ATO Setups for large tanks

[Uncle Luke]

Hi All,

I am in the process of setting up a 250 reef tank and would like some feedback on the best way to setup an ATO. Ideally, I want to have a 55G drum and use that since I am anticipating anywhere from 2-4 gallons of evap daily. I have an autotopoff.com float switch and am thinking of putting a powerhead at the bottom of the barrell. Would this work? Would I get back siphon and would some of you post how you have yours set up? Thanks!

 

[S14Swap240sx]

I wouldn't over think this to much, just tunze or spectrapure ato would do the trick. no need to keep the water in your ato barrel spinning. If you have a salt water mixing barrel, id oversize your ato barrel by a few more gallons so you can completely fill your mixing, while still having ato water.

I know for a fact the spectrapure will not back siphon. mine actually draws water from a higher point then where it dispenses water.

if you wanted to can do a float switch in your ato barrel with a solenoid to automatically make more ro/di water when needed. http://autotopoff.com/Solenoids/

 

[Uncle Luke]

Sorry I wasn't clear enough... The power head is there to take the ro water from the barrel to the sump. It is not there for mixing saltwater

 

[slief]

The powerhead will most likely siphon water back to the sump. If you are going that route, I would suggest using a normally closed solenoid in conjunction with your powerhead.

That said, are you using a controller? I use my Apex and a pair of redundant float switches to manage my ATO. I use a dosing pump for the water transfer that draws directly from my 100 gallon RODI holding tank. The dosing pump is nice because if anything does go wrong, the change in salinity would be very slow. Even if the pump ran for 24 hours, the change in my salinity would not be catastrophic. I also monitor my salinity with my Apex and that allows me to shut the ATO and saltwater exchange down should things go array as well as receive emails and texts if that occurs. Additionally, I have high and low level float switches that will trigger alarms, emails etc as well as shutting things down should the water levels get out of whack.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

For my ato I use a aqualifter pump to pump water into sump,me personally I don't use a large container for topoff for the reason if both switchs were to stick you won't dump to much ro,or flood your sump.

 

[degibson84]

this is what i did for my 220

autotopoff.com double switch unit and then bought the cheapest pump on their site. took a 5 gallon bucket set it next to the sump. Then to break a siphon i just took a needle and poked a hole in the tubing. keep the tube out of the sump water as well. this only cost me about $70

 

[Uncle Luke]

this is what i did for my 220

autotopoff.com double switch unit and then bought the cheapest pump on their site. took a 5 gallon bucket set it next to the sump. Then to break a siphon i just took a needle and poked a hole in the tubing. keep the tube out of the sump water as well. this only cost me about $70

That's a great idea but unfortunelty I would have to refill the bucket almost daily.

 

[mm949]

i'm anti-gadget....i just drip from vessel, no float