lanman January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 Well, not everywhere... but about 5-10 gallons is in a place it shouldn't be this morning. After having some troubles with my auto-topoff for the last few weeks on my 58; I re-did the whole thing on Friday evening. Seemed to be working quite well after that. Unfortunately - the anti-siphon hose would occasionally spit out a few drops of water. I fixed that by putting the end of it over the edge of the tank, so it would spit it into the tank. Fast forward to last night - apparently the heat from the lights softened the tube, so that it bent down and INTO the water. Next time the ATO ran, it started a siphon. Which filled up my topoff water bucket... and then over the sides, and down onto the floor. Got up this morning to only about 4" of water left in my sump. The rest of the contents of the sump are on the floor. Considering the topoff container was almost full (full Friday night), I figure it only absorbed about 2 gallons; and there are about 10 gallons missing from the sump. Time to pull out the shop vac! bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaironman January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 Bob, Can you put in a one way valve, so the water can go forward and not siphon back into the bucket. KLee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 I feel bad for you Bob. Call me later as I might have an idea for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zotzer January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 (edited) Oh Bob....ack!!! Thankfully the loss was from your sump and not the frag tank!! Note to self: add big floor drain to dream fish-room plans. BTW though, thanks for sharing. It's one of those things that people might not think about, and we can learn from mishaps like this!!! Tracy Edited January 13, 2008 by zotzer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman January 13, 2008 Author Share January 13, 2008 I feel bad for you Bob. Call me later as I might have an idea for you. No problem... I've seen that basement with 4" of water in it. This is just a drop in the bucket, comparatively. Carpet over on that side of the room needed a good cleaning anyhow! Now if you have auto-topoff ideas... what a pain in the arse they are. bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 Bob - I just used a 1/2" check valve from Lowes and reduced it down to a JG fitting. that way I don't have to put an anti-syphon hose on it. You can see a pic of it here......it's that pretty thing on top of my ATO reservoir: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveller7 January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 I would use an extension of pvp pipe to raise the return tube well above the water line. This allows a permanent air gap and avoids the inevitable failure of the check valve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 Why would the ATO be higher than the tank itself? Not sure why syphon would occur? Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lletellier January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 I would use an extension of pvp pipe to raise the return tube well above the water line. This allows a permanent air gap and avoids the inevitable failure of the check valve. I did basically the same thing with tubing and it works like a charm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman January 13, 2008 Author Share January 13, 2008 Why would the ATO be higher than the tank itself? Not sure why syphon would occur? Dave Weeeellll..... if the kalk reactor is lower than the water supply, you can siphon into the kalk reactor. If the water supply is lower than the kalk reactor, you can siphon into the water supply (but only a little kalk water). With the siphon break in there (of whatever type), neither of those happens. Unless you're stupid enough to let the hose on the siphon break fall into the tank, or onto the floor. I will use the high-tech fix for my problem. Black duct tape. Steve - who made your ATO freshwater container for you? Did you have to special order it? Is there a backlog of orders? .. .. .. that has to be the ugliest check-valve I ever did see. But gotta hand it to you for figuring out how to step up and step down those hoses! I have enough trouble getting 1/2" down to 1/4". bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhoch January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 Hmmm... I've always setup ATO with the water add line ABOVE the top water line where water is being added to. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zotzer January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 I will use the high-tech fix for my problem. Black duct tape. My kind of solution! T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 (edited) Steve - who made your ATO freshwater container for you? Did you have to special order it? Is there a backlog of orders? .. .. .. that has to be the ugliest check-valve I ever did see. But gotta hand it to you for figuring out how to step up and step down those hoses! I have enough trouble getting 1/2" down to 1/4". bob Bob - The trick here is the purple top......that's a special order. Oh sure, I could have gone with the current fad and gotten an orange top, but the purple top really sets you apart from the "wanna be" crowd! I admit, it's ugly as sin......but all of the check valves I've found for the 1/4" tubing require the little plastic hose clamps to hold the tubing on.......I can't tell you how many times those failed. I'll stick with the ugliness. Edited January 13, 2008 by steveoutlaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite January 13, 2008 Share January 13, 2008 I keep thinking about setting up an ATO but I am waiting for advice that won't lead to floods! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaironman January 14, 2008 Share January 14, 2008 Bob, You need to get a one way flow valve and put in between your 1/4" tube before the RO water goes into the Kalkwasser. I had the same thing happenned to me and that's how I stopped it from messing up my RO water. I am sure Johnny has to carry one of those valves. It's a tiny small valve. Nothing huge like Steveoutlaw. KLee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 14, 2008 Share January 14, 2008 Get a T and on one part of the T put an airline check valve so that air can flow into the line, but nothing can flow out of it. This will break your siphon. That's what I do on my kalk stirrer to prevent it from siphoning all of the water into the tank right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman January 14, 2008 Author Share January 14, 2008 Get a T and on one part of the T put an airline check valve so that air can flow into the line, but nothing can flow out of it. This will break your siphon. That's what I do on my kalk stirrer to prevent it from siphoning all of the water into the tank right away. Yeah... I wouldn't need the long hose (serves the same purpose - the pump can't pump water all the way to where the top of the hose is, but air can flow down just fine). While we are on the subject. Are there any tiny pumps that can handle a couple of feet of head? I had an aqua-lifter on there for quite a while, and it worked 'ok' - - but your average small powerhead (Rio 50, etc) just doesn't like to move water more than a foot above itself. So I end up with a much larger pump than I should need, just to get the water to flow out of the container, up through a bit of tubing, and back down into the kalk stirrer. It has to move water fast enough to do the topping off in the 3 minutes that the ATO will run before it decides it isn't working, and shuts itself down. [Which is not a bad thing - if the water WAS just getting poured out onto the floor, I'd rather it only do it for 3 minutes and stop.] I use an MJ-1200 to move water around in the fish room (water changes, etc.), and it is very good at moving water, even with 3-4 feet of rise. But talk about overkill when you only want to move a couple quarts of water every 3-4 hours. Pump suggestions?? bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller January 14, 2008 Share January 14, 2008 i USED AND AQUACLEAR 802 FOR ABOUT 11 YEARS IN A KALK VAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 15, 2008 Share January 15, 2008 My CA reactor uses a maxi-jet dialed way back, so I wouldn't say that it's overkill. That said, however, you can improve your aqualifter's abilities by plumbing your top off container at the bottom so that the water pressure is also pushing it through the aqualifter. This has really made my system run a whole lot smoother and the water is able to trickle through at a perfect rate for what I want to accomplish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman January 15, 2008 Author Share January 15, 2008 My CA reactor uses a maxi-jet dialed way back, so I wouldn't say that it's overkill. That said, however, you can improve your aqualifter's abilities by plumbing your top off container at the bottom so that the water pressure is also pushing it through the aqualifter. This has really made my system run a whole lot smoother and the water is able to trickle through at a perfect rate for what I want to accomplish. Now there's an idea! Thanks! bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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