ATO/Water Change ?

[stiltman]

Hi all...

I wanted to check with all you Nano people with ATOs to see how you do your water changes and acclimation of new livestock.

I have a BC 14 and find it somewhat ackward to do my water changes with my ATO. Since I have a good amount of live rock and sand my SG can change rapidly due to daily evaporation, removing water for acclimation, and water changes.

When I do a water change I turn of the power to the pump and ATO. This results in the water filling up the back chambers and lowering water level in the main tank. This makes it somewhat difficult to measure exactly how much water I remove. I have tried to measure how much I remove by the waste container I use, but this doesn't work too well.

So what I end up doing is removing the old water, then I remove the tube from my ATO reservoir. Turn the power back on to the tank. That way I can hear the ATO sucking up air. I slowly refill the tank untill the ATO clicks off.

I'm not sure if there is a better way to do it, but I just wanted to check with others.

I haven't purchased any new livestock since I have adopted this method. So I imagine I could do pretty much the same method to replace the water I use to acclimate.

Any thoughts? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Jonah

 

[felixfish]

Couldn't you add an inline shut off value to your ATO line?

 

[stiltman]

Couldn't you add an inline shut off value to your ATO line?

Would the purpose of this be to prevent me unplugging the ATO while I do the water change?

 

[felixfish]

yes i would think so. I think I am confused what fills up your chambers when you unplug. Is it the excess water in the ATO line, or just the overflow from the tank when unplugged?

 

[stiltman]

Overflow from tank.

 

[gatorlover]

can't you just use a mag float or piece of tape to make the water level in the main display when everything is off , then remove water/fill back up to the same mark?