my tank has me a prisoner

[troutman11111]

need some help on my top off water. i have a 2 1/2 gal kent aquadoser drip. this goes into my 20 gal refugium under my 75 gal oceanic. evaporation is a little over 1 gal a day, so every 2 days i have to fill it. i have no one to tank sit so i'm stuck home. i need a detailed way to set up a top off system. i have the r.o. unit,and 5, 5gal water jugs. i just got a 13 gal rubber made garbage can to put next to the tank. this will give me 7 days with plenty off water left in the can. i heard of a drip selinoid unit and a float valve. :?

 

[BONESTOCK]

Have someone you trust house/tank sit.....seems easier to me. :|

 

[SquishyFish]

Use the 5 gallon jug and air line tubing. Its a temporary fix while your out, but it will work and its reliable..and simple. Do the same thing you would do when you drip acclimate your fish.

Before you go on vacation, set up your 5 gallon jug w/ water and the tubing running from the jug to a milk jug. Tie a knot in the tubing..this will allow you to regulate how fas the water drips. Get the water running..tie the knot, then put it into the jug. You will have to fiddle w/ it to get it to the right drip rate of 1 gallon a day, but it shouldnt be hard.

When you leave, set up the 5 gallon jug w/ the line running to your sump set to the 1 gallon per day drip rate. You now have 5 days worth of top off that you know isnt going to malfunction and flood your tank.

Just make sure that once you have the drip rate set that you dont mess w/ the knot or you'll have to calibrate it all over again.

HTH

Squishy

 

[troutman11111]

thanks,that gives me 4 days instead of 2. i use the kent aqua dose drip tubing. i pull it out of the 2 1/2 gal container,put the 1 end in main tank straight up, tape it there, the other end in my refugium where the tank water goes in. i use the plastic wheel on the tubing to adjust the drip rate. my back is not doing that great, so i still want to set up this auto top off from my r.o/can?

 

[SquishyFish]

Your dripping water from the main tank into the fuge....on the same tank?

 

[troutman11111]

yes,but the water that dripped to the refugium is going into the new bag of fish,starfish,ext. dumping the same amount of tank water that went into the bag out every 5min, into a bucket then into the sink. 1 drop per sec,to 2 drops per sec. 6hrs on my 2 LG blue linkia that i got 1 week ago at petco 8.79 apeice. they are doing great. replacing the water i threw out with fresh saltwater.

 

[SquishyFish]

Maybe I am just having a blond moment, but you have lost me. Are we still talking about topping off the tank or acclimating fish? And I'm still not clear on how you drip..sounds like something more complicated that what I am used to.

Squishy

 

[troutman11111]

http://www.rl180reef.com/pages/acclimation.htm#

this is how i drip, thanks to steve-s. i just reread my post and no it's not you. what i ment is i would take the tubing from my aquadoser and put it in the 5 gal jug and run it that way. or i could put it in the 13gal can as long as it is higher than the refugium. walt it sounds like i can go away now. I still want to know how to set up an auto top off system, money will not be a problem.

 

[steve-s]

I still want to know how to set up an auto top off system, money will not be a problem.

Shoulda said that in the beginning... LOL

If money is not that much of an issue, I would suggest a Tunze Osmolator. There are three optional stages to it, one also being for calcium additions.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Brad]

automatic water top-off system

I was able to make an automatic fresh water replenishment system by simply putting a small powerhead (Rio50) into a container of fresh water, blocking the tube completely and jamming an irrigation "dripper" into the tube. When the pump runs, it drips out about 300ml per hour. I use a cheap digital timer to turn this pump on and off 9x per day.

I can adjust the amount of top-off water by adjusting the number of minutes that the pump runs per day.

I put a small fresh water tank in place that SHOULD have held enough water for 1 week worth of evaporation....it didn't quite work out because I now realize that my fresh water holding tank is also evaporating!

 

[troutman11111]

hi steve, i checked out the osmolator-osmomat and extentions and i i'm clueless. they all say for filter plants and surface suction? do you use this system? this is the first time i heard of this. i can't get to the home page to get a phone # walt. :?

 

[steve-s]

hi steve, i checked out the osmolator-osmomat and extentions and i i'm clueless. they all say for filter plants and surface suction? do you use this system?

I do not have one but I have seen it at my LFS. They are quite interseting. They can work seperately well enough but work best as a complete sytem. It's basically an auto topoff system that is triggered by infared sensors so no hassles with moving parts or wear and tear. The last attachment is a kalk resovoir.

Cheers
Steve