Water Top Off

sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
Ok, so I have some slightly bad news...
I didn't want to unplug the tank... it looks like it's losing about 1" per day (in the sump) from evaporation. It was about 3 or 4 inches from the return pump so I had someone watching the tank add some water. Here's the problem... I just had them add water that ran through a not so great filter (the fridge filter). I only had them add about 5 cups... and it should hold it over until Sunday. Am I looking at my tank going into a catastrophy mode? The purpose of this post is not to have everyone yell at me, or to tell me how bad of an idea that was... but I had no other choice. It's late in the day and they didn't want to run to the store to pick up a gallon of water and don't have the time for the RO/DI to fill up. Comments are welcome... keep them kind.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
OMG...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPARTY...a little tap water or under filtered will not hurt anything....I used purely tap for the first 6 months I had my tank.....you will be fine
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
DANGIT!!! I wanted to scare him first!

No worries, Sparty. 5 cups out of a 150 gallons or so won't make or break a thing.
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
haha, the both of you love to know I freak out for that quick moment. I'm glad to hear that it's ok though! My sister came over to look after my tank (she has kids of her own) and at the end of the phone call she asked me if I wanted to kiss it and wish it a good night. She claims I baby this as though it were my child haha
 
kender

kender

Member
I'm going to hire moewzer to come fishsit for me when I have to go out of town. *nods* Yep yep. Moewzer your have officially been chosen as my tanks Godfish.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
LOL...OK...but you have to return the favor.....I need a VACATION....BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Too bad you are 3 hours away

Quote:
Originally Posted by kender http:///forum/thread/380828/water-top-off#post_3315192
I'm going to hire moewzer to come fishsit for me when I have to go out of town. *nods* Yep yep. Moewzer your have officially been chosen as my tanks Godfish.
 
kender

kender

Member
Bah, I have to drive to Tahlequah to visit the inlaws all the time. 3 hours is nothing to me. Hehehe
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/380828/water-top-off#post_3315103
I think we spend just as much...if not more on this then our kids HAHA

I had three kids and I never spent this much on them...No even when I bought them back to school clothes.
To much tap water will cause hair algae..so don't have too many emergencies. I make water one day ahead of time, I keep two 3g jugs for that purpose. One I use and the other I fill. You have no idea how good it is to be prepared ahead of time.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
and too much wet skimming would mean lots o water in the collection cup.
But what dear joe, are the other reasons for water going down in the sump if not a leak, or evaporatoin, or wet skimming? Is there another reason?
 
robertmathern

robertmathern

Active Member
yep lots of reasons a snail is stuck in your overflow and your tank is about to overflow. Your doing a water change and left the pump on. Thats a couple
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
ummm ok i was just trying to up my post count But now that i have been called on it
let me see if I can come up with another reason…. Ok well lets say you have some sort of mechanical filtration going on in you system. Something like blue and white filter material or some sort of sponges in your overflow box. Now as this material gets clogged it slows the flow back into your sump. Your return pump I am sure is not of the variable speed type. If this is the case the water going back into your tank is a constant GPH. BUT the water returning to your sump is of a lesser GPH then when you originally set up your system soooo as we clog our filters we lower the level of our sump. Make any sense to my fellow hobbyists
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by florida joe http:///forum/thread/380828/water-top-off#post_3316540
soooo as we clog our filters we lower the level of our sump.
IDC about post count, BUT I would like to add......if your overflow tubes, and hoses leading to the sump are dirty, that can also lower the level of the sump
so it is good practice to clean them weekly

(I know.....I had this happen)
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/380828/water-top-off#post_3316542
IDC about post count, BUT I would like to add......if your overflow tubes, and hoses leading to the sump are dirty, that can also lower the level of the sump
so it is good practice to clean them weekly

Lois I try to make it a practice to have my hose cleaned weekly But then you already know that
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
So any of those could be the result of lower water level within the sump. However, in my case, I do not have any mechanical filtration within my tank... nor do I have any type of sponge in my tank. The reason for the water getting so low in the sump is purely because of evaporation. I have a 150g DT, a 20 gallon sump, and a 20 gallon refugium. About 10 of the gallons in the sump is devoted to the skimmer section leaving about 10 gallons for the area where the water will be coming from the sump up the return in back into my DT. Since there is such a small sump under such a large DT it makes it close to impossible to go more than a few days without having to do water top offs. This is a true statement, I've been dealing with this for the last month or so now. When the lights are on water will evaporate, when the lights are off the water will evaporate at a slower rate; however, the water will the be force to the top of the DT causing for condensation AND evaporation from within the DT. I've slowly been finding that it seems water levels drop faster with no lights on, rather than with lights on.
Again, not taking away from any reasons you have stated above. But, in this case, none of those options fall under me.
As a side note, the constant top off has become such a bother for me that I am actually planning to use my brain in this hobby. I'm planning on jerry-rigging something up to possibly add RO/DI water to my tank automatically from another larger bucket/tank so then all I have to do is once every two weeks or so I just need to add some water into the new tank and allow it to do it's job again. We'll see how that goes and how motivated I am when I start on this little project.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
SPARTY....the water still has to get to the sump from the dt...right? How does it get there? The point I was making is make sure the road traveled is CLEAR
 
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