Auto Top Off

[al&burke]

I am running a 65 gallon reef tank with a coralife 125 PS, FX5 canister filter and a HOB refugium being fed from the PS. What would be the best auto top off to buy. Right now I have a 3/8 line from my house RO filter and everyday I top off the tank, not with alot of RO water so the temperature does not drop drasticaly. Is there some type of top off system I could buy that is very reliable.
Thanks for now!

 

[acrylic51]

It's not really reliabe to plumb a top off line directly to your tank with an unlimited supply of water. I only say this, because nothing is failproof, so if a sensor or the float would fail you could/ would possibly flood the system with to much freshwater dropping your salinity. There are ways to do what your wanting though.

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry should have explained aliitle better but 1 way to do what you want would utilize sorta the same setup concept but different components for delievery. With both ways I'll explain you will need a separate container to hold your makeup(evaporation water). The first method would be to look on ---- and you can find rather inexpensive electrical float switches and you could wire the float switch to your pump/powerhead you would use to deliever the water to your tank. The float switch located inside the tank would signal the pump on and off. I have read recently about these float switches shorting out so reliability could be an issue. 2 you could look at the tunze product line and the have setup using optical which is very reliable and comes with a nice little pump, 2 sensors high/low and tubing. If you do alittle searching after seeing it on tunzes site you see them on ---- for about $150.00. HTH

 

[al&burke]

Thank you for the reply, I like the sounds of the optical/tunze will have to look into that.

 

[flower]

I use the JBJ ATO with a 10g tank of RO water under the stand. One sensor runs to the tank, the other runs to the RO holding tank so it will shut off if the water gets too low and won't burn out the pump. It works great, and if I am going to be away I can use a big plastic tub for RO water instead of the 10g and have it set up for a week worry free.
$99.99 for the JBJ..The pump is buy your own separately along with tubing.

 

[al&burke]

Thanks Flower

 

[ibanez]

I have the same as flower but I bought it for 89 brand new. The first one went haywire within 2 weeks and wouldn't activate the switch and jbj sent me a replacement that has been flawless for quit a while. I bought a plastic storage container from wallyworld, the tall narrow one with the little blue lid and I mounted a toms aqualifter pump on top of that and it works great.

 

[al&burke]

I wonder if I could se up a big resevoir in the basement, like a big garbage can and pump it upstairs, approx 10-12 ft. What size pump and do you guys heat the make up water. Thanks

 

[al&burke]

Also, Just thinking could one of the sensors be placed in the reservoir for a low level indicator and this would keep the pump off, just incase?

 

[ifirefight]

Auto top off . com Ive had mine for 2 years,never a problem. Very simple design, 2 sensors in case on malfunctions...almost bullet proof, IMO this is one of the best ones, They didnt try to reinvent the wheel,the just made a simple and effective product.

 

[ibanez]

Yes, jbj has it set up to either use one sensor in the tank or sump, and the other to turn off your pump if the reservoir gets to low. But the sensor wont go 12 feet away. IMO, I think it is best to have the reservoir close and add it slowly to avoid stirring up a bunch of stuff or changing the temp drastically. Plus it would take a pretty good sized pump to have 12 foot head.
Or you can just use one sensor.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by Al&Burke
http:///forum/post/3264941
I wonder if I could se up a big resevoir in the basement, like a big garbage can and pump it upstairs, approx 10-12 ft. What size pump and do you guys heat the make up water. Thanks

The reason you do NOT want to do this…
I work night shift…I had a skimmer overflow, the ATO refilled the tank when it got low, my SG went from 1.025 to 1.021, because I have only a 10g RO tank the ATO has a sensor that stops refilling when the tank gets low so it won’t burn out the pump. If I had a bigger refill chamber my tank would have been all freshwater by the time I got home instead of just low SG.
Any leak will have the same effect. So a small holding tank is the better choice. I refill it every 2 day to 3 days depending on how much evaporation takes place in the DT. When I feed the fish in the morning I just take a peek under the tank to check it.

 

[al&burke]

That is a good point Flower, That happened to me as well with my skimmer. I guess the low level is a good way to save your make up pump. Thank you very much, you guys are always so helpful.