Best way to maintain water levels?

Dumping in a little fresh water every day isn't that big of a deal when I'm home, but leaving town for a couple of days at a time has gotten to be probelmatic.

How does everyone maintain their water levels? Any ideas?

 

I use this.
TUNZE Osmolator Universal 3155 - English

There are lots of auto topoff systems out there though I'm sure you can google them, or search here on 3reef, there are lots of opinions out there. Just make sure you get one with redundancy built in, ATO's are a huge source of water-on-the-floor incidents.

 

Do a search for ATOs Automatic Top Offs

There are several different types out there, each with their own benefits and dangers. Start reading.

 

Search the forum for Auto-Topoff systems. There are many options, from DIY to pre-fabricated. These are basically composed of 3 things - a reservoir of fresh water, a pump, and a float switch. The float switch senses the water level in your sump or tank, and when that level drops below a certain point, it activates your pump which adds fresh water to the system. Once the water level reaches a certain point, the float switch automatically shuts off your pump.

I highly recommend you get one - it's pretty useful in any system.

 

You need to get you a ATO (Automatic Top Off) system.

I have a JBL ATO for a few months and I'm extremely happy with it.
Installation is a breeze and it works as expected.

Good luck!

 

i went the cheaper route.... float valve, 5gal bucket with RO water for top off, and voila you have yourself a top off system.

the tank, dependent on local weather etc, currently is taking about 1 gal per day to top off. so this lasts me ~5days.

im a pretty lazy guy though so the valve in the sump might wind up getting directly piped into the RO/DI unit

 

My ATO is very simple, and fairly safe... I use an aqualifter pump plumbed from a 5 gallon bucket with fresh RO/DI water which drips into my sump... I have a micro ball-valve on the end of the line, which allows me to dial in a 1 gal per day drip rate... I have been able to dial it in pretty good... I have a HP float valve on the 5 gallon bucket that my RO/DI goes to... I can leave this alone for weeks without needing any additional maintenance... I feel it's fairly safe because the drip rate is so slow. I could up the drip rate and put the pump on a timer... this would be even more redundant. I plan on adding a controller soon and will have float switches in the sump and the ATO bucket that will take care of even more redundancy.