Manual water change

[drizztdourden_]

I know there is a post about this one that date more than a year ago. Is there any plan or do we have any idea when it will come?

I’m not sure how people are setup but it sounds counter intuitive to me that the first implementation uses schedule right now.

I have a 45 gallons reservoir for my salt water change but I manually mix the water myself. Aince it is manual mixing, I’m not sure how people rely on schedule here. After a water change, my reservoir will be automatically filled again with freshwater to top it off (like an ATO) and thus isn’t good anymore for water change until readied again by myself.

I can’t take the risk of having a schedule activated and forgetting about it and adding a bad mix yo my tank.

I’m pretty sure my case isn’t special so I’m wondering how people are setup here so it doesn’t end in catastrophe.

The only “good enough” way I can think off is to have the schedule depend on the water change mode, and the mode auto-reverse back to normal after a while. I would change the mode to water change to “confirm” the water is ready and make the schedule activate everyday or something.

However, this sounds way over-complicated for no reason.

Curious to hear how you guys use it.

 

[Danny]

I do automatic water changes and have three storage containers in the garage. One is DI for ATO, one is fresh saltwater for water changes and the third is my mix tank. The DI will auto refill when it goes low. The water from the mix tank is transferred to my fresh saltwater tank when the fresh saltwater tank goes low and the mix tank is ready to use. Once the mix tank goes low filling the fresh saltwater tank the mix ready flag is cleared and the mix tank is refilled with DI. All I have to do is add the salt mix and press a button that the mix tank is ready for use. If for some reason either the DI goes low and does not clear the low level refilling it the ATO is stopped. Also with the water changes they are stopped also if the fresh saltwater tank cannot be refilled when it goes low. All of this is controlled with my Hydros system. I discuss a lot of this on my build thread on Reef Central here Hex Tank Build The Hydros stuff starts on page 4 post #73. The RODI control starts on page 5 post #98.I have changed things over time as the firmware changes. On page 6 post #111 I have the updates to the DI refill and some of the other outputs. Hope this helps. If you have any questions on how I did something I will be glad to answer them.

 

[drizztdourden_]

I see. I don’t have this luxury here with the space that I have. My mix tank must be the same at this or not have one at all.

Thanks for the insight. Wonder if there are that many people with 3 huge containers to do that. My Rodi is straight into the tank with an electronic valve (plus a float for security). The other is my mix tank.

Still hoping for a manual one that trigger the automatic change.

 

[Danny]

You can still have the ready to use outputs and pause the auto water change if that flag is off and use one container. Also it is not a good idea to topoff directly from a RODI system a little at a time. The first water out is usually higher in TDS. It is better to make several gallons at a time instead. Do you have room for an ATO reservoir at the tank that could hold around 5 gallons. I would also use a float valve on your RODI outputs as a backup in case of a full level sensor failure in the dry state. I also set a maximum on time on mine and set run past max on time to off so it will stop the fill and send an alert s it stays in refill for too long. The three containers I use are 20 gallon brute trash cans on dolly's that roll up under my work bench in the garage. Those were the largest ones that would fit under the work bench. I think they do have smaller ones also. Here is a photo of the three under my workbench.

 

[Danny]

Ok I caught mine in the middle of a water change. The drain pump was still running so I turned on the ATO pause switch and the sequence that had already started did keep running and completed. So using the depends on statement on the schedule to pause it is the way to go. I know pausing it will keep the event from starting since I have done that several times. So using the mix ready flag will work for you using a single container. Any scheduled water change will not run as long as the mix is not ready to use. Just keep enough mix at a low level to complete the water change and also you would probably need a way to keep the refill from starting as long as the water change was happening. That could be either a timer or use the AWC output as a depends on on the RODI refill output. Just set it to off if on. The only thing with that is will go off on top offs also. So in you case the timer to keep it off when the water change is in progress may be better.

 

[Don]

The fill pump on the AWC should have a maximum on time that is long enough for your fill pump to bring the water level back to normal and then some.

So here is a typical sequence (assume the max on time for the fill pump is set to 120 seconds) :

1. Drain pump runs for 30 seconds lowering the water level.
2. Fill pump runs for 60 seconds bringing the water level back to normal.
3. AWC ends and the ATO takes over till the next water change time in the schedule.

Now suppose the salt water tank is empty:

1. Drain pump runs for 30 seconds lowering the water level.
2. Fill pump runs for 120 seconds and the water level is still not back to normal.
3. Hydros stops the fill pump and sends an alert that the AWC failed.

But of course everyone has different circumstances and needs.