Building Your Own Water Changer & Chiller
Please note: recent modifications.
Check back in a month for another update as the modifications are evaluated.
This setup was in part designed to make use of what was a previously wasted resource. One of our air conditioners produces up to 20 gallons of cold condensation everyday especially in the summer. This water just drains into the ground outside. Your air conditioner or heat pump may be different but they all generate this water and with a little tinkering, you should be to access it.
Outside view. We connected the pvc piping to catch the condensate. We had a hole drilled through the wall near the aquarium to carry the condensate inside. We also drilled the condensation pipe and added a length of plastic tubing (shunt & valve) to drain the excess water before it gets to the aquarium.
The plan was to create a chiller and an automatic water changer at the same time. Thus, the condensation pipe emptied directly into the aquarium on the inside. We had to also create an overflow for the aquarium so a hole was drilled into the aquarium, bulkheads added with a screen to allow the water to overflow to the outside.On the outside, the condensation pipe was drilled and a shunt added to bleed excess water away before it got to the aquarium. Without it, the water turnover rate was too high to maintain a stable Co2 level, nutrient concentration or KH.
We had to make the sump's outflow lower than the overflow to the outdoors to ensure adequate water return to the filter. As depicted above, the setup works perfectly and the water quality is perfect. We had to add some coral stones to the aquarium to maintain the hardness at a KH level of 4. We used the aquarium to grow Madagascar lace plants from bulbs because they prefer cooler temperatures that are not available in the South Florida summers.
A 10gal catchment container was added to store the cool water from the condensation pipe. Storing it raises the temperature from 69 to 75oF. It also serves as a dilution area to add concentrates to the aquarium over a period of days. The aquarium is about 90 gallons and the setup changes the entire volume every 4-5 days. The substrate we use is a blend of gravel, Duplarit G and worm castings. It is also stocked with 150 Florida Flag Fish (FFF) and 50 Madagascar-Lace plants (Aponogeton madagascarensis). As you can imagine, both the fish and the plants are very, very happy and healthy despite their stocking densities. The continuous flow through and water change of the system is as close to a river system as can be achieved in an aquarium.
UPDATED WATER SOURCE (5/23/03)
Extensive modifications were made to the water source lately for three reasons:
1. It became difficult to maintain the aquarium's TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) at a safe level for the fish. Pure condensate water is like distilled water and we were tired of having to dose with bicarbonates every few days.
2. We have increased the number of aquariums attached to this system and the cost of additional dosing with micro nutrients and salts is becoming prohibitive.
3. It is much easier to maintain the water levels of the aquarium system by placing the overflow in the sump instead of in any of the aquariums. We also eliminated the catchment. Nutrient mixes are now added to the 55 gallon drums.
The solution was to use our well water and cut it 50/50 with the condensate. This solved the problem of dangerously low dissolved salts eliminating the need for bicarbonate salt dosing while maintaining a manageable kH of 4.
A. 55 gallon Plastic Drum stores well water.
B. 55 gallon Plastic Drum stores condensate water.
C. Well water Pump.
D. Float Switch.
E. Water Pump to aquarium systems.
F. Flow Control Valves.The float switch of the water level controller switches the well pump (C) on whenever the water in the storage drum (A) falls below a certain level. The automatic timer is set to switch on the pump (E) for five minutes ever day at 5pm. With the use of flow control valves, this amounts to a total amount of 20 gallons pumped in to do the change every day. Since the total volume of the aquariums attached to the system is now 1,000 gallons that amounts to a two percent water change everyday. The flow control valves (F) allow control over the percentage mix of well and condensate water such that with a TDS tester we can set the flows from each tank to the pump (e) that will give us the TDS level we prefer.
In the near future we will add a water level controller to control pump (E) with its probe in the aquarium system's main sump. This will act to override the automatic timer and maintain a minimum water level in the aquarium system to "top-off" from evaporation.
~Dwight
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