ATO, WC and doser in one

[DonW]

Here is my newest gizmo for my new diy zeroedge. Maybe I'll get a new camera for christmas so I can take some pictures.
The key to making this work is the timers and the standpipe in the sump. The stand pipe sets the sump water level and goes to the sewer.

All the timers sync on power up and use intervals rather than a time clock. The wate change part is easy. I just mix up 5g of SW and turn on the switch. Whenever the ato is not running its adding new water to the sump until the bucket is empty. The sump just overflows out the stand pipe to the sewer.

The diagram makes it look like a mess but its really compact just three extra canisters on my rodi system and a 5 gallon bucket. The timers make the aqualifters very precise dosers. Currently they are set to only dose a 2 1/2ml ca and 1 drop of alk since the tank is still empty.

The ato uses time instead of the opticals that I was going to use. This just made the install even cleaner. No wires and only one tube does it all. Currently the ato only needs to run for 8 seconds every 20 minutes since there are no lights evap is still very low. I'm really suprised how accurate a ato based ato is. I dont think I'll ever go back to float switches in the sump.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

How do you figure on your evaporation rate? Mine seems to change throughout the day as room temps may swing ten degrees, also humidity levels change drastically from day to day so that seems to affect it also.

 

[DonW]

How do you figure on your evaporation rate? Mine seems to change throughout the day as room temps may swing ten degrees, also humidity levels change drastically from day to day so that seems to affect it also.

My room temp doesnt swing all that much. Now the office tank is another story it swings from around 70 all the way down to freezing since I shut the heat off at night and leave the door to the shop open. The timed ato is usually off by about pint every two weeks but I just make up for that when I do a water change. I was really supprised how well timing works and since it tops off every 20 minutes there is no real flux in water level. I'm sure I'll have to make an adjustment in the summer but not a big deal, still beats cleaning float switches and having the additional wiring.
I just save the timer files on my pc so making a slight change is a 2 minute task.

Don

 

[Scooterman]

Oh now that would really work well in my situation, as long as I could adjust for the timing amount. It sure beats the level switch system, way less to fail, dammit I want one

 

[DonW]

Oh now that would really work well in my situation, as long as I could adjust for the timing amount. It sure beats the level switch system, way less to fail, dammit I want one

With the holiday you should get your timers on sat or mon. Open up the box and youll see what your working with. Ive got some 2" heat shrink to go over the timers so they dont need to go in a box they can just go right into the cord of a ato pump.

Don