Water Changes - From Start to End on the Dream Reef

[@RogueAquariums]

Little late in watching your video as we are vacationing in the Philippines 🇵🇭. Your intricate set up for your AWC is basically a hands off approach which I like. Unfortunately since I am on a septic system I can’t conduct auto water changes 😢 so I do it the old fashion way using a hose. Btw, Nice Lennardi wrasse as I caught a glimpse of him. 😊 Keep up the good work Sam.

[@ParkersReef]

Thanks mate! Enjoy the holiday in the Phillipines!

[@antoniofaustino2548]

Since you help me start my automatic water change as been a game changer, no more buckets no more mass. Great video Sam, thanks mate!

[@ParkersReef]

Great to hear!

[@rolisreefranch]

Actually learned something new with the high salinity/Kalk application... tmyk.

[@ParkersReef]

My pleasure!!!

[@ElleKendra]

Just an all around amazing set up you've got.

[@ParkersReef]

Thanks very much!

[@queencityreefs]

Such an intricate system my friend. Love it. Keep the great content coming! Cheers.

[@ParkersReef]

Thank you, I will!!

[@MelbourneReefer]

Sam, I would love to see an update on your fish room/frag tank. Good to hear you’ve still got them up and running

[@ParkersReef]

Yeah they’re running, but they aren’t anything to write home about I’m afraid. I’ll see if I can give them a tidy up and do a final video on them before the shut down :)

[@IMGbaugher]

Great video as usual Sam. I’m running 4 Vectras on my 100. 2 for water changes and 1 for all for reef and one for dosing acro power. I love the tech approach. Also started using ozone with a Poseidon 200.

[@ParkersReef]

Sounds great! The software on the versa is amazing, just gotta keep replacing those tubes…

[@xCROv]

This is exactly the video i was looking for as i just started this process. Thanks!

[@ParkersReef]

Glad I could help! Please do keep in mind the parts where I said don’t do what I do 😅

[@xCROv]

@@ParkersReef Ha! Certainly will. Can you explain more about the AutoAqua? My dosing pumps would be in my garage and having the ability to turn them off if the water level gets to high would be great.

[@ParkersReef]

@xMooNv the auto aqua devices would need to be near the sump and near the pumps they only have about a meter of cord length.

[@RockysRC]

Another great vid sam very interesting setup ,There is no one solution for all when it comes to water changes it's about finding what works for you can be as simple or as complex as you like but they have to be done i believe if you want to maintain a reef tank lot's of good info here.👍

[@ParkersReef]

Yes spot on, different approaches for different tanks and personality styles. My approach is one that I do not recommend to most people 😅

[@briansbrain3127]

Was that a Lennardi swimming around in there now? 👀 Man, that’s my all time dream fish!

[@ParkersReef]

Hahaha yes good spotting :)

[@adamhudson6812]

Always looking forward to your videos! I’ll admit this one is complex but definitely see the great points of why you did it this way. I wish I can create my own system that allows auto water change but that requires going through walls. Wifey does not approve 🤣.

[@ParkersReef]

Haha yes fair enough too! Thanks mate

[@atheistpeace7579]

Im still in the designing stage, i have a huge, number one question that nobody can answer. I carefully watch many channels on here, and 90% of these "professional" tanks, look... dull! No color from the corals . I am planning to spend 15 to 20 grand USD before i buy one piece of livestock. I will not make that level of investment (i am a disabled veteran so im looking at two years of slow investing) again, i will not start if i cant give myself a 85% chance of having my tank look like yours. I am prepared to buy top of the line equipment and DO IT CORRECTLY rater that take baby steps. I want to have the equipment in place from the start and slowly turn stuff on as needed. I wont for financial reasons find myself with an emergency situation where i have to buy a 1 to 2 grand piece of equipment to save my livestock. I wont take that risk. Ive made the conclusion that the apex line is the best. That said. I believe it would be most efficient to have all my controls by them and only needing to run one app that i plan to display next to my main tank and again on one of myvmain computer monitors. Oh, im the one that asked for a possible exploded schemchematic diagram of your entire system Thanks for listening to an old man rambling

[@ParkersReef]

Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. Couple pieces of advice I will give you, look into a whole house inverter, something like a generac unless you have a solar battery already. Only other advice I would give you at this stage is to not feel the need to have everything on one app. It will limit you to one brand which will ensure you do not have the best of everything.

[@ReefAdventure]

First, wow absolutely beautiful tank! And i love your setup. A bit to much for me, but good it works for you.

[@ParkersReef]

Thank you very much!

[@claycor5990]

I get water from Bruce as well! My tank is no where as good as yours but it is a work in progress

[@ParkersReef]

Time is all it takes!

