What Would You Improve About Your Fish Room Water Change Setup

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

What would you improve about your water change set up? Would you use a mixing valve to control water change temperature?

I am adding a fishroom sink around November within the utility room next to the fishroom. I hope to add a thermostatic mixing valve to set my temperature. We live at 9200 feet in Colorado and our cold water comes out of the mountain at 40 degrees pretty much all year long. I use a python and added in an RV hose inline water filter (carbon / sediment filter) before the python hook. Are there models of mixing valve that allow for a controllable aquarium suitable output temperature? What would those be? Would you use one? Thanks kindly. 

 

Vr

Matt

[MickS77]

I noticed in @Bob's latest video that @Randy is using, what looks to be a shower mixing valve. I doubt the brand really matters except for the availability of replacement parts. I thought that was a pretty good idea, maybe he can elaborate on it. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

I have seen in several videos that they have used a single handle shower control valve, which is probably cheaper than going with a thermostatic valve. I would just have a place where i could put an inline thermometer to monitor the temp. 

[Daniel]

6 hours ago, MickS77 said:

I noticed in @Bob's latest video that @Randy is using, what looks to be a shower mixing valve. I doubt the brand really matters except for the availability of replacement parts. I thought that was a pretty good idea, maybe he can elaborate on it. 

 

See the thing with round yellow cap? That was the mixing valve I used for aquarium water. Notice that is unconnected? It was a bit fiddley and I did not find it particularly useful either.

Seemed like a good idea on paper, but not so much in real life. The rest of the system automation including automatic water changes has been critical to my long term success, but sadly not the temperature mixing valve.

[NordernAquariums]

4 hours ago, Daniel said:

See the thing with round yellow cap? That was the mixing valve I used for aquarium water. Notice that is unconnected? It was a bit fiddley and I did not find it particularly useful either.

Seemed like a good idea on paper, but not so much in real life. The rest of the system automation including automatic water changes has been critical to my long term success, but sadly not the temperature mixing valve.

That's an impressive setup. Is there anywhere you go over your setup and how it works? What works best?

[HenryC]

I just wish I could have something that would cool water down fast, or have cold water on demand. The opposite of a boiler lol! It's hell changing water on lots of tanks when your tap water comes out over 100F in the summer.

I wish I had more space inside my home so I could isntall a big water cistern to store and age water, as well as cool it down in the summer. I guess I have to buld up a small shack connected to the house's A/C so I can have  78F water all year round.

Edited September 16, 2020 by HenryC

[Andy's Fish Den]

7 hours ago, HenryC said:

I just wish I could have something that would cool water down fast, or have cold water on demand. The opposite of a boiler lol! It's hell changing water on lots of tanks when your tap water comes out over 100F in the summer.

I wish I had more space inside my home so I could isntall a big water cistern to store and age water, as well as cool it down in the summer. I guess I have to buld up a small shack connected to the house's A/C so I can have  78F water all year round.

Where do you live that tap water comes out that warm in summer? I'm in northern Ohio and have a well thats 80' deep my tap comes out upper 50s year round. 

The only thing i could think of is a cistern type thing buried in yard that would collect rainwater (if you live someplace that gets enough rain), then run a coil of your cold water supply line in that. By having it buried in the ground, it would use the insulation advantage of the ground to help cool.  

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I missed that watching the tour. Thank you. I figured there was quite a bit of learning in the group that could save me some headaches later on either in setup or models that have worked for others. That shower valve sounds interesting maybe I could calibrate that with the constant cold coming in the house.

 

v/r,

Matt

[HenryC]

5 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

Where do you live that tap water comes out that warm in summer? I'm in northern Ohio and have a well thats 80' deep my tap comes out upper 50s year round. 

The only thing i could think of is a cistern type thing buried in yard that would collect rainwater (if you live someplace that gets enough rain), then run a coil of your cold water supply line in that. By having it buried in the ground, it would use the insulation advantage of the ground to help cool.  

Baja California, Mexico, close to the border. It's desertic climate here lol, I can count with 1 hand the times it rains each year and still have fingers left! 🥵

Sadly I don't think I have enough space to dig hehe, my best option is indoor cistern.

Edited September 16, 2020 by HenryC

[Andy's Fish Den]

1 hour ago, HenryC said:

Baja California, Mexico, close to the border. It's desertic climate here lol, I can count with 1 hand the times it rains each year and still have fingers left! 🥵

Sadly I don't think I have enough space to dig hehe, my best option is indoor cistern.

