Top-Off Water

[Aztlan]

Hi guys, do you guys heat up your top-off water before you add it to your tank? I usually just add it from my ro/di storage bottle.

I check the temp of my tank after I add and no change in temp.
I top-off every night.

[Biggen]

I drip in my top off water so it really doesn't need to be heated in my case.

I would think that if you are not adding multiple gallons of top off water, heating it would be unnecessary especially if adding it to the sump where it will get more time to mix before getting into the main tank.

[Aztlan]

Cool, thanks. How do you drip it in? From your RO Unit?

[Biggen]

Cool, thanks. How do you drip it in? From your RO Unit?

I wish. Unfortunately, my tank is no where near a water line. I have to fill up a bucket once every other day with water and hang it above my sump and drip it in with an air hose.

[Brad]

I push my fresh water in using a powerhead connected to an irrigation dripper. The effect is the same, but I don't need to have my fresh water located ABOVE the tank.

[SquishyFish]

You can make a simple top off system if you have a fuge. If not, you would have to go w/ the irrigation dripper.

At this point I am still just pouring my top off into the tank. I'm pouring in 5 gallons into the sump that is on a 175. I make sure its at least at room temp if not just above. I dont have a spare heater, so what I do is put the 5gal jug in the tub in HOT water. It brings the temp up pretty quickly and its ready to go.

[pdwire]

Brad.. can you post a pic of what that looks like??

[Brad]

OK...I haven't got down a system to resize my photos to the sites specs, but I'll try...

Shoot! I'm adding photo attachments, but I don't think it is working out.

[Brad]

Oh, hey the photos worked...but the explanations didn't.

Top photo shows the small FW tank in front of the sump. The FW tank contains a RIO180 pump connected to clear tubing.

The lower photo shows the end of the clear tubing hung over the sump. The end is plugged and you can see the irrigation dripper. When the pump is turned on, I get about 500ml per hour. I control the system with a digital timer that turns the pump on 6 x per day for 42 minutes each time. Using the timer, I can adjust the amount of water top off per day by the minute.

I am having a new FW holding tank custom build to hold more water. I want to be able to leave for at least 1 week without refilling the FW tank. I will also put a floating lid on the FW tank so that it stops evaporating so much!

[Brad]

Ok, so I was standing on my head when I wrote the photo explanations!

[pdwire]

Thanks for the pics and the explanation. That gives me some ideas.