[@tonycloseukreef3799]

Nice one sam 👍

[@ParkersReef]

Cheers mate!

[@LamNguyen-md7gu]

Thanks Sam for another great insight!Does any know whether Bruce deliver to the Mornington Peninsula side of town?

[@ParkersReef]

Afraid not mate, wrong side of the bay :(

[@Pitty777]

Hey mate great vid, when are we getting another reefer tank tour?

[@ParkersReef]

This weekend!

[@tim5594]

It is great and really helpfully to get your recommendations on the Kamoer X1 PRO-T2 for water changing. I am currently using a Neptune DOS but the noise it makes is too annoying. I was thinking of upgrading to Versas with continuous pumping but I don’t want the hassle of changing tubing that often.

[@ParkersReef]

Kamoer def the go then 👍🏻

[@clarkernucci]

Hi Sam 👋 Thanks for another great video. I’m keen to do something similar, pulling from a NSW IBC in my garden, up into the roof and down into the sump. As my sump is lower than my IBC, is potentially siphoning a concern, or can this not happen due to the peristaltic pumps? Also at the end of the video, I noticed some 3D-printed covers for your MP60s. Do they keep baby turbos out, if so where did you get them, please? 🙏

[@ParkersReef]

Hey mate. Yeah the peristaltic pumps should stop siphon issues, but it could be a low risk still. Perhaps if your tubing split, it could siphon the lot around your pump which would be terrible. Yes the 3d printed mp60 covers are from Adrian yap in Sydney. If you’re on the reefing pages you’ll be able to find him :)

[@clarkernucci]

@@ParkersReef thanks mate, how do you mitigate the risk using the Kaamoer then? If I used a siphon break in the IBC it would get crudded over and block with salt creep within a day or so, plus would change the flow rate.

[@CopenhagenReef]

I know you live in Australia but isn’t freezing a problem with all the outdoor tubes in wintertime? Consider someday a similar setup but long from shed/Garage to tank and I live in Denmark where I think having tubes outdoor will be a problem in wintertime. So I have to figure out how too make connection from mixing station in garage to tank? Right now I just gather information to a future setup as I currently don’t have a reef tank. Thank you for a lot of inspiration😊

[@ParkersReef]

Thankfully where I live we don’t see temperatures that cold. About the coldest it’s ever been here was 4c , but I have insulated the lines where possible to help keep temperature out/in

[@CopenhagenReef]

@@ParkersReef thank you for the quick response👍🏼

[@ParkersReef]

Least I can do! Thanks for watching my videos!

[@theloneaquarist]

Very interesting. I love seeing the "mad scientist lab" part of reef keeping. But man that salt is doing a number on your IBC totes. What is actually covering the totes?

[@ParkersReef]

Those ibc are a good ten years old 😅 I just have some old cabinetry on top of them to allow me to use them as a bench

[@sunnygoold9449]

First thing I notice - Lennardi! Epic

[@sunnygoold9449]

Versa's every 3 months? shit that's terrible

[@sunnygoold9449]

What about Maz (is that her name) the young reefer (who was like 12 when you first had her on) and was expanding last time. Be great to see that again ;) Gonna check that video out now I think :)

[@ParkersReef]

Haha yes, you did notice a Lennardi :) Yep versa burn through tubes very very quickly and are fairly catastrophic if you don’t replace them. Mez has moved on from the hobby, she spends a lot of her time fishing these days :)

[@sunnygoold9449]

@@ParkersReef Oh I'm sad to hear she left the hobby

[@ParkersReef]

Yeah, people grow and interests change. She may come back in future :)

[@vascojardim6703]

Hey Mate, how long do you typically keep your water stored? Have you ever noticed any type of degradation, algae growth, etc in the deposits?

[@ParkersReef]

Usually a couple months. I find with a small pump keeping it gently moving and if you keep it out of the light, it stays algae free

[@vascojardim6703]

@@ParkersReef many thanks! I signed up to all the major reefing channels over the past 10y and you continue to be my favorite reefing youtuber.

[@ParkersReef]

you're far too kind, there are some amazing channels out there!

[@HeftyReefs]

Do the kamoer's lose calibration over time? I run 2 versa's to transfer water back and forth from my nano frag tank to my DT, but over time one ends up pumping more than the other pulls out causing my DT sump water level to rise and my ATO in my nano to kick on. Ive only been running these for a month but i have to recalibrate weekly. I know at a higher ml per minute they stated it may not be as accurate but i dropped to 20ml a minute and it would still over time end up different. So deciding if i should just switch over to the pro t2's.

[@ParkersReef]

Kamoer hold calibration really well. I too found the versa would move less volume as the tube got stiff. The Kamoer tube doesn’t get stiff like that.

