Filling her up

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by Midknight

Ok, I think this is how this happens...
Water evaporates cooling the tank, but without air movement the moist air remains above the tank.
Air can hold only so much water so when it becomes saturated evaporation slows down but then the cooling also slows.
With a fan moving the saturated air away it allows for more water to evaporate keeping the tank cooler but also increasing the amount of water that is allowed into the air.
Make sense?

Dan

I agree. Makes sense to me. The key is the movement of the humid air out of the way, IMO.

Cheers,

[danny zubot]

I guess that makes sense Dan, thanks.

My tank evaporates a couple of gallons a day as well, about 8-9 gallons per week. So I adjusted the baffels in my sump so that I don't have to fill it up as often.

[reeferaddict]

I have 200g of volume and use 14 gallons a week of top off water rigged through a 7 gallon camping water jug, (nice volume & fits behind the tank), hooked to a Kalkreactor and on to a float valve in the sump... no salinity issues, and I control the evaporation rate by turning my fans up or down through a dimmer switch... I use a chiller as well but control over the evaporation rate for me is as much for Calcium maintenance as it is for cooling...

[SerLunchbox]

Well after recalibrating my refractometer, i did the tests again in the morning and then at night (when the water was gone)

In the morning it was reading a perfect 1.025 ... in the evening it was at the most 1.0258 ... jsut under 1.026.

So i don't think that is a BAD swing .... i could be wrong and i am sure that i will be told if i am wrong

Thanks all

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by SerLunchbox

Well after recalibrating my refractometer, i did the tests again in the morning and then at night (when the water was gone)

In the morning it was reading a perfect 1.025 ... in the evening it was at the most 1.0258 ... jsut under 1.026.

So i don't think that is a BAD swing .... i could be wrong and i am sure that i will be told if i am wrong

Thanks all

No...I would say that is not a bad swing at all (0.0008). Like I said earlier, IME I got swings of 0.001-0.002 with 10% evap.
Maybe you meant to say in your previous post the other day that your swings were 0.001-0.0015 and not 0.01-0.015? Just a thought.

Cheers,

[midgetwaiter]

I lose about a g a day since I put up stronger fuge lighting and top up with tap water. I have an issue of sorts where my ph, alk and Ca levels a all really high but I don't get really worried as I am getting some coraline growth and the corals are all pretty happy. I'm not sure if that is from the top off water or not.

I looked at a few different ATO setups but those float switches everybody uses is less expensive ATOs seem to me like they could be trouble. I ordered a TOM Aqualifter which is a small air driver water pump that can move about 3.5 gph. I'm going to use it to pump make up water from a bucket and set it on a timer to control how much water it pumps. Should work pretty well I think and it only costs about $20.

[reeferaddict]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

I lose about a g a day since I put up stronger fuge lighting and top up with tap water. I have an issue of sorts where my ph, alk and Ca levels a all really high but I don't get really worried as I am getting some coraline growth and the corals are all pretty happy. I'm not sure if that is from the top off water or not.

I looked at a few different ATO setups but those float switches everybody uses is less expensive ATOs seem to me like they could be trouble. I ordered a TOM Aqualifter which is a small air driver water pump that can move about 3.5 gph. I'm going to use it to pump make up water from a bucket and set it on a timer to control how much water it pumps. Should work pretty well I think and it only costs about $20.

2 years now without so much as a peep of trouble out of my cheapo ATO... (touch wood)... since I put a Kalkreactor instead of mixing batches of kalk I haven't had to descale the float valve... I've also kept my topoff limited to 7 gallons for when something DOES go wrong... I'm counting on it and 7 gallons won't make much difference in over 200 g of volume... It's all how they're thought out & designed. I had thought of a dosing system, read every where and decided to go this route & couldn't be more satisfied with my decision.