Auto water changes

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by dino

I would still suggest if possible that your sump has a overflow to a drain. this way anything you add will be displaced to the drain.

This is good advice. I actually had my discharge go into a small frag tank. That tank had a bulkhead in the back which overflowed into the drain.

Originally Posted by Galizio

How do you store your SW? I mean I guess you have a power head, an heater, maybe a stone . Do you have to clean the container every once in awhile?
I always get some detritus settling in a corner of the tank(bare bottom) and get rid of it with water changes, how you clean your substrate if you have any

The SW get's made once a month in one of those 100 gal storage tanks. My total system volume is 300 gal. So I do approximately 3 gal water change a day. That means my pump runs for about 45 min to dose that 3 gallons. With such a slow water volume rate, I don't heat or aerate my new SW at all. I do run the mixing pump once a week or so, but even that I'm not sure if it's really necessary.
I do find I get a very small amount of build up in the bottom of my container, but I've only found it necessary to clean it out once a year. So I have unions in all my connections and I can pop it out in just a few minutes, take it outside it give it a thorough cleaning.
I think part of the reason I have very little accumulation in the tank is the way I designed and built it. I always start filling it with brand new RO/DI water. If you look through the build phase of those tanks, I inserted a 4' long piece of PVC into the mixing barrel that has holes drilled helically down its axis and there's a small elbow at the very bottom. All of that creates a pretty good vortex inside the barrel as it's filling. As the new RO/DI water is going in, I slowly dump my salt in until barrel is full and the required salt has been added. Then I shift the intake from the circulation pump from the RO/DI tank to the new SW tank using the valves at the bottom of the tanks and just re-circulate the new SW for about a half hour or so. I usually take that time to measure my SG, All, Ca and Mg and top any up if necessary.