water to get the same results as a standard water change (water out, water in).

-Ryan

[H&K.45]

the only problem with your "turbo" style is that you would have to be putting the "in" water under signifigant pressure in order to build up sufficent pressure on one side of the "turbo" to create pressure on the other, thats why turbos lag, you gotta get that impeller spinning like a bat out of hell for it to work (180,000 RPM on my GT-35R) and unless its in a pressureized pipe thats itty bitty .5gph aint gonna do it. I was thinking of doing what you are doing but have a pair of pumps (one to put the fresh in and one to suck the bad juju out) on a timers (thoughts of flooding come to mind), I allredy use a penguin 550 to pump water out of my water barel and into the tank, and im building a power vac (wire in an on/off switch which i stole from a light) to hook up to my siphon to do the cleaning of my substrate. With enough ingenuity i think i can grow out some healthy discus in a community tank with relatively little effort. :D

[NotMyFirstMoneyPit]

H&K that sounds interesting, Love to see pictures or a diagram when you get it set up.

I did think about the "Lag" issue (own an 86 T2 Rx-7, and a 91 20BTT Cosmo)

But to pump a mere .5 G/ph i didnt think it would be an issue. Standard water pressure should more than suffice. I supposed it could be done with standard airline tubing running to the bottom of both ends of the tank.

[Patr1ck]

Also with turbos, they arent 100% efficient. I think there will be more being pumped in than what is being pumped out.

Pat

[tcyiu]

The output will likely have less flow than the inflow. This means that you will have flooding when you get home.

The drip system with drain is the best bet because the outflow (via a big drain) will always have greater capacity than the inflow.

Tim