My DIY auto Top Off

[Vader]

I bought this float several months ago, but have been trying to figure how to mount it. So last night I was fiddling around with some extra fittings and came up with this....and it works....how cool. I just have to fine tune the float to where I want the water level.

 

 

 

[dbartco]

Is the float switch under pressure? ie, is it hooked directly to your ro? I know some do it, but I would recommend NOT doing that. I use something like that on my FOWLR, just gavity feeding it from a 8 gallon container where I can't have accidents.

[Vader]

Is the float switch under pressure? ie, is it hooked directly to your ro? I know some do it, but I would recommend NOT doing that. I use something like that on my FOWLR, just gavity feeding it from a 8 gallon container where I can't have accidents.

 

Hey Doug,

 

It is under pressure, 45 psi when the valve is closed. I've had one accident already from over flowing and don't need another. (The wife will string me up by my b***s if it happens again) Can you further explain why? In the mean time I will keep a close eye on it.

 

Thanks for the warning.

[ctenophore]

If the float fails for some reason, or your bracket gets bumped, the R/O will just keep filling the tank. Having a finite amount of water in a bucket prevents this type of failure.

[DJBoy98]

You should hook it up to a 10-15g rubbermaid container and gravity feed it. Worst case scenario is that it only dumps that much if the float fails.

[Origami]

Yeah, if for some reason, the float fails, not only will you have a heck of a mess to clean up, but your salinity could come crashing down, wiping out everything. Not a good scene.

 

May I ask why you chose to use this kind of float over, say, a float switch (or redundant float switches) and a pump placed in an external reservoir (of limited volume)?

 

Here's a graphic of an ATO setup that I used until recently. It used three float switches (shown in brown). Two were in the sump (where one of the two was a backup to the other) and one was near the bottom of my 11-gallon top-off reservoir.

 

My kit was from Aquahub (http://www.aquahub.com/store/diygaquarium.html) and I bought it from BRK (they no longer carry it, I think) and it worked well. It was the so-called "Deluxe" kit (http://www.aquahub.com/store/product27.html). The kit cost was something like $50 and was easy enough to assemble, but you had to supply your own pump. In my case, I used an aqualifter as a pump.

 

[dbartco]

I know, not drawn to scale, but remember if you use something like Toms drawing, the resevior should be below the sump level (or output of the tube) to avoid siphoning out the fresh water once the pump starts.

[dbartco]

You should hook it up to a 10-15g rubbermaid container and gravity feed it. Worst case scenario is that it only dumps that much if the float fails.

 

I have found this way to be the easiet of all auto top offs that I have ever had, no outlets, electrical float switches, non-working pumps or worries. Only thing is you can't do with these mechanical float switches is adding kalkwasser with your ato.

[Origami]

I know, not drawn to scale, but remember if you use something like Toms drawing, the resevior should be below the sump level (or output of the tube) to avoid siphoning out the fresh water once the pump starts.

 

Correct - either that or make sure that you have an air-gap (tee) in the line (on the output side of the pump) that's above the highest point of the water in the reservoir. In my case, I used an aqualifter with a tee on the output side. I thought it ideal because it delivers at around 3.5 gallons an hour.

 

Thanks for catching that, Doug.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Origami2547