I have a 36G freshwater tropical tank. I'm engineering an Automatic Water Change setup and would like your feedback before I purchase anything.
(Yes, gravel and other cleaning will be needed I know, and yes, I'm this lazy to not want to do manual water changes lol)
The main idea: automatically perform 25% water changes every 2 days. Have a reservoir tank in the basement (directly below 1st floor fish tank) that is heated and dechlorinated. An automatic water changer pumps water up to main fish tank, and pumps water down into basement floor drain. Reservoir tank is auto-refilled using a float valve.
Plan:
Things to do/buy:
(Yes, gravel and other cleaning will be needed I know, and yes, I'm this lazy to not want to do manual water changes lol)
The main idea: automatically perform 25% water changes every 2 days. Have a reservoir tank in the basement (directly below 1st floor fish tank) that is heated and dechlorinated. An automatic water changer pumps water up to main fish tank, and pumps water down into basement floor drain. Reservoir tank is auto-refilled using a float valve.
Plan:
- 25% water change every 2 days
- 40g long reservoir tank in the basement (thought: 40g long since a 25% water changes requires 9g, and this will make sure the float valve works as intended)
- Auto doser of water conditioner once/48 hours after the water change (moving water dissipates chlorine in 1-5 days, tho chloramine is still present)
- Heater
- Bubbler or circulation pump to keep water oxygenated (circulation pump might become exposed during a water change??)
- Topping off the reservoir tank: Mechanical float valve
- Overflow hole (cut in reservoir tank above the float valve) drains to basement floor drain if the float valve fails
- With the X2SR, set it to water in and out of the fish tank at the same time (so that the fish tank filter's outlet and heater stay submerged and doesn't need to be turned off)
- A check valve on the in and the out lines prevents siphoning
Things to do/buy:
- X2SR automatic water changer
- 2 check valves
- Strong storage shelf that can store at least the reservoir tank and a hospital tank: 500lbs each shelf
- 40g long tank
- Must have wall thickness of ¼" or more to support the float valve
- Heater for reservoir tank
- Bubbler or circulation pump for reservoir tank
- Auto doser Kamoer X1 Pro Pump
- Auto dosing container
- Float valve
- Diamond coated glass drill bits for reservoir overflow hole drain, AND for float valve
- Sharkbite fitting from cold pex line to reservoir's float valve