new top off idea andcheap metal halide

[biglurr545]

ok so i was at home depot sniffing around for some aquarium ideas and found a few things. a new idea of a top off with a toilet fill valve. its pretty much a float valve and there only 6 bucks so i bought one and im gonna put a bucket of water above it and have it gravity feed. it should work just like it does in the toilet. water evaporates (flush) float goes down. water pushes in through gravity and fills sump with water. should work pretty well ill keep ya postd and get some pics up soon. my other idea came up when i was walking by the flood light section. they sell metal halides there. there was a 100 watt one for pretty cheap, 70 bucks. the 175 and 250 ones were priced about right ranging from 150 - 200. they looked like they would work no problem

 

[nytrillium]

I went through the same thing with the lighting. There are many threads on there about it. But basically all the fixtures are good for are the housing and ballast. the bulbs are junk. completely the wrong spectrum. The ballasts are also magnetic and there could be a noise issue if you have really good hearing and have problems with buzzing noises. Another idea if you were interested is the halogen fixtures. The lenght of a 500 watt bulb (about 5 inches) is the same as the 150 watt MH bulbs. If you wanted you could buy the ballast and wire it to the halogen fixture and us MH bulbs i it.

 

[nytrillium]

*correct myself. The fixtures may not have a very good reflector (ie. not very reflective dimpled aluminium) and the plastic covers(difusers) may cut donw on the output.

 

[crashedin0]

but still 500 watt loseing watt from the plastic and cheap reflector is still something 470 watts i got a 500 watt halogen for 13 bucks
god bless walmart

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by crashedin0
but still 500 watt loseing watt from the plastic and cheap reflector is still something 470 watts i got a 500 watt halogen for 13 bucks
god bless walmart
You got it cheap but the spectrum is all wrong. It will not do any good for the tank except making it bright? Am I wrong?

 

[nytrillium]

Yeah. im not sure what you were using the fixture for. but unless you rigged it for MH the halogen is useless for your tank.

 

[thangbom]

yupper wrong spectrum.. and as for the toilet auto top off.. i seen plenty of pic of it done.. it works.. but have no idea personaly how to rig 1 up or how good it work ( not that im not capable cuzz i am.. but i have no use for 1..)

 

[nytrillium]

OH, and about the topoff, Yeah a toilet valve will work well. It would probably take some modifications and some cutting-to-fit. Another idea is to just invert a soda bottle or a similar narrow necked bottle (an old style glass milk bottle would work well) in your sump if you have one. The water Vacuum inside the bottle will keep the water inside until the water level gets below the opening of the bottle. You could use a piece of PVC pipe to support the bottle if you cant rig it to stand on its own... Picture attached.
The only disadvantage is if you have a large tank with alot of evaporation you will have to refill the bottle every day or so....

 

[clown52]

This is the same technology used in some dog and cat waterbowls.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by hot883
You got it cheap but the spectrum is all wrong. It will not do any good for the tank except making it bright? Am I wrong?
The spectrum is fine, perhaps a bit yellow but not too bad. The problem is efficiency. You're using 500 watts of power to produce a ton of heat and about the same amount of light as a 65 watt PC bulb..

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by NYTrillium
Another idea is to just invert a soda bottle or a similar narrow necked bottle (an old style glass milk bottle would work well) in your sump if you have one.
This will cause salinity to fluctuate because the salinity inside the bottle and in the sump will equalize fairly quickly.
Here's the idea I posted a few years ago. I used this setup for many years without any problems and it is compatible with limewater ---> Bang's Cheap Autotopoff

 

[nytrillium]

AHhhh i did not realize that the water would mix that readily but i guess that the difference in density would cause a "current" to form essentially mixing the freshwater into the tank... at most it would add volume to the tank.

 

[bang guy]

All that your diagram is missing is a barrier with a small hole to slow down the osmosis. A simple bucket with a 1/16th hole drilled in the side would do. A hole large enough to let water through but small enough to prevent it from going through fast.
I kinda like it and I think I'll experiment with it a bit. It won't wotk with limewater I don't think because the hole would get clogged too fast.

 

[jamie814]

Originally Posted by biglurr545
ok so i was at home depot sniffing around for some aquarium ideas and found a few things. a new idea of a top off with a toilet fill valve. its pretty much a float valve and there only 6 bucks so i bought one and im gonna put a bucket of water above it and have it gravity feed. it should work just like it does in the toilet. water evaporates (flush) float goes down. water pushes in through gravity and fills sump with water. should work pretty well ill keep ya postd and get some pics up soon. my other idea came up when i was walking by the flood light section. they sell metal halides there. there was a 100 watt one for pretty cheap, 70 bucks. the 175 and 250 ones were priced about right ranging from 150 - 200. they looked like they would work no problem
Kent Marine makes and sells a float valve for the same thing you just did only its smaller and looks nicer than a tiolet valve I have used one in each of my tanks. It also works with kalk water or lime water without clogging. cost about $15 Only need to fill my 5 gal kalk tank about once a week and drains as water evaporates. I also use one in my mixing tank so I never forget to turn the water off when it's full becaue it takes so long to fill with rodi water. It shuts off itself. I use a 20 gallon water tank plumbed it with a pump heater and airpump, scoop 10 cups of salt in it turn it on and 24 hours later you have perfect salt water so no manual mixing, lifting or dumping, open the drain valve and it drains right into the sump. Turn unit off