Reefloat Automatic Water Changer Review
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- Опубліковано 12 бер 2020
- Is the Reefloat Auto Water Changer the best kept secret in reefing? I give you my honest thoughts, having lived with it for a year.
reefloat.myshopify.com/
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Being in a wheelchair and planning out my first Marine aquarium, this is the first of its type I've seen and may well bring me into the hobby and remain immersed in it! VBW x
I’m not fond of the water changes/ers that mix old and new water. It just feels like a waste.
I’ve had an AWC for years, great piece of kit and Gordon the owner is very helpful 👍
Finally subbed been watching for a while keep up the good work
Had this for years, one of the best tools for our hobby I have seen!
I was thinking just yesterday that I need to research auto water-changers for my new tank I’m planning and this video gets recommended to me. Perfect timing!
I have a reefloat awc and can vouch that it’s a great bit of kit. I used to hate water changes but the reefloat takes all the pain out of it. One of my best buys.
That is awesome. It fits the solution I have been looking for as I have a similar tank position as yourself and cannot have a large station. Thanks so much for doing this video.
I love your videos and personality. My only complaint is I wish you made more videos more often :). Keep up the great work.
I'd like to make 3 a week! If and when I get more time, i'm on it!
Interesting, I just changed from apex DOS to ecotech versa to do my awc, I have not seen or heard of reefloat so thanks for bring them to my attention.
I use a reefloat AWC106 on my 1000L tank and it is a god send.
When I move in 1-2 years time, I will go down the Neptune dos route, as I’ll have a garage and more space for a water mixing station.
Jesus christ, this Is the most underated content creater i Know of
🤣 Thanks man 👍
100% agree
I have ordered an Auto Aqua smart water changer. Not only does it not waste any saltwater but it also has am auto top off in the one unit. And it can be fitted into any containers you choose.
I was almost talked into it... then I thought of how much extra salt I would need to buy. Thanks though, love your channel 👍🏻
I’m really thinking about getting one now, didn’t even know these existed
Jesus the volume ! that was an epic first few seconds !
🤣 Sorry mate!
So good I’m happy to buy a marine tank again purely based on this bit of kit!
is there any benefit to not having the old and new mix? if not this is pretty neat
I recently purchased an AWC88 and Gordon kindly shipped it to me on the Gold Coast, QLD Australia. Totally Brilliant! So bloomin’ easy.
Used it for first time on Sunday.
Not a drop of water spilled. Happy Wife, Happy Fish, Happy Life.😀
looks pretty good. been using the dos for about 6 months and has been very reliable but very very noisy so needs to be done whilst not at home! highly recommend the dos but yeah pricey to set up from day 1.
I mean.. it’s just.. that’s just.. it’s neat, but strange. Great video and very informational! Thank you, Sir!
Wow Alex! I didn't know these things existed! 😀👍
So it adds a little water first let it mix in to the tank then remove some in to the same bucket and that then mixes with the new salt?
this is brilliant !
I have one of these, they are great, although I have found the pipe work is now quite dirty/mouldy? Have you worked out a way of cleaning the pipes?
Yes, I had the same issue. I clean the unit with RO water and milton's fluid occasionally - that takes care of the pipe attached to the pump. And i've just ordered a long bottle cleaner for the inlet pipe.
Hi, just a quick question where did you get your black containers from? I’m down sizing tanks and need something like that to keep my corals and fish while swapping over.. cheers andy
Homebase
I have the awc 53 only issue the bit where the pipe fits on the lid has snapped and reef lost don’t do them any more. So have no idea what to do. Great video
Have you messaged Gordon at Reefloat? He might be able to help.
@@ReefDork hi yep spoke to him today he managed get me one, cheers mate
Does the siphon stop when the pump shuts off or does it continue during the 60secs off as well. Because I wonder how it breaks the siphon when the pump is off but has it on when the pump is going
It stops - it's a sealed unit so the water has nowhere to go. The syphon will only continue if you have the outlet tube below the inlet tube (which is why you hang both in the tank)
Is the container separated internally at all? If not, it seems like there would be a lot of wasted new water with all the mixing. Even then, some of the new water that was just put in the tank could be getting sucked back up into the container.
No separation - the idea is that it mixes up completely so you do end up wasting about 5 litres of the 53 litre capacity. But that's a fair trade for the convenience!
Ive been using the AWC106 on my 750l for 9 months and i dont know where i would be without it
I'm looking at getting one of these, but one thing I don't understand is can you vacuum your sand bed with it or do you have to do that separately?
