Auto Water changes?

[reefkeeper2]

Presently I am changing 3 gal a day automatically on a 427gal tank. Its not just a an automated water changer though. It saves salt by dialysing the tank water first. I'm not sure what the savings is, I'll have to look it up but its somwhere around half.

 

[ScottM]

Presently I am changing 3 gal a day automatically on a 427gal tank. Its not just a an automated water changer though. It saves salt by dialysing the tank water first. I'm not sure what the savings is, I'll have to look it up but its somwhere around half.

what are you running for a setup?

 

[reefkeeper2]

Its called a dialyseas. It takes water from the aquarium and passes it through a dialysis membrane much like the kind they use on people. There is purified ro/di water on one side of the membrane, and aquarium water passes through on the other. Impurities pass from the area of high concentration (the aquarium water) to the area of low concentration (the ro/di water). The purified water then returns to the aquarium. There is however a loss of salt in the process. A conductivity meter measures the specific gravity of the tank water and when it drops, the dialyseas adds salt to compensate. I have had it a year and it seems to work quite well.

 

[ScottM]

Its called a dialyseas. It takes water from the aquarium and passes it through a dialysis membrane much like the kind they use on people. There is purified ro/di water on one side of the membrane, and aquarium water passes through on the other. Impurities pass from the area of high concentration (the aquarium water) to the area of low concentration (the ro/di water). The purified water then returns to the aquarium. There is however a loss of salt in the process. A conductivity meter measures the specific gravity of the tank water and when it drops, the dialyseas adds salt to compensate. I have had it a year and it seems to work quite well.

looks like a great concept.
do they size it to the system volume or is there a standard size rating? did you get it direct? I was looking at going to FL soon, looks like i'll be droping by thier showroom.

 

[reefkeeper2]

You can set it to any rate you wish. They give you guidlines as to tank size and bioload.

 

[Kevin McG]

I may be wrong but didn't Liam have his doing auto water changes??

 

[marco67]

Its called a dialyseas. It takes water from the aquarium and passes it through a dialysis membrane much like the kind they use on people. There is purified ro/di water on one side of the membrane, and aquarium water passes through on the other. Impurities pass from the area of high concentration (the aquarium water) to the area of low concentration (the ro/di water). The purified water then returns to the aquarium. There is however a loss of salt in the process. A conductivity meter measures the specific gravity of the tank water and when it drops, the dialyseas adds salt to compensate. I have had it a year and it seems to work quite well.

That's really interesting.....I'd love to learn more, any links ?

 

[rjdudek]

I looked at these units last year. They seem to be very well built and a great idea, but there was no way I could work the return on investment for my size system.
http://www.seavisions.com/prod02.htm

Although not automated, I am using a T & ball valve off my closed loop to a drain in the basement. When I want to change water you shut down the sump, open the t and let the closed loop force out as much as you want. I use the same tubing and reverse the flow with make up water from storage (T, 2 valves and a pump).

 

[ScottM]

ease of Maintaining a reef is all the ROI i need.... Marc i am heading down to check the showroom out. want me to pick up some extra info?

 

[marco67]

Yea I'd be interested .....

 

[Biotoper]

Well, dual-channel peristaltic pump setup, along with the auto-top-off, would be better, but one of those pumps will run you what? $800+. And the dialysis setup is over $2500? Whereas, for pennies, you could setup a partial salinity SW drip while pulling wet skimmate. Measuring salinity daily and adjusting your drip accordingly is still less work than doing manual wc's. When you weigh the cost of automizing it against your time spent doing a weekly wc, it's hard for me to justify spending too much - it is a hobby, I'm supposed to spending some time maintaining my tank .

On the lower efficiency of continuous wc, I think that math is assuming a single-event pollutant. Under the normal scenario of continuous pollutant input, a 100% wc every 100 days vs a 1% water change every day (or all intermediate cases) will have maintain the same average pollution concentration over time. That average concentration is determined by your pollution input (namely feeding) and the total amount of water changed over time t, not by your wc frequency. There was an article in Reefkeeping showing this, but I can't find it now.

Ryan