water topoff

[mytank90]

i am getting tired of haveing reset my skimmer and haveing salinity move around and looking to get a topoff system going .thinking i will try the tunze one .i have enough room for roughly a 10 gallon tank if custum build or i could buy a 5.5 gallon one from self .would bigger one be better or does size realy matter for topoff ?also do you need run a small wave maker in one to keep water moveing?right now i loss about 3 to 4 gallons a week to evaporation

[whatcaneyedo]

Some people have problems with the Tunze Osmolator pumps from time to time but I've been using one for a few years and never had an issue with it. They're a great system in my opinion. There are also plenty of threads on this site about ATO systems so do a search and decide for yourself if a Tunze is right for you or if you want to save some money and do something simpler.

The larger your freshwater container the less often you'll have to top it off... thats the only difference I can think of.

There is no reason to have a circulation pump in your freshwater container.

[mike31154]

Gravity feed with a mechanical float valve is the simplest, if you have the room to hide the container, or if having it visible above the sump is not a problem. As far as the size of the top off container, the only caution I would add is, if there's any kind of shut off valve failure, you run the risk of dumping too much fresh water into your system too quickly. Since you only lose 3-4 gal per week, I'd say a 5 gal container would be a good starting point.

[jostafew]

I'm running a hyrbid ATO system using the JBJ controller, a 12vDC power supply and the pump from the Tunze osmolator (all innexpensive). Works awesome. Bought the JBJ controller used and has been running for 6 months without any problems (I know some people have complained about reliability problems with JBJ ATO).

I have a comment on the post above; mechanical & gravity fed is the simplest, but eventually all systems fail and I'd be worried about failure (flooding) in a gravity fed system. Atleast in an electricly pumped system it's most likely method of failure is to not work at all....

As for the FW resevoir size, it's simply a matter of how often you want to be refilling it. Larger the better as you won't have to fill it as often. Sounds like you know how much water you're losing, so you can decide how often you want to fill the resevoir. My one comment there would be to have better than a week's water in there so that you can go on vacation without having to worry about water top up.

If I understand correctly you're considering using a wavemaker in the FW resevoir? I really wouldn't see the point there... There's next to nothing in the RO/DI water to go stagnant, and oxigination's hardly a concern as there should be nothing living in there anyway.

[lastlight]

And if you go the Tunze route please make sure your topoff line is not submerged. After it's done it's first dose you could potentially back-siphon a lot of water into your reservoir!

[BlueTang<3]

Make sure that the hose is higher that the bucket it comes out of. I made that mistake got a good deal on a 20X20x40 inch tank but had the top off to the sump could not break syphon.

[lastlight]

Oh yeah forgot to add that as well. Lol yeah that makes a nice mess too!