I've been thinking about an idea for a plumbing design that I don't think I've ever seen anyone try before. I don't know if I'm actually ever going to attempt it myself, but I'm really tempted to. I thought that I would bring it up for discussion and see if anyone can see any disadvantages that I don't see yet.
The purpose of all of this would be to increase water parameter stability and provide a buffer to protect against nutrient spikes or fluctuations in PH and/or water chemistry.
In my head, here's how it would work. It starts from the overflow from the display tank. Instead of dropping the water down into the sump, it gets rerouted to an external reservoir of saltwater. The reservoir has a simple overflow pipe inside, and when it is full then the excess water is then routed back to the sump to be heated and filtered as usual. That's it.
If I were to implement it, I would probably build a pretty looking box to hold a 50gallon water barrel. I would definitely insulate the inside of the box to retain heat and silence any water noises. I'd also try to keep the barrel as sealed as possible, with an exception of a tiny air exchange hole to allow pressure changes inside the barrel.
Since I run a 40g display, and a 20g sump, this would instantly double my water volume in the system. The effect on heating energy and evaporation would be negligible since the barrel would be sealed and insulated. Once it's set up, you can just forget that it exists for years at a time because it's just a barrel full of water with no moving parts. Doing this seems like it could cut my PH fluctuations from the day/night cycle in half, and also dramatically increase the chances for my livestock to survive a large fish dying and spiking ammonia by allowing for more volume to dilute the ammonia that gets produced. If a person were so inclined, they could even drop a few pieces of dry rock in the bottom of the barrel to grow some sponges and act as an cryptic refugium.
Has anyone done this before? Would there be any disadvantages if someone did?
The purpose of all of this would be to increase water parameter stability and provide a buffer to protect against nutrient spikes or fluctuations in PH and/or water chemistry.
In my head, here's how it would work. It starts from the overflow from the display tank. Instead of dropping the water down into the sump, it gets rerouted to an external reservoir of saltwater. The reservoir has a simple overflow pipe inside, and when it is full then the excess water is then routed back to the sump to be heated and filtered as usual. That's it.
If I were to implement it, I would probably build a pretty looking box to hold a 50gallon water barrel. I would definitely insulate the inside of the box to retain heat and silence any water noises. I'd also try to keep the barrel as sealed as possible, with an exception of a tiny air exchange hole to allow pressure changes inside the barrel.
Since I run a 40g display, and a 20g sump, this would instantly double my water volume in the system. The effect on heating energy and evaporation would be negligible since the barrel would be sealed and insulated. Once it's set up, you can just forget that it exists for years at a time because it's just a barrel full of water with no moving parts. Doing this seems like it could cut my PH fluctuations from the day/night cycle in half, and also dramatically increase the chances for my livestock to survive a large fish dying and spiking ammonia by allowing for more volume to dilute the ammonia that gets produced. If a person were so inclined, they could even drop a few pieces of dry rock in the bottom of the barrel to grow some sponges and act as an cryptic refugium.
Has anyone done this before? Would there be any disadvantages if someone did?