Want to build auto-water changer (Zephrant look at this)

[jman785]

I'd like to build an auto-water changer for my tanks, I live by the gulf and run a LFS and the tanks are a pain in the *** to change water...if I could run a drip water change system, it would be more efficient for me...or maybe a way to use valves to pump in water and water out...I plan to capture water from the gulf and put it into a 1,000 container and let it sit and let the organisms die off in it...and then use this as water change water. I plan to buy a small trailer pretty soon so I don't ahve to use my 20 foot pace trailer for hauling salty water around, then I can just mount a 1,000 gallon tank on the trailer....capture the water from an inlet and then drive back to the store and use a pump to fill a container that will stay at the store location, used for water changes and to sell saltwater to people so they don't have to mix their own. I also plan to sell RO/DI water as well....

Any ideas as far as how I can do mass water changes to like 10-15 saltwater tanks at a time? Some of them being propagation tanks, most of them anyway....Thanks :-D

- Jared

[H20ENG]

It'd be easy to plumb a drip system for all the tanks. Have the new water drip in at whatever rate you want. Each tank should have an overflow to drain.
Getting the water to the tanks would use a small pump, or gravity, if you parked your trailer uphill from the top of the tanks.
If your tanks use sumps, have the overflow to drain on the sump - not the tank.
Some of your new water will go down the drain with the old. Just drip in a spot that will give it a chance to mix well with the tank water.
Keeping your salinity in check will be another matter. You will need to check it regularly. Probably best to record all your data and use a metering pump to feed DI water for makeup. It will take some adjustment to get it dialed in.
For large water changes, you need more equipment- reservoirs, timers, motorized valves, etc. It can be done, but seems it would be more work to automate it and dial it in than to just do a simple water change yourself.
You could always have the mixed water in a tank, pumped to a header pipe. Each tank would have its own fill valve and drain valve. Drain it, fill it, done.
Anything is possible, if you have a big stack of $100 bills.:D
Chris

[H20ENG]

Heres a big system I built a few years back. Similar to what you are thinking. It was a flow through or to drain, depending on how you set the valves.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144353&highlight=pics+of+large+quarantine

[Zephrant]

Chris has it nailed- He's the go-to guy for big systems. :) I would caution you that a "small trailer" won't take the 8500+ pounds that 1000 gallons weighs though.

Zeph

[jman785]

I'm talking about having a reservoir on the trailer just for getting the water back to the store, where another reservoir would be to hold the water...and I could just do water changes and not worry about top off's, it would be constantly refreshed, and its from the Gulf, so its mostly clean, and if the Gulf gets red tide or anything like that, I can just shut the drip in off...and keep the old water in there and do makeup and water changse with RO/DI until the conditions in the Gulf clear up.

- jared