Evaporation!

Aquarium Maintenance & Plumbing: Eshopps Auto Top Off Float Valve

Cheap but it works

 

Can that be hooked to an RO/DI unit and constantly supply it?
But then again...not sure if I want that either b/c if there is a failure then there is a flood.

Maybe its best to have that going to a 5 gal bucket or jug and fill that every week.

 

I bought mine from autotopoff.com. The price wasn't too bad and it's real easy and very reliable.

 

having an rodi unit connected directly to your sump may not be the best way to supply top off. a dedicated water container in your sump area hooked to an ATO is probably the best way to go. try to get a bucket that will hold enough water for about 7 days (more if your out of town a lot). lots of ppl have an rodi unit with an auto shutoff connected to their top off bucket but i lack the room and distance to a water source for this so i just fill the bucket up once a weekish and keep 10g of rodi on hand at all times.

 

i have mine hooked up to a 6 gallon jug. i fill it once a week from my ro unit. there are ways to hook up a ato directly to a ro unit, but like you said it could fail which would overflow your sump. im always worried about my tank as is, so i wouldnt want that senario running through my mind. i would rather be safe than sorry

 

Unfortunately, there is only one 100% safe top off, and that is you manually filling it. That being said you can fight failure by redundancy.

I use a Double float switch version from autotopoff.com. This controls a solenoid hooked directly up to my RODI unit. The entire unit is hooked up to a timer. This timer turns the unit on for one hour every 12 hours.

This setup will save you from most problems, except a solenoid failure. A duel solenoid setup would be the only way to fix it.

You can also use a small pump (MJ or aqualifter) hooked up to a small storage container that you fill every couple of days. More hands on, but if you have a "Fail On" then you are only adding a few gallons, not 30. Then again the pump could fail and you burn up your return pump.


Really, it is all about how much you want to spend, how often are you gone for multiple days, and how paranoid you are.

There are just way to many ways to skin this particular chinchilla.

 

What temp to you keep your system at? Lowering the temp will help with evap. but will not solve the problem.

 

In addition to all the redundancy mentioned previously, the safest thing IMO with an auto topoff is just to make sure your RO water reservoir doesn't contain enough to seriously affect your salinity or flood your sump if it all gets dumped in at once. If that means you have to fill it up once or twice a week that's worth it to me.

 

yea.....peace of mind that your tank/sumps will not overflow is worth its weight in gold.

I guess I will just add RO water once a week or when I see it getting low.

I may do a drip deal, but at this point the manual process will be fine for a while.

 

I have an ro in my bathroom hooked up to about 20feet of line I have come out the wall by my tanks. when I need to top off i clamp the 1/8" line in a tank and turn the water on, couple of hour in the evening and I'm done. Though I do have a bad habt of letting it go too far between top off too