Assistance on setting up an Auto Water Change with Control X4 & XP8

[TheNative192]

So I am a bit of a noob with figuring out how to properly do the auto water change & as I really do not want to flood my Condo I would like to get your input on the best way to go about doing an Auto water change with the tools I have or additional tools.

Right now I have the Hydros Control X4 & XP8 set up on my IM 25 Gallon Lagoon style tank. I have a number of different things plugged into my XP8 including my Tunze Nano ATO, Fuge Light, Wave Maker, & I have two probes, (temperature & PH Probe) plugged into the Hydros Control X4.

I also have a Hydros dosing pump, Hydros ATO Pump & Sensor that is currently not in use. I am mostly worried about the pump failing & it causing a reverse siphon. I have never used a dosing pump before so I am not exactly sure how they work either. I have heard people use two dosing pumps to add & remove water and with only a 25 gallon tank that seems reasonable but won't the 2% margin of error become an issue? I guess I could also use the sensor and having one dosing pump remove water and the other add water until the sensor is reached. I would need to buy another Hydros dosing pump to do that as well which would be no issue. I do plan to eventually dose All for reef into the tank. At the moment I only have two small Duncan corals so its really not necessary at the moment. That being said I do plan to add more LPS eventually to the tank. I think the best way of going about it is to do one 0.2 gallon water change per day but what safeguards should I take to avoid a siphon out of the tank or should I try & using a dosing pump to remove water and then have the pump re-add water until it reaches the Hydros ATO sensor. Maybe that would then leave me another spot for adding a second dosing pump for All for Reef?.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Danny]

ai currently use 2 dosing pumps from a Blenny for my drain and fill pump. The Blenny is in my garage where the reservoirs are at. The tank is 35ft away so the tubing between the garage and tank are run through insulated PVC conduit. I have had no issues with siphoning but the tubing does have check valves and the dosing pumps are higher than the reservoir levels and the sump levels. Normally the fault will be a split in the tubing in the dosing head. So I also have a leak detector near the pumps so if that happens it will trigger the leak detector and that will stop all pump activity and send an alert. I have not had any of the Hydros dosing pumps leak yet but the Blenny is a new controller. I use the Sole for ATO but for a smaller tank the Hydros simple doser will also work. The built in Hydros water change output will require you to setup the ATO within the output so you will also need an ATO pump. My ATO pump is also in the garage.