[@HeftyReefs]

Just in relation to how you pump your DT water to your smaller tanks, i was thinking of starting a frag tank (waterbox20) to run off my DT. If i continually pumped 60-70 liters from dt to my nano per day and from my nano back to the DT, do you think this will elimate seperate dosing for my nano frag tank? Do you see any problems with my idea? Thanks

[@ParkersReef]

yeah that is exactly how I operate my smaller tanks. I mean it does obviously still come down to the coral load and bio load in those tanks, but I think you'll find it'll take considerably less water change than that a day to maintain it without additional dosing

[@RaditzAus]

Hey sam, im completely new to the hobby and yet to dive in with my own tank. Random question, is there any way in this day and age you can purify old tank water and reuse instead of draining it and paying constantly for more to get delivered?

[@ParkersReef]

There certainly is and there is really three parts to it: 1. Testing - Frequent ICP tests 2. Removing Nutrient and Pollutants - Skimmer, refugium, GFO, sulphur, etc. 3. Supplementing Major/Minor/Macro trace elements - Major elements like Alk/Cal/Mag through to minor like iron, boron, fluoride, etc. It is certainly possible and is popular in other parts of the world, but it is quite challenging and fairly expensive. This all depends on your tank size, bio load and coral load of course.

[@RaditzAus]

Thanks for answering that mate, will look more into it as its got me curious@@ParkersReef

[@ParkersReef]

@@RaditzAus in Australian, it’s considerably more expensive and time consuming to go no water changes in my opinion

[@cleanpaws4805]

Great video! However, God bless !!! Way too much for me, I have a 300 gallon tank. All I do is fill up two 44 gallon brute , trash cans do my water change that way with red sea salt mix and my RO machine. As you can see, I’m not a tech guy like you. But on the other hand Very interesting and very complicated . Again, great video. !!

[@ParkersReef]

Nothing wrong with that at all mate!! Main thing is you find a routine that is easy to do which means you will keep doing it :) Thanks for watching along!

[@sidewayz47]

Great video Sam. As a water delivery guy myself, I'm curious do you flush the delivery line from the front of the house to IBC before a delivery?

[@ParkersReef]

I do not. Perhaps should?

[@brandong3281]

Hey Sam, apart from changing the tubing every few months is there any other negatives that made you go towards the kamoer pumps rather than the verses? I’m setting up my auto water change system and can’t seem to decide between the two. How does the software compare between them? And maybe it’s just because I haven’t done it yet but I feel like changing them every few months wouldn’t be that much of a hassle, does it really get that annoying?

[@ParkersReef]

The hardware is inferior on the versa in my opinion. The software is advanced, but if using for auto water change - I don’t see any benefit to the software. The versa also get noisy which is annoying :/

[@brandong3281]

@@ParkersReef yeah makes sense, the kamoer pumps are a bit more pricy compared to the versas, I think I might have to go with them for that reason as I’ll be getting about 4 for my systems. Any other things I should note or any cheaper alternatives that may be better?

[@ParkersReef]

wow really? I always found Versa to be much more expensive

[@brandong3281]

@@ParkersReef yeah, I had a quick look online and the x1 pro t2 is about $400 compared to the $300 versa. Would yoou say that it’s worth the additional money or are the downsides of the versa not that bad?

[@ParkersReef]

@brandong3281 you’ll find the prices of the kamoer should drop a little soon, plus you can use the x1 pro-t in place of the t2 which is a bit cheaper again. The versa can be hard to find stock of too. Hard for me to tell you which pump is best for you, can only say that I have both and in the short term I liked the versa more and in the long term I like the Kamoer much more

[@TheFiscallySound]

Why do you have your salt water delivered? Here in Florida we have pretty good county fresh water that I run through a 5 stage RO/DI unit and then mix water through a mixing station I built 3 years ago.

[@ParkersReef]

Here is australia, especially where I am from (which is near the great ocean road) is fantastic high quality water. Cheaper to buy this water than the even buy the salt to mix

[@Ben-un8bu]

Keep the videos coming Sam, but how does the 1.052 salinity adjust back to 1.026 using kalkwasser? Is that a lower salinity then the tank or do you run you salinity much higher?

[@ParkersReef]

Kalkwasser is made with RODI, so it is 1.000SG. I’m basically removing an extra 10L of salt water a day than what I am adding. The same salt content comes in and out, just the lower volume of water entering the tank is twice as salty

[@DeeFromBrooklyn]

I wish I could get water delivered. What do they charge for water in Australia? We pay a fortune in water charges just for the home usage

[@ParkersReef]

It’s $140AUD for a 1000l water delivery. Well worth it

[@DeeFromBrooklyn]

@ParkersReef that's great. I'm trying to run my water line from the basement to my first floor. Getting too old to carry water.

