Any one know a good DIY for a auto water top off

[grahamsn]

If anyone has a link or have done this them selves please let me know. I am adding water one to two times per day to my pump section of my sump.
Thanks

 

[DonW]

There are many ways to do it. Are you comfortable wiring relays?

Don

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Don has some amazing systems and VERY reasonable!

 

[DonW]

Don has some amazing systems and VERY reasonable!

I dont really sell them anymore but am willing to help with a build. There are lots of ways to make an ato, just depend on the persons abilities. I'm sure I have some spare parts laying around also.

Don

 

[jake65]

Some good links in the DIY Forum....
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3864

 

[DonW]

We really need to get a diy moderator and get that section updated into this century.

Don

 

[jake65]

I'll do it, whats the pay like...lol

 

[grahamsn]

I'll send a pm to you Don

 

[DonW]

Here is the pic I said I would post. This is the partially completed ato. The aqualifter pump is modified for low voltage switching, notice the jack on the rear. The electronics are hidden in the aqualifter and are very small and solid state. The floats will be added next.

 

[Myteemouse]

I made one with the relay from Radio shack.
The expensive part is the float switches..

 

[grahamsn]

Cool, nice pic. I have been doing some research on here and on the web. It seems everyone kind of has their own way of making one. I saw one that was just a air siphon type. That way seems like a flood waiting to happen. Another I read about was on a timer set up to turn on a little pump to pump some water into the sump.

What is the best method you guys have done? Don you seem to have this down to a science can't wait to see more pictures.

 

[DonW]

Ato's are easy you just have to know the tricks. There are a lot of common failure points you just need a work around or proper circut design. Two of the biggest is leaking float switches or relays stuck on because the snubber was left out by the builder.

Don

 

[grahamsn]

Sounds like there is a lot of pros and cons to these. Maybe I should not be lazy and put water in my tank twice a day I am really thinking about this idea for vacation time.

 

[scytale]

Personally, I have a sump-less tank, so ATOs w/ float switches don't work very well in my setup; I've used the timer+small pump method on my 80 gallon tank with great success for over a year now.
Once you figure out your avg. evaporation rate, and then time your pump to match it--it's pretty stable.

I actually use the same type of pump Don has in is pic--an (unmodified) Aqualifter.

I use a rubbermaid "wrapping paper" container like this: http://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-22...d_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1240977879&sr=8-1
For my top-off reservoir, and it works really well!

-It's slim, so it fits next to a tank stand easily
-holds about 12 gallons
-is partially clear, so you can easily see where the water level is
-and the Aqualifter pump fits right inside the compartment in flip-lid.

I hook the pump up to a small timer (set to run for about 45 minutes/day in my case.)

And that's it, pretty easy! I only have to refill the "bucket" about once/week.

Note: putting the Aqualifter inside the lid really helped with my setup...
Because I have a vertical lift of almost 4' from bottom-of-reservoir to top-of-tank-lip. (Which was just way too much head pressure for such a small pump!)
Putting the pump inside the lid cuts that vertical lift and head pressure down by alot--so the output went from "slow drip" to "moderate trickle" in my case. Plus Aqualifters are designed to be much better at suction (in) than pressure (out)--that's why they call them Aqua-LIFTers, not Aqua-Pushers :lol

I plumbed the whole thing with 1/4" (ice-maker style) tubing + a short section of rigid airline tubing inside the bucket. The rigid tubing works best on the intake-side because it won't collapse under the force of the suction.

All-in-all it only cost me about $30:
$20 for the Aqualifter (because nobody had them on sale that week )
$3 worth of tubing and some 1/4" fittings
and
$7 for the Rubbermaid storage bin (post-Xmas clearance sale )

Or...
you add a 1/4" ball-valve on the end of it, and use a bucket of kalkwasser--and you've got yourself a cheap kalk doser instead!

Cool, nice pic. I have been doing some research on here and on the web. It seems everyone kind of has their own way of making one. I saw one that was just a air siphon type. That way seems like a flood waiting to happen. Another I read about was on a timer set up to turn on a little pump to pump some water into the sump.

What is the best method you guys have done? Don you seem to have this down to a science can't wait to see more pictures.

 

[grahamsn]

Thanks for the information scytale. Sounds like the timer way might be the easiest once you get your evaporate down.

 

[DonW]

Cool, nice pic. I have been doing some research on here and on the web. It seems everyone kind of has their own way of making one. I saw one that was just a air siphon type. That way seems like a flood waiting to happen. Another I read about was on a timer set up to turn on a little pump to pump some water into the sump.

What is the best method you guys have done? Don you seem to have this down to a science can't wait to see more pictures.

Add float switch wiring and there it is one neat, clean and compact ato. Dual floats, solid state and low voltage only 5vdc.

 

[rlugo29]

DonW, do you have a link or schematics on how/where to wire float switch wiring?

 

[DonW]

The ato in the pic is one I volunteered to make for Graham while I was doing one for a friend. There is no schematic for that one. It uses a 2a ssr 3-32 vdc. All relays connect the same way.

Don

 

[grahamsn]

Very cool thanks for the pictures. I'll have to do some more research on this.

 

[rlugo29]

Well that doesn't help me, but my dad's an electrician so maybe that makes sence to him