DIY Budget ATO and Water Change Refill

[Chris]

DISCLAMER: By no means do I recommend you take my advice or recommend you try this DIY project. The following is a general guide and will not specify or endorse any products. Any equipment mentioned with an * is one that you will have to decide what would work best for your needs. Do your research before attempting any DIY project.

Back Story: My aquarium is on the main floor and my water sources, (fresh and saltwater), are in the basement. For years I would haul the water up in 5 gallon containers and pour/spill them for water top offs and water changes. Finally, I decided there has to be an easier way of doing this.

I know there are some expensive equipment solutions to this problem, but I drive a Chevy not a Lamborghini. After doing some research and looking at different affordable methods:

• ATO kit with float switches and a small pump for a reservoir located nearby. Not what I am looking for, don’t have the room for a reservoir nearby and you still need to haul water to fill the reservoir and doesn’t help with water changes.
• DIY gravity fed ATO – Same problems as above.
• DIY pump from source water up to where it’s needed. This is an approach I can work with.

First I needed to lose the 5 gallon containers. I set up 2 larger sized containers* in the basement, one for fresh water and one for saltwater.

Next I needed 2 water pumps* with enough head pressure to get the water up to the main floor where I need it.

Then I plumbed them using small diameter tubing*; this allowed for drilling small holes through the floor next to the base board and running the tubes to the sump.

Now comes the problem of turning the pumps on and off when required. The float switches used in an ATO system seems like a good idea, but would require some extensive wiring to control only one of the pumps for ATO. Thanks to the advancement of modern technology I decided to go with a couple of Smart Plugs*. This allows me to turn on/off each pump with my phone as required, additionally, I can schedule daily top offs of fresh water with the plug’s app for evaporation, requires periodic adjustments. Not perfect, put good enough for me.

This was probably one the most successful, work smarter not harder, labour saving projects I have done to date.

 

[Luke_L]

how has it been running? were you able to match evap rate?
have you incorperated a fail safe?

 

[Chris]

how has it been running? were you able to match evap rate?
have you incorperated a fail safe?

I have been using this DIY system for over a year now and I am totally satisfied with its performance.

It is hard to match the evaporation rate perfectly; the app with the smart plug I am using is limited to on/off times by the minute. I target a little less than the actual true rate. I set it for the same on/off time for every day and I have to make a small manual, (tap the button), top off correction ounce a week.

I have not incorporated any fail safe beyond what is already built into the smart plugs system.

 

[Luigi]

Make sure that the tube / hose/pipe in the sump it's not all the way down the sump, also make sure that you have a Siphon break in case of fail safe....otherwise if outage occurs you risk to siphon back the whole sump

 

[Chris]

Make sure that the tube / hose/pipe in the sump it's not all the way down the sump, also make sure that you have a Siphon break in case of fail safe....otherwise if outage occurs you risk to siphon back the whole sump

You are absolutely correct Luigi, you have to keep the fill end of the hose above the waterline in the sump, or otherwise, it will siphon the water back down to your reservoir.

 

[Andrew D]

I've used something similar for my top-off for years now. I have a 30G tank with RO water beside the display and a small magdrive on a timer which pushes water into the display 3 times a day. I had to make some adjustments at the beginning using not only the timer but also a ball valve on the output side of the pump but it's been working well for some time. A few things I learned along the way...

- as said above, careful with the siphon
- run the top-off into the sump if you can, or if the container is level with the sump like mine then into the overflow itself
- don't skimp on the pump, I started with an maxijet 1200 which worked well for a while but (I think) slowly lost effectiveness which affected my top-off volume and therefore my salinity
- to preserve your pump, keep the number of times it kicks on to a minimum, better to run for fewer but longer periods at reduced flow.
- keep the size of your top-off large enough so you don't have to fill it every second day but small enough that if something goes wrong with the pump (or you run it off-timer and forget to turn it off (duh)) you don't flood your tank)
- monitor the water level of your top-off container regularly to make sure the pump is still working as it should, either by eye or with marker or painter's tape
- add a T with a ball valve on the output side of the plumbing to your tank for an easy way of getting RO water from your top-off container when needed for some other reason