evaporation rates.

[alex281]

hey guys! so i noticed in my system that i lose water quite frequently! in just a couple of days my water level drops by more than an inch! is it evaporating? is it from my air pump? (rated for 240 gallon tank in a 50 gallon tank) id like to find a solution as im sure its not good for the system to be adding tap water every week!

Also a side update:
my stupid bell siphon had cut off issues weeks back and i fixed it by adding a t shaped splitter instead of a 90 deree elbow to the drain pipe. now out of nowhere its having start issues! i put on a smaller size t splitter and i tried to clean the hose but i guess something happened to the pump that weakened the flow. nonetheless i purchased a 250gph pump however like an idiot i didnt know if it had an adjustable flow rate so now ill probably need more tubing to reduce its flow and send some back to the tank!

in good news :D I Bought KOI! this now brings me to a total of 9 goldfish and 1 koi :D all plants seem to be doing well to!

[Bioritize]

Hey Alex,

Have you seen affnan's bell siphons? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzKUzcdeaI8)

Do you have plants in your system, if so then they would be taking up some of the water as well as evaporation. It is typical to lose a couple gallons per week or day depending on your environment.

[alex281]

Hey Alex,

Have you seen affnan's bell siphons? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzKUzcdeaI8)

Do you have plants in your system, if so then they would be taking up some of the water as well as evaporation. It is typical to lose a couple gallons per week or day depending on your environment.


well thats good to know i could lose that much! i thought something was way off :D

i have a couple different lettuces, an eggplant, and various peppers. all are seedlings except the eggplant which is about 10 inches and starting to produce an eggplant!

i based my design off of his using half inch piping for all the main parts and a half to 3/4" converter to create a funnel like his. it ran great till it started having cut off issues at which point i removed the 90 degree elbow and put a 3/4" tee on the 1/2" pipe coming down. this worked great at cutting off for a couple more weeks. however, i think something is up with the pump as i have tried to clean out all the other things which might have reduced the flow and not start the siphon. in the end switching to a 1/2" t on the pipe helped it start again.

[foodchain]

Carefull with the koi. They are not meant for tanks. I have some pushing 3 ft long, and I have seen them nearly 4 ft. Keeping them in tanks long term will shorten thier life span, and potentially cripple the spine.

[coledexter1920]

Hi, thanks for the information. I really enjoyed reading about it. I think people most of the times ignore things which matter later in life.