Auto top off

Right now i have a 55 open top, every day its evaporating a a least a centimeter, im getting sick of manually topping off water..... i want to purchase a auto top off, but i dont have a ro unit.

what do yall recommend i purchase and what pump would i need ect.

i was thinking of having a 5 gallon bucket of freshwater (ro) next to the tank hooked up to a ato.

help me out plz

thanks

 

Do you have a sump?

 

I recently purchased a unit from these guys... AutoTopoff.com

has been working like a charm and is fairly inexpensive. Got a RO/DI unit off of Ebay Reef Water Reverse Osmosis RO DI Filter Aquarium 75GPD - eBay (item 110417754405 end time Sep-23-09 14:34:45 PDT)

I hear ya on the being a pita to manually keep doing it. It was a pain for me too and then i added MH's which really increased the evap... you can use any size small powerhead/pump. I've it in a 13g trash can w/lid. I got 1/2" hose from Home depot...

 

I followed this link. If I understand this setup correctly.....Can you just use like a little maxijet for the pump? Does the topoff unit plug into a power outlet and then you plug your pump into the topoff or something? I know how the float system works just curious how to power it. Im in need of a unit. should the single switch float unit work for a 125g tank and sump setup. Im just gonna have a 15g trash can full of ro/di water and a small powerhead that will pump the water into my sump.

 

I would use a Tom's aqualifter pump, and make sure the ato is wired so that both float switches are in the sump,. Set one to turn on if it gets too low,a nd the other is a failsafe if the water gets too hight o shut off the pump.

The aqualifter is around 10 dollars, and can be run dry without damaging it. It also won't dump a ton of water in at once, but rather a gentle airline tubing stream.



I would recommend the reef fanatic ATO set with the switches as I described, with the aqualifter as i have that exact setup and it has worked flawlessly for about 2 years now.

If done right, the homemade autotopoff.com works well, but you have to be decent with DIY stuff. It is really quite simple really, but there are a lot of diffeent levels of DIY in reefing. Heck, I built my own 200g reef tank.

 

I have to top off everyday, sometimes twice a day! I run MH and don't have a chiller so I run a fan across the top and it evaporates like crazy. I want an ATO, but I am afraid it will malfunction and kill my tank somehow...just one more thing to go wrong into the equation ya digg? Murphy's Law gets all of us reefers in the end...

 

Get a tunze osmolator a little pricey but worth it IMO

 

Is this the setup you are mentioning?
Reef Fanatic Level Control Kit

 

A properly executed ATO carries with it almost no risk. The convenience far outweighs the chance of a flood. It just has to be set up the right way.

I have an RO/DI unit that I've plumbed to my tank. In the sump, attached to the end is a float valve. This valve keeps the water level in my sump absolutely consistent, so my skimmer is kept in a uniforn depth, my salinity is maintained rock solid 24/7, and I don't have to ever carry water to my tank. After doing that for many years, I don't miss it at all. Before my RO/DI is a solenoid valve. It's connected to a timer that allows it to run twice a day, 12 hours apart, for 30 minutes each time. It's a fail safe valve--which means that if it goes to pot, no water flows.

In this fashion, if my float valve was to fail, my RO/DI is limited to introduce less than 4 gallons of water to the system in any 24 hour period. My tank evaporates about 2.5 G of water daily.

So--if I have a power outage, the ATO doesn't work at all. If my float valve fails when I'm away from home for week--not to worry. If the ATO is functional or not, there's almost no possibility of a flood. I say almost because anything is possible. If the float valve fails in the open position, and the solenoid valve fails in the open position, then my tank will flood the house in about 3 hours, but very slowly. As far as the chances that both will fail simultaneously, I have a better chance of winning the lottery 2 weeks in a row.

 

Browntrout, you're correct. The ATO float valves plug into the wall and then you plug a pump into the ATO. As Horkn mentioned, I bought the double float valve to prevent over-filling AutoTopoff.com I went for it for the simple reason it was an inexpensive option.

I do like the idea Horkn mentioned about the aqualifter being able to run dry. I don't ever nor intend to leave the tank long enough to where I have to worry about the fill bucket running empty though, but that is a nice fail safe.

As far as the pump I'm using, I've a maxijet 1200 hooked up to it. You will need to put a hole in the line to prevent siphoning. If/when you get to this point send me a pm and I'll tell you how I figured out where/how to put an air hole in the line...took some trial and error...

Fujin, I too use a fan! Those da.. chillers are too freakin' expensive