paul b September 11, 2013 Share September 11, 2013 I just finished building and installing this device. I have always had trouble with my ATO because it is gravity fed and every week or so, it stops because it is such a slow flow that a few bubbles back up through the float valve and stop the flow. This should keep any bubbles from backing up the tube as there will be a tube coming from it 9where the valve is) that will go up higher than my resevour that is hanging on the ceiling in another room. That tube will exhaust any air in the system. The last time I went on vacation the fill stopped and the water level went down 7" killing all the corals that were above that water line.Don't pay any attention to the brass line next to it as that goes to the boiler thermometer guage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattiejay6 September 11, 2013 Share September 11, 2013 Man paulB you are very creative. I love reading your posts. I put alot of your information to good use. Plan on building some of your contraptions too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 12, 2013 Author Share September 12, 2013 You can't have to many contraptions. Chiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnevo September 12, 2013 Share September 12, 2013 Stop teasing me with that chiller darn u Paul!!! I want one of those so bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 12, 2013 Author Share September 12, 2013 Buy somc acrylic, bend it with a torch, and glue it together. Walaa, you will have a chiller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattiejay6 September 12, 2013 Share September 12, 2013 So cool... I need to order some acrylic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnevo September 12, 2013 Share September 12, 2013 Buy somc acrylic, bend it with a torch, and glue it together. Walaa, you will have a chiller. Yeah well one day i may attempt it..as of now i dont own a torch and never glued acrylic. Not that i don't think i could handle the project, just out of my element. But i love this chiller..it's like a work of art that i would hang on the wall next to my tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 12, 2013 Author Share September 12, 2013 That chiller used to be a wet dry filter many years ago. I sliced it in half and re designed it to be a chiller. In time, it may become a flat screen TV or maybe a smart phone, or even a toaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbowdeep88 September 13, 2013 Share September 13, 2013 Is that "chiller" just utilizing evaporative cooling? No cooling element right? Cool idea... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 13, 2013 Share September 13, 2013 Is that "chiller" just utilizing evaporative cooling? No cooling element right? Cool idea... Exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 13, 2013 Author Share September 13, 2013 What he said. I bought a new camera, (actually my wife got it for me for our 40th anniversary) and the first thing I tested it on was a video of the tank. I didn't think it was going to work so the glass is dirty, it is shaky and there are things on the shelf, but it was a test. The tank looks round because that's what this underwater camera does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 13, 2013 Share September 13, 2013 Happy anniversary, Paul. Give our best to your lovely wife, Dale. Have fun with the camera! Sent from my phone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 14, 2013 Author Share September 14, 2013 Thanks Tom, and say hello to your wife also. She had a better tank than you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 21, 2013 Author Share September 21, 2013 (edited) After 2 weeks my air bubble eliminator is working better than my wildest dreams. Well, not better than those, but pretty good. My ATO has not stopped yet as it would have before I built this thing and there is about 1/2" of air in the device that would have backed up into the fill tube and stopped the flow by now. I can open the valve and vent the air but I want to connect a tube to the valve and vent it above the level of my water fill container that is near the ceiling in another room. That way, it will continousely vent any air. I love this stuff. The water comes from this blue bucket in my workshop and is gravity fed to the tank about 25' away. It flows through that black PVC tube near the bottom part of the bucket. The bucket automatically fills from the RO unit and home made DI which is the acrylic tube to the left of the bucket. There is a DIY mercury float switch in the bucket that turns off the electric valve that fills the system. So far in the 15 or so years this has been operating, I never had a problem with this part of the system. (The red bucket is the whole house vacuum that I installed many years ago) Edited September 21, 2013 by paul b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 21, 2013 Author Share September 21, 2013 Maybe you can see it better here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bendeng September 28, 2013 Share September 28, 2013 You can't have to many contraptions. Chiller I apologize if this is a dumb question, but can you explain to me how this works? I would love to do this, just want to understand it better. Water just runs down the baffles and evaporates as it goes, therefore, "chilling" the water? How? (Maybe its just too early in the AM for me to process lol) Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnevo September 28, 2013 Share September 28, 2013 Fan blows air through..pump runs water down the baffles creating a lot of surface area encouraging a lot of evaporation. Water gets to bottom and runs back to tank/sump. Very simple design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bendeng September 28, 2013 Share September 28, 2013 Fan blows air through..pump runs water down the baffles creating a lot of surface area encouraging a lot of evaporation. Water gets to bottom and runs back to tank/sump. Very simple design. Ahh I see now Looks like I'm gonna need to draw up some plans and try this out! Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 28, 2013 Author Share September 28, 2013 That explanation is correct. There are no dumb questions unless they are being asked by a flounder. That chiller works great but I no longer use it on my reef as the LEDs don't produce any heat that would heat the water like the old MH lights used to do. I sometimes use that chiller on my blackworm tank. It would chill my reef tank maybe 3 degrees because it is to small for that tank which is 100 gallons. If I needed to chill my reef I would have to make it much larger. But that design works very well and practically runs for free. There is one of those evaporative chillers on every tall centrally air conditioned buildings in every city. Evaporating water removes heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyCallMeMr.703 September 29, 2013 Share September 29, 2013 (edited) ... Loving the Setup you got goin on there.. Nice WorkBench Edited September 29, 2013 by TheyCallMeMr.703 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b September 29, 2013 Author Share September 29, 2013 Glad you like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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