auto-water change in a nano how much how often?

[lastlight]

I think the risks involved skyrocket too with such a small volume of water to begin with. Not saying that's a reason not to try it =)

[claymax]

What risks are we talking about?

Your critiques are greatly appreciated

[lastlight]

I don't really know exactly. I think there was a thread about doing these and salinity shifts are possible. A shift when you're working with smaller volumes seems likely or no? How will these be done?

[claymax]

With brs peristaltic dosing pumps(50 ml/min) on digital timers, they say they're quite accurate....

[lastlight]

Even my profilux dosing motors vary greatly in the amount of drift they have as they get a bit dirty. I'd be so concerned about the setup that continually testing the source water and the tank water to ensure it's always working would be far *more* work than regular changes. I could be worrying about nothing though I do that...

[syncro]

Continuous water changes are an option with your setup i.e. dozens of small water changes each day to equal 10% change per week.

Try some sort of feedback to detect problems. E.g. float switches hooked to a controller to trigger when too much water is added or not enough removed.

[phi delt reefer]

the brs 50ml/min units are LOUD. heard that from the two people who i know own one. One even sent it back twice - both times BRS advised it was normal noise.

for such a small tank bite the bullet and just do it weekly or every two weeks. Its not going to be more than what fits in a 5 gallon bucket.

if you still want to do it and automate it - get one of those auto water changer things. Expensive but it has fail safes in place which is what you want incase something goes wrong.

[kien]

For starters, if one of those timers or pumps die and you don't notice, the result would likely be catastrophic. Especially in a nano.

This approach is ok so long as you are there to observe the process and can intervene if something goes wrong. I certainly would not rely on it to just work automatically 100% of the time. And by Murphy's law, that ONE time that you're not there is when it will fail.