Top-off suggestion

[ebosshard]

Getting a ton of evaporation from my 220g tank and looking to make life easier.

I am having to add water every 72 hours, sometimes quicker than that. I am also getting in the dangerous habit of putting more water in my sump than I want in doing this (good news is I can an extra day doing this, bad news is if my return pump kicks off my sump wont have enough room to hold the water than will get siphoned back down from my tank).

I have read some others with 200g tanks that add water every day, my travel schedule (and my wife) won't allow that.

Solution appears to be a top-off device of some sort. Who has experience with one and a recommendation?

Thanks!!

 

[Anonymous]

I have an empty instant ocean bucket in my stand that holds make-up water. I have two float switches in my sump that control a receptacle. I have a maxijet pump in the bucket that is plugged into the controlled receptacle. The maxijet adds water to my tank as needed.

The reason for two float switches is that there is an unwritten rule regarding float switches. It is not a matter of IF they fail, but WHEN they fail. Put two float switches in series and clean them as needed. You should never have a serious malfunction if your system is hooked up in that fashion.

Louey

 

[ebosshard]

Thanks for the response. A couple simple questions:

1-your former salt container holds probably 5-7 gallons of water? is there another option for something bigger than that?

2-do you run a heater in that container? I take advantage of my 220g container and add ro/di water without closely watching temperature or ph (comes out of my ro/di in good shape). am i cool just doing that without a thermometer?

2b-do you use this setup to also add calcium/kalwasser?

3-I am assuming any pump will do the job sitting in the bottom of my bucket? (nothing special on the maxijet, right?)

4-where you lose me is on the float switches and the receptacle. I am assuming these float switches work something like the bulb in my toilet. where, what brand of float switches do I buy, and do they come engineered enough to set this up?

Louey, thanks for the help on this.

Anyone else out there please feel free to chime in as well in helping me get released from the bondage of topping off my tank every other day (or returning from trip some day to hearing my pump in my sump growling away with not enough water down there for him to work)

Eric

 

[lefou]

My LFS has a little float valve that works *exactly* like the little bulb in your toilet. No electricity required, and a lot less chance of failure. I'm going to find out the specifics about it so I can post it here.

 

[Anonymous]

I use a float valve and rubbermaid container. I fill the container once a week. I sized it small enough that if it fails that the sump will not overflow. I got the float from USplastics.com and it was less then 6 bux since a few fellows around here pooled an order with me. The rubbermaid was $5 and associated fittings and tubing was $10. I am working on a kalk stirer that I will be adding in the next couple of weeks. I am planning on haveing it run independant of the floatvalve since all it would do is clog it up.

 

[ChrisRD]

This thread might be helpful:

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15258&highlight=topoff

If you do a search you can probably find a lot more too.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

I think the thread that Chris posted will answer all of your question above. If any are left unanswered post them in this thread. Sorry I didn't get a change to reply today, but it was one of those days...

Louey

 

[ChrisRD]

FWIW, I like using a dosing pump for topoff, but like many things in this hobby - there's more than one way to go.