I figured you had to be someplace like that to have tap water come out that warm. Good luck figuring out how to cool it down.

[Lebowski]

For me this is tough, I am not sure what to do. Hopefully someone out there has some ideas!

Problem 1 - My home has softened water (I use potassium). In order to get regular hard water, I had to tap the sprinkler box outside. Well, this only works for about half the year because of temps here. I think my solution will be to split my line pre-softener in the garage and have a source available in the garage at least. However, this does not give me a sink and drain, nor does it give me hard hot water (which I don't have now either). This is a segue to problem 2. 

Problem 2 - I am on the bucket brigade because I cannot use a python for the reasons stated above. I also have to use spare heaters to warm up buckets when the temps drop. In the summer the tap water from the sprinkler box is 77 degrees. I think my solution here is to put a sink in the garage, I'd have to also add a small water heater for this sink and a sump pump to get the water drained. So far this has been a worse prospect that using buckets on my 5 tanks. 

Ideas are welcome! I have no interest in using RO/DI and remineralizing, my fish love the tap water here. I do have plans to get to a fish room, I will have a water change system in there...but those are big goals that require much plumbing. 

Thanks!

[Andy's Fish Den]

11 hours ago, Lebowski said:

For me this is tough, I am not sure what to do. Hopefully someone out there has some ideas!

Problem 1 - My home has softened water (I use potassium). In order to get regular hard water, I had to tap the sprinkler box outside. Well, this only works for about half the year because of temps here. I think my solution will be to split my line pre-softener in the garage and have a source available in the garage at least. However, this does not give me a sink and drain, nor does it give me hard hot water (which I don't have now either). This is a segue to problem 2. 

Problem 2 - I am on the bucket brigade because I cannot use a python for the reasons stated above. I also have to use spare heaters to warm up buckets when the temps drop. In the summer the tap water from the sprinkler box is 77 degrees. I think my solution here is to put a sink in the garage, I'd have to also add a small water heater for this sink and a sump pump to get the water drained. So far this has been a worse prospect that using buckets on my 5 tanks. 

Ideas are welcome! I have no interest in using RO/DI and remineralizing, my fish love the tap water here. I do have plans to get to a fish room, I will have a water change system in there...but those are big goals that require much plumbing. 

Thanks!

You say your fish love the tap water, are you using a mix of the softened water and the water you tap off before the sprinkler? 

I think what I would do from the sound of what you have going on, depending on how many and what size tanks you have, I'd invest in a couple plastic food grade 55 gallon drums. Set them up in garage and run the water pre softener or however you mix right now into the drums, put a heater in them to bring them to temp, and use something like a mag-drive pump or one of the newer DC power pumps to pump water to the tanks. If you do some researching, especially on saltwater keeping sites, you can find some ideas you may be able to implement, as saltwater guys usually have storage for RO, and mixed saltwater and a way to pump to their tanks. Good luck!

[MattyIce]

Tried a few ways to drain my tanks, but I always end up running a hose from drain to tank and getting the siphon going.  It is fast, dosnt require drilling or excessive plumbing, and uses half as much water to do the same amount of water change as overflow systems.

this is what id change, moving the hose from tank to tank, restarting the siphon each time, making sure the hose stays in the drain and in the tank, its not convenient.

I think my next change would be build a PVC manifold using  t joints with ball valves and barb connectors for each shelf of fish tanks.  Run hoses from each tank to the manifold, start a siphon in each hose and then close the hose at the manifold.

Couple this with the Hefty trash can on wheels with python hose and a pump inside, and I can hook up at the manifold out, open the valve for the tank i want to drain, and drain into the hefty trash can where the water gets pumped out the door/to the drain.

[Lebowski]

On 9/17/2020 at 5:07 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

You say your fish love the tap water, are you using a mix of the softened water and the water you tap off before the sprinkler? 

I think what I would do from the sound of what you have going on, depending on how many and what size tanks you have, I'd invest in a couple plastic food grade 55 gallon drums. Set them up in garage and run the water pre softener or however you mix right now into the drums, put a heater in them to bring them to temp, and use something like a mag-drive pump or one of the newer DC power pumps to pump water to the tanks. If you do some researching, especially on saltwater keeping sites, you can find some ideas you may be able to implement, as saltwater guys usually have storage for RO, and mixed saltwater and a way to pump to their tanks. Good luck!

This is great advice! Thanks! I don't mix at all, straight tap water + dechlor. Only downside to all of this is I still have to bucket water out unless I set up a pump system for removal too. Thinking about it!

Edited September 18, 2020 by Lebowski