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The latest insanity

Becca

Becca

Members
20200616_183047.jpg

This 7-foot monster.

I blame JLW JLW . Seriously nice work and a great set up for these fish.

It's plumbed directly in to the house and gives itself 8, 5-gallon water changes a day.

The fish have never looked better.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
halak said:
Nice! So, how many gallons are we talking about?
Also, are you on well water?
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We're on county tap. It's about 300 gallons. It's set up to change 5 gallons, 8 times a day, every 3 hours, so chlorine levels should not be an issue
 
DiscusnAfricans

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Great tank Becca! Always fun getting a new and large setup.

I'd check to see if WSSC has an alert system available to sign up for, I think they might do a chloramine flush on occasion or as needed.

I'd consider a dosing pump for prime or safe, might be a reasonable solution to provide peace of mind.
 
lock jaw

lock jaw

CCA Members
That sounds really cool.. How do you setup an auto water change system? Is there a site or youtube video on what you did?
 
Becca

Becca

Members
As far as I can tell, based on water quality reports for the past few years and FAQs, WSSC does not use chloramines. Their alert systems let folks know about work in the area, and boil water advisories, but not a switch from chlorine to chloramine.
 
Becca

Becca

Members
lock jaw said:
That sounds really cool.. How do you setup an auto water change system? Is there a site or youtube video on what you did?
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Honestly, we had professional help. The basic details are that you tap a water line, similar to what you do to run water to a refrigerator or ice maker, and have a drain line in your sump at a certain level. We have a solenoid on a timer scheduled to turn on for 15 minutes, 8 times a day (about what it takes to fill a 5-gallon bucket). The solenoid opens that tap line when the timer is on and water flows into the sump. As the sump fills, water reaches the level of the drain line and drains out. The end result is that some of the water going down the drain is the clean water, but not much of it because it's such a small proportion of what's in the sump. We'll still do one big water change a week, but this helps reduce our weekly maintenance (We were doing 50% 4x a week in the previous tank) and maintain consistent water quality.

The down side of something like this is that, if you want to use Discus Buffer, or something else to pull some Calcium out of MoCo's relatively hard tap water, it's kind of tough to maintain that. Overall, Hans' Discus are fairly tolerant of tap water, though. It would be possible to hook it up through an RO unit for larger changes, but you still have the issue of adding some mineral content back into the water so it's not so soft that the pH is unstable.
 
DiscusnAfricans

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Ok, if you've seen past reports I trust you, it's been a while since I lived in the area. Glad you're signed up for other alerts though.

The water change system sounds very neat, something I'd like to look into at the next house, not something I'm going to consider where we are.

I hadn't considered the pH swings when planning to add RO water for my South American tank. I'm assuming if I go 50/50 tap/RO I might be fine, but I'll have to do some research. I'll probably comment on my other thread so I don't derail yours.

I can imagine only doing one water change per week is much better than 4x you previously mentioned. I'm sure it's great for the discus too, especially if they're still maturing.
 
Freakgecko

Freakgecko

Members
My fish room plans are in the works and I’m planning a full room auto water change system similar to what Becca is describing, but using multiple solenoids and a sprinkler timer/system. The RO is something I’m still trying to figure out as the fish room will be on a well system.
 
FishEggs

FishEggs

Well-Known Member
Freakgecko said:
My fish room plans are in the works and I’m planning a full room auto water change system similar to what Becca is describing, but using multiple solenoids and a sprinkler timer/system. The RO is something I’m still trying to figure out as the fish room will be on a well system.
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if you're on a well, why do you need RO?
 
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