Automatic Water Change System w/Chloramines?

Easy? nope.

Sure, install an RO unit and pull the water from that.

Guess I was wrong.

I was just saying it isn't easy... I have no experience with setting one up and shouldn't be commenting anyway, but it seems that from what I've read, auto water change systems are not "easy" to set up.

Solstice said:

Sure, install an RO unit and pull the water from that.

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If using RO water, don't I have to add trace minerals back before adding the water to the tank?

bcreque said:

Guess I was wrong.

I was just saying it isn't easy... I have no experience with setting one up and shouldn't be commenting anyway, but it seems that from what I've read, auto water change systems are not "easy" to set up.

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I've already designed a semi-automated water change system that won't be too hard to setup. My design has a zero chance of overflowing onto the floor, and relies on no sensors or pumps that could fail. The only points of failure could be a stuck solenoid, or a bad relay. Either of which would not create great harm to the tank.

I may eventually fully automate it, but my tapwater uses chloramines, so I'd have to use a peristaltic pump on a timer to add Ammo-Lock to the water in a conditioning tank. This is one part where a failure could turn fatal. If RO water doesn't need trace minerals replenished, then using RO water is the answer I am looking for.

ro would need trace added for major changes. however, you could simply run a series of carbon filters (the ro prefilter setup) to remove chlorine/chloramine while leaving some trace. you could do it cheap too!

This is from another autowater change thread - pg. 1 or 2 of Sergios...

steve5520 said:

Dechlor? Don't know what to say. I've had freshwater tanks for many years and never used it. Haven't seen problems yet.
And the way mine is now, it takes about 2 hours to change 40 gallons, so the new water is going in farily slowly. I believe chlorine will disapate on it's own fairly quickly.

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You could always add Prime at the time of the change too straight into the main tank, without a holding tank using the peristaltic pump you mentioned.

Make sure that if you have chloramines that you ensure you have the proper prefilter in your RO unit. If not, the chloramines can pass through the standard micron cartridges and the carbon prefilter and wreak havoc on your membrane.

Here is a link for more details http://www.thefilterguys.biz/chloramine_filters.htm

So, I recognize that this thread is really old, but in case anybody is searching, you can add a dosing pump dosing prime to your auto-wc system and just set the pump to dose the appropriate amount each wc.