No you can't - you'd need to do that separately
Thats awsome!
They do look like a great bit of kit however do you stay on top of your sand cleaning in a different way to a water change?
I've never cleaned my sand - I have a relatively shallow bed which will help, but I probably still should.
@@ReefDork mate i never clean the sand either 👍
Land Shark Reefing never done mine either
I never used to but do plan to this time seeing the benefits you get from it alot of videos from BRS on it aswell
I know this is off topic but what refugium light do you use, my cheato won’t grow, but hair algae does, I’m using mars hydro 300 eco, think it’s too strong
It'll be bang on topic next Friday! I use a Tunze 8831 - my 6 month review is out on Friday 20th...
Reef Dork thanks
I have an awc 53, I’ve only used it once and I’ve had it for 3 years 😊, can you tell me how many grams of salt you use for the mix, sorry I’m just being to lazy to work it out 😀
Around 2.2kgs of red sea blue bucket
@@ReefDork thank you very much for that, I use blue bucket so that’s great, love your channel, I’ve been watching you for ages, Colin🏴
Doesn't this mean you really are only changing out 50% of the volume of the unit, since it is continually mixing in rhe tank and the unit?
My thoughts exactly. Best dump out dirty water then put in new water. If your tank is big, use a pump
The percentage depends on the volume of the unit and the tank. I.e. if you have a 90 L tank and a 10 L AWC you will change 90 % of the volume of the unit, but if the tank is 40 L you will only change 80 % of the volume of the unit.
Would you say its worth the 200 quid plus? Also I he small step to go up into my living room? Is the 50l too heavy to lift up a step?
100% yes. 50 litres of water is 50kgs - it's best on a dolly but one step should be fine
@@ReefDork thanks... Great job by the way, one of the best UK UA-cam channels for reefing! 👏👏👏
If I had the AWC for 38 litres but I only wanted to do a 20 litre water change could I just half fill it or would it empty the full 38 litres while it was running?
Nope - it'd syphon and fill the whole thing. So it's all or nothing...
@@ReefDork okay brilliant thank you. The one I need is currently out of stock so I guess it’s a waiting game now haha 😂
Great video you should try the triton method
I use ati essentials pro which is supposedly water change-free but I like to maintain w/c anyway
Sounds like a good Idea, but I use a water change to vac the bottom of my tank and replace 100% of the water, it definitely is easier but probably a waste of salt water, only 10-15% is changed but no real nutrient export, might be better to do the triton method!
I know this is not an advert, but you should be the next OxiClean man
Hi mate could you post a link to that little trolley you use
Here you go amzn.to/2wbSWua
Is it right that you buy the Red sea reefer 250, without light? If it is, what would you recommend? Sorry for my bad english, i am from Denmark😃
Depends what corals you want but a Kessil AP700 would probably be my choice.
Thank you very much, you inspire me so much
Selv tak 🙂
Danish, i didn’t expect that😉🇩🇰
@Reef Dork how do you get on with this unit now? Still using it etc?
Yep, still use it every week and love it. The power cable connection is now a little loose but other than that it's great 👌
@@ReefDork thanks for updating I'm just about to buy one myself to aid with water changes as right now I'm too lazy 😂😂😂
What is the name of the Automatic system. I'm in the US but can't seem to find a system like that anywhere including the web.
It's called a Reefloat AWC - Reefloat.com is the website but I'm not sure if they're currently shipping to the states...
@@ReefDork awesome thank you so much Love the vids keep them coming
What is called the container ? Trying to find somewhere but cant see anywhere
I don't know what they're called, but here are some examples www.directwatertanks.co.uk/water-storage-tanks/water-tanks
A couple of questions for you
1. Did Reefloat do away with the Auto Shutoff Valve lids? It looks like this may not be an option anymore.
2. Is it possible to pull out the old water first then add the new so you don't waste your new saltwater?
Yes and no
you are a legend
Yes I am 😎
How do you empty the white container tub that has the old water?
Just put the outlet hose in your sink and turn it on
Cant use one on mine as 110 litres for the Max is a bit useless on my 1500litre system .
My question is though as it would be collecting good water as well as bad water? As its collecting the bad into the good water ? Woukd prefer it to send the bad down the drain and only add good water. Or have I missed the point here ?
Yeah I was thinking that, it's not an actual 10% waterchange as you just mixing and diluting the tank water.
Thinking about it in ratios though it will be 10 parts old to 1 part new, so although your tipping 1 part new water down the drain your also throwing 10 parts old
Just seems a little on the waste side .