[@larryloaf4938]

What kind of tubing do you use again I think I missed the name

[@ParkersReef]

It’s John guest 1/4 inch tubing. Same stuff you find on every RODI unit

[@subhra_s_das]

Another great automation from you , BTW does water change negate the goodness of reef moonshiner in any ways. Doesn't look like from the color and growth in your tank 😀. Will you ever go in route of not changing water at all unless absolute necessary.

[@ParkersReef]

Yeah it’s an interesting question. I probably could go without water changes whilst on moonshiners, but I find it such an easy and affordable way of maintaining elements and nutrient export that I don’t think I’d ever move away from it. I find it especially handy if I’m away or busy with things, water changes keep the tank moving along

[@subhra_s_das]

@@ParkersReef sure water change is always king . Thanks

[@harrisonblake928]

What’s the power consumption like on the tank?

[@ParkersReef]

Pretty decent consumption 🫣

[@BraydenTan-r3v]

Your tigerpyge angel is awesome sir. Beautiful tank💪👍

[@ParkersReef]

Thank you kindly

[@ΝίκοςΜανουσος-η1ξ]

Great video as always Sam. May i ask you if you had ever kept scatophagus argus in reef tank? Are they reef safe for corals a d clams? Ty

[@ParkersReef]

Thank you! I can’t say I ever have (or not that I know of anyway, what is it?) So I’m not much help to you sorry!

[@ΝίκοςΜανουσος-η1ξ]

@@ParkersReef kzbin.info/www/bejne/lX3RhZV-i9NlbNksi=QHvH5J8gCzH_uqk9

[@aana992]

Hi Sam, wondering if you could help me, im currently battling a green hair algae problem, how do i resolve it ? Ive tried manual removal, water changes, large frequent water changes to no avail. Wanted to get your opinion on this as i noticed it started to occur when i started my refugium a few months ago, prior to that i had high nitrates around 22ppm and phosphate around 0.12 ppm, but i never noticed any algae growing. It only started to grown once i added the refugium online in the system.

[@ParkersReef]

Yeah that is interesting, shouldn’t be anything released by the refugium…. Perhaps do an ICP, I’d question silicates

[@aana992]

If Silicates are the cause of this, how do i remove them, is there a product which i can use that will be able to remove Silicates from the water column

[@ParkersReef]

@@aana992 sure is. You can use an aluminium oxide phosphate remover (the little white balls) which is fantastic at absorbing silicates as well as phosphate

[@aana992]

@@ParkersReef are you able to recommend a brand or a product which you have used in the past ?

[@peterbws]

Is the extra work with the double salinity for extra kalk worth the effort?

[@ParkersReef]

I’d say not, but I’ll continue the experiment a bit longer

[@andrewsdrmike]

Sam you really need to clean that skimmer cup🤭

[@ParkersReef]

Hahaha yeah

[@jmdelira87]

1.052 SG???

[@ParkersReef]

Correct. Tank value is 1.026SG

[@adamgale2189]

it costs 1000s

[@ParkersReef]

Which part? This setup, despite being fairly complex is actually pretty low cost

[@grimcarnage4309]

Fish are friends, not food.

[@ParkersReef]

Can be both 😅

[@matthewlaw8859]

Sam can you send me Bruce’s contact details?

[@ParkersReef]

Yeah that’s 7.5 per 50 gallons :)

[@paulm0573]

Sorry Sam but had to stop watching after 10 mins. Although I admire your commitment in making things simple for you in terms of water changes, your whole set up is way too technical for me to understand! Prefer keeping things simple and less complicated, even if it means a little more physical labour involved!

[@ParkersReef]

Totally fine!! I agree my approach is certainly not for everyone

[@atheistpeace7579]

​@ParkersReef I am an electrical engineer and find your setup insanely complicated. I guess I missed what quality the water delivered to you is, I also do not remember you mentioning heaters in your IBC totes. I have no idea what your tempatures range. Why do you not run an 7 stage RO DI on your first IBC so you can keep better control of your water quality. I would greatly benefit understanding of the complete system if you can do an exploded schematic diagram of everything. I plan to run three 100 gallon tanks all tied together into one filtration system. So please include all three of your tanks

[@ParkersReef]

@atheistpeace7579 I get salt water delivered, not freshwater so a RODI filter is not suitable. Heaters are not required for storage either :) My tanks cascade from one to the other via the auto water change system. A drop of water per second from one tank to the next to the next to the drain

[@cooIio69]

Hi Sam, Just wondering what fail safe you’ve put in place for the water entering your soft reef tank? To prevent it overfilling if it stopped removing water at the same rate

[@ParkersReef]

I only have the punk that takes water out running at twice speed. That’s why fix the scavenge line in that one. That being said, it is still a risk and is something I check regularly