On Mon, 03 Jul 2006 06:06:18 GMT, "Bryan" wrote:

Exotec,

Hey awesome summary. Which inexpensive RO/DI did you get?

Well, I'm kind of embarrassed -for some reason- to admit I'm an eBay
addict, and we get all kinds of stuff there for our various hobbies.
The water system came from a company called Aqua Safe, I think out of
Canada. The total outlay was somewhere in the vicinity of $100, which
seems like a pretty good bargain in this trade. If you do a search on
"aquasafe", you should come up with a string of his products. I
believe he's a regular seller there. In lieu of that (if he doesn't
have anything listed at the moment), I think I could dig up his
regular email address, given a little time for research.
Maybe you can
tell me, why would I care about a 100 gpd versus a 35 gpd if I'm only doing
water changes every week or two? I can just turn it on sooner before I
start working. Also, if the water just goes in a bucket how do you collect
it for drinking? I'm not necessarily interested in the drinking aspect but
hey, if it's there and it tastes good, why not?
The system we got actually came with a little holding tank, only about
2 gallons or so, and a tap - the kind you would see on a bar sink. We
hadn't intended to use the tap, but found space to install it and now
find we use it a lot.
Only thing on my mind now after reading the three sets of help I've gotten
is how to turn the powerhead off in time when the water gets low in the
bucket or the aquarium is too full. A few seconds before pulling the plug
can mean wet carpet or a powerhead running in dry air. Then you have to run
up to the cord to stop the "siphon" effect. My plug isn't easy to quickly
jump to.
Those are definite "issues"! We used to use the 5-gallon water bottles
from the grocery, but had many, many "spills" from forgetting to turn
the thing off and flooding the closet all the way down the hall. Then
we bought a little light and put it in there, so when we turned the
water on we also turned the light on to try to help us remember to
turn it off again. That also didn't work. So when the other fish geek
here found the barrel, he also managed to get a little float valve,
and now we have no more overflows.
I think the powerhead may be one of the sort that can run a little air
briefly. I'm thinking this is not good for it, no matter what ... but
so far it hasn't choked up its parts on us, so I guess it's okay. It
does run pretty fast. Doesn't take any time at all to pump out the
volume we need for a water change. I suppose if it was a matter of
completely filling a tank that might be a problem ... but the 10 or 20
gallons we use at a time isn't.
The time we have to be careful is in pumping the exchange water *out*
of the tank. But I just have the extension tie-wrapped to the leg of
the aquarium stand, and when I hear the pump start to suck air, I just
give its cord a yank. Since the business end of that operation is in
the sink, siphon doesn't apply. In the other direction, pumping new
water in, well, since we're pumping into the sump and not the tank, it
can only siphon what it's already put in. That can be annoying, but it
isn't a disaster. Besides, as stated, it takes virtually no time to
put the new water in. You can stand there and watch it for that long!
Maybe I'll get a Clapper. haha
http://www.youcansave.com/clap.asp.

Bryan


"exotec" wrote in message
.. .
We have a RO/DI system, which really wasn't that expensive. We found
an old 25-gallon plastic barrel and washed it out exceptionally well,
and use this as a reservoir. The lid had to be cut out larger to
accomodate dropping in a powerhead, but we mix salt in the drum also
and let the powerhead run for an hour or so. Then we use the same
powerhead to uplift the water into a 5-gallon bucket. If we had a
longer piece of the appropriate size tubing, we'd just use that, and
pump directly into the tank system.

When we remove water for replacement, we take the powerhead from the
barrel and put it in the sump, then run a piece of tubing across the
counter into the kitchen sink. Have to use a twist-tie to attach the
"wild end" to the faucet if we don't want to wash the kitchen floor
the hard way.

And we never add anything directly to the tank. For small volumes
(supplements, etc) we pour into the overflows; for larger volumes, we
pour or pump into the sump. I live in fear of dire warnings from
publications and LFS "experts" (?) about shocking the tank with
too-quick changes, so we try to make sure whatever goes into the
system hits the tank last.

Look into the RO/DI units. We live in an apartment, and it was neither
too expensive nor too challenging to install. Plus, it gets used for
drinking water as well, so it's turned out to be a bargain for us.

Good luck.


On Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:06:30 GMT, "Bryan" wrote:

Well I did the water change today, about 30%. What a mess. I thought I'd
ask some "experienced" people's advice.

I have questions like:

Am I the only one using store bought water?!
What do you mix your new water in?
Do you sit there and stir or have extra powerheads doing the trick or is
there something I haven't thought of?
What's the best way to take the water from the container on the ground up
to
the aquarium?

Here's a couple of things I didn't think about before I started. Thank
goodness there's nothing but snails and hermits right now.

1) I have Emperor 400's, when the water is too low they can't pull in the
water to circulate and aerate. This leads to one deadwater tank. I
thought
maybe I should throw in air stones... is that what you guys do? Is stones
enough or do I need to have some filtration still working?

2) When I'm putting water back in (I lifted those 5 gallon water jugs) it
sure seemed like the flow from pouring might a bit rough on the rocks and
critters below once I get them. Yes I can sit there much longer and only
let the heavy jug slowly pour out, but there's gotta be another way. Can
you siphon uphill as easily?

Anyway, I've read a couple of things on the web but I don't have a sump,
refugium or a RO/DI connected nearby so I didn't get a lot of help. And
about those RO/DI's, do they have one that doesn't have to be plugged into
my plumbing? (small house, no basements in Texas and a decorator wife
wouldn't allow it). I'd like one that pulled water from one container
into
another.

So what is your smooth water change technique?

Thanks for your time and advice,

Bryan
www.geocities.com/bryg30/ for setup details


=^..^=
... the problem with people these days is that
they've forgotten we're really just animals.


=^..^=
.... the problem with people these days is that
they've forgotten we're really just animals.