Great if u have smaller tanks but when your throwing 1500litres about u want every litre to count!
Yeah you would have around 165l one to fo a 10% for you and I wouldn't really fancy pushing that around on my carpets
I have a 200litre I mix up . I used it empty and marked on the tank with a bit of masking tape to measure where 200litres is .
So when I mix the drum up I drain 180 ish down the drain and then fill it back up with the mixed good stuff . . Plumbed all the pipes in on the wall in hard pvc .so all I have to do is turn a few plugs on and way hey !
Sorry for my (not-relevant-to-your-video) question!! ☺☺but have you ever tried VIBRANT ????? Greetings from the Netherlands
No I haven't - Nathan Willard on YT used it recently to get rid of bubble algae. I prefer predators to deal with algae personally.
That looks great..probs a little over priced though, maybe a diy version would be cool
Do they ship to the states?
They certainly used to - i've just checked the website and it doesn't say now. Send them a message though
were does the old water go to then...it isn't clear to me.
Takes a bit of time to figure it out but watch the explanation bit back and you'll get it.
If this really a water change? If I understand the video, it's really just diluting the old water with new water, right? I mean the old water goes into the new water, which the new old mix is what's being put back in the tank, right?
Takes a bit of time to work it out in your head, but yes it does do it. You just lose 10% of the new water, that's all.
@@ReefDork I'm not sure that math works out. I think you might be losing most of the benefit of the new water, less than half certainly. Depends on the number of dilutions.
After my recent experience I definitely need to get one of these. Good to see a nano one too! My lack of changes resulted in high nitrates then my bad water mixing resulted in high salinity! Newbie mistakes but an awc would really help me 👍
You can't beat a regular w/c schedule 🤓
Thats definitely my first tip for noobs. Keep up a regular maintenance regime or else problems multiply! I was lucky I just have a CUC and other than 5 different zoas I've only got a Favia and a chalice so I didn't kill anything. 💪
hi . no matter what i do the it dosn,t self siphon , just fills my sump up
That's weird - give Gordon at Reefloat a shout and he'll sort you out.
Reef Dork manage to sort it , the plastic bit on the end of the syphon tube didn’t have the hole punched out ,
an explanation how this works on the website reefloat.myshopify.com/pages/the-awc-how-it-works
I'm all for being lazy whike doing a water change but that's a big expense when a 60litre barrel and a small pump can do the same job in my eyes
I’ll tell you why that is shit for me, the price of the salt and the pain of making RO water. The thought of wasting a drop puts me right off that. Only way I can see it being beneficial is it you have a monster tank
are you still using Reefloat Automatic Water Changer ?
Yep, every week
@@ReefDork 👍so I need to buy one thank's
We just mixing shit in the clean water. Wasting salt and elements, People are just fooled by big corporations, just too lazy and clumsy, you don’t see your local fish shop doing that.
if only they carry it in north america =(
The shop is closed and there is no way to even see what they got. Not professional
They're still open!
That wallpaper is so bad. Hahaha 😂
I hear the wallpaper in the dining room is far worse. 😏
Sounds like a sponsored ad…
It is not - bought it myself
this is rubbish you not getting the whole benefit of a water change such as lowering nutrients in the tank as you are mixing new with the old water so you end up tiping so of the new water you just mixed up straight back down the sink so basically a waste of a water change
I'm sorry I dont like this as when you do a water change you take old water out first then add new water that's a water change your just mixing new water with Old and we know that dont work as well as the way i do it dont take it the wrong way happy reefing😃👏👌
I would have thought this too but I know theres loads of people use these and swear by them. I'm sure the way it mix's makes sense but its a Saturday morning and my brains a bit fragile 😂
@salty box yes but doing a water change is taking old water first and replacing it with fresh clean water but everyone has there way of doing things as long as it works that's all that matters but for me I love doing all the work and I clean my sand bed when I do mine so for me it wont work I think you will just end up with old tank syndrome😃😄👏 happy reefing
I can not believe that people don’t get the basic math as to how this works and why people think they are throwing fresh salt away ? On a 53 ltr version you are disposing roughly 3 - 5 ltr of your fresh made salt water. Good lord the video even goes onto explain how it works in idiot language I do not understand how this could be made any simpler.
Agreed. How can people be so dumb? This is a nice bit of kit. 10% waste of new mix is a small price to pay imho
This is garbage, you waste too much salt. And only remove a small percentage of contaminants.
Must be nice having enough money to have all of this stuff :-(
Do you need to auto shutoff?