Behind the bookshelf is a secret door...
Inside that door I've installed some non-traditional plumbing...
Two fixtures- a shutoff valve and a dishwasher wye tailpiece, both connected to the plumbing for my bathtub on the other side of the wall.
The shutoff valve looks like the kind next to your toilet, and there's a good reason for that...
This is a 27gal plastic tub, with a toilet fill valve installed through the bottom.
Below is a dishwasher fill adapter (3/8 x 3/4 FHT), which is awful handy considering I already installed adapters into my carbon filter to allow garden hose connection for re-filling my tank.
This was my original plan:
The idea was an ATO with integrated decholrination AND the ability to re-fill during water changes. The major differences between the original plan and the current plan are the size of the holding tank (from a 5gal bucket to the 27gal tote), and the float switch... because why do something simple when Arduino exists to make it AWESOME:
This little chunk of electronics does several things (rather, it will as soon as I finish debugging the code).
Three float switches monitor the top of the aquarium, bottom of the aquarium, and the bottom of the holding tank. The output is a relay board that is capable of controlling up to eight pieces of electrical equipment.
The Arduino will preform two main processes.
-The ATO process periodically tops off the water in the aquarium using the dechlorinated water from the holding tank.
-A drain/refill process will interrupt the ATO process, turn off all effected pumps/powerheads/heaters etc, and then start a drain pump (plumbed into the bath tub drain through a dishwasher discharge hose), that will automatically turn off after a certain amount of time OR if the water level goes lower than the bottom float switch. When the drain pump stops, the ATO will re-engage, filling the tank from the holding reservoir. The float at the bottom of the reservoir will keep the pump inside from running dry, since the toilet fill valve will be filling at a very slow rate to maximize the contact with the carbon filter. This will be controlled by how much I open the shutoff valve.
These processes can be scheduled (so that a measured % water change can occur daily, every other day, weekly or however I choose), or- and this is so cool to me, they can be manually controlled with a remote control.
Why do I need all this you ask?
...well it's a fun project...
but more importantly, it's all to support the 200 gallon plywood turtle paradise I'm going to build there
Professional artist's rendering
