Taposh Mallick
Community Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2015
- Messages
- 62
- Reaction score
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hi all, I am from INDIA, I had already posted before, my aquarium pics in which I made DIY rocks out of aragonite sand and white cement, for my 180G.
I took down that tank for space constraint and made 125G, after that, I thought followed into my mind when I was working on a project, in which sewage treatment plant needs to be established. I am an ARCHITECT by profession.
I thought about recycling of water.
this made me to jump to few conclusions as I am in this hobby for nearly 2yrs.
1. Water is treated 24x7 x 365 days, into sump with PS,UV and many other things, so what we are achieving? PS as IMO does not work all the time as during feeding ad after few hours of feeding, foam fractioning is seen. UV does not work properly, because all the water is not crossing it. In one sentence, its not selective way. we are loosing energy and cost involved in working.
2. we run 24x7x365 days, a grow light for macro algae in sump to rip off nutrients. this made me think, why we cant use natural sunlight and save energy and cost.
3. after all above 2 points working still I always listen that do a 10-30% water change weekly or fortnightly, the question followed was why its needed, what is there in the water which needs to be removed,after researching, found that , it replenishes lost minerals and trace elements. water gets rid off the mucus and toxins as solution to pollution is dilution. well I was not convinced with such propositions and went on checking my water parameters and found one thing change, that is alkalinity. so I thought that it can be easily dosed, if I somehow clean the water of toxins and mucus and save water and salt.
this lead me to thinking about recycled water concept...
what I did was... I shifted my live stock to 55G aquarium as I was already having space problem and some other issues which is out of scope of this thread...
I will post the video of 125G also.
I did not plumbed the 55G and kept the sump out and now I follow a 10 day regime of recycled water change, which is as follows..
1. I kept my sump outside in natural sunlight with UV,PS, macro algae and light sand bed with a powerhead for oxygenation.
2. the macro algae grows in natural sunlight and rips off the nutrients and phosphate.
3. the UV and PS runs only for six hours on tenth day only.
4. the light sand bed that is around 1.5" thick works as denitrification zone.
5. on every tenth day, which in near future, i will make it to fifteen days schedule, I take out 12 gallons of water from DT and keep it in separate bucket.
6. water in sump is nearly 45 gallons which is already in sunlight for 9 days, which is free from nutrients, now I run PS and UV for six hours on tenth day, which takes away toxins and any mucus and kills protozoans and parasites effectively, because all water crosses PS and UV, due to confinement of system. I take 12G from that and add it to DT after checking pH. they are almost same.
7. next I add that 12G water in bucket, which is contaminated, and pour it in sump and switch off the PS and UV and keep that with macro algae and small air pump for next 9 days, in natural sunlight, for next change.
this type of water change is highly selective.
in this way... I save ... energy, water and cost of operation and cost of salt, cost of RO water which was required in excess for water change.
the difference which is seen in this process is...
1. drop in alkalinity.
2. rise in salinity.
both can be well regulated by dosing and adding RO/DI water, respectively...
the pics are not that good, because I am not a professional photographer and I took pics with a mobile phone camera, but still growths can be seen...
ongoing tank parameters are...
1. calcium 500
2. alkalinity 7
3. magnesium 1400
4. nitrates 5ppm
5. phosphate 0 because I use LaCl2
6. salinity 35ppt.
thanks
I took down that tank for space constraint and made 125G, after that, I thought followed into my mind when I was working on a project, in which sewage treatment plant needs to be established. I am an ARCHITECT by profession.
I thought about recycling of water.
this made me to jump to few conclusions as I am in this hobby for nearly 2yrs.
1. Water is treated 24x7 x 365 days, into sump with PS,UV and many other things, so what we are achieving? PS as IMO does not work all the time as during feeding ad after few hours of feeding, foam fractioning is seen. UV does not work properly, because all the water is not crossing it. In one sentence, its not selective way. we are loosing energy and cost involved in working.
2. we run 24x7x365 days, a grow light for macro algae in sump to rip off nutrients. this made me think, why we cant use natural sunlight and save energy and cost.
3. after all above 2 points working still I always listen that do a 10-30% water change weekly or fortnightly, the question followed was why its needed, what is there in the water which needs to be removed,after researching, found that , it replenishes lost minerals and trace elements. water gets rid off the mucus and toxins as solution to pollution is dilution. well I was not convinced with such propositions and went on checking my water parameters and found one thing change, that is alkalinity. so I thought that it can be easily dosed, if I somehow clean the water of toxins and mucus and save water and salt.
this lead me to thinking about recycled water concept...
what I did was... I shifted my live stock to 55G aquarium as I was already having space problem and some other issues which is out of scope of this thread...
I will post the video of 125G also.
I did not plumbed the 55G and kept the sump out and now I follow a 10 day regime of recycled water change, which is as follows..
1. I kept my sump outside in natural sunlight with UV,PS, macro algae and light sand bed with a powerhead for oxygenation.
2. the macro algae grows in natural sunlight and rips off the nutrients and phosphate.
3. the UV and PS runs only for six hours on tenth day only.
4. the light sand bed that is around 1.5" thick works as denitrification zone.
5. on every tenth day, which in near future, i will make it to fifteen days schedule, I take out 12 gallons of water from DT and keep it in separate bucket.
6. water in sump is nearly 45 gallons which is already in sunlight for 9 days, which is free from nutrients, now I run PS and UV for six hours on tenth day, which takes away toxins and any mucus and kills protozoans and parasites effectively, because all water crosses PS and UV, due to confinement of system. I take 12G from that and add it to DT after checking pH. they are almost same.
7. next I add that 12G water in bucket, which is contaminated, and pour it in sump and switch off the PS and UV and keep that with macro algae and small air pump for next 9 days, in natural sunlight, for next change.
this type of water change is highly selective.
in this way... I save ... energy, water and cost of operation and cost of salt, cost of RO water which was required in excess for water change.
the difference which is seen in this process is...
1. drop in alkalinity.
2. rise in salinity.
both can be well regulated by dosing and adding RO/DI water, respectively...
the pics are not that good, because I am not a professional photographer and I took pics with a mobile phone camera, but still growths can be seen...
ongoing tank parameters are...
1. calcium 500
2. alkalinity 7
3. magnesium 1400
4. nitrates 5ppm
5. phosphate 0 because I use LaCl2
6. salinity 35ppt.
thanks
