I was wondering how easy/cheap a auto topoff would be. I have been adding about a half gallon to my 29g every day or other day. The problem is that i dont have a sump/refuge and the tank is in my room so i cant use gravity to move the water to the tank. I could probally fit a 3g container or a little bigger underneath the the tank in the stand. I dont havea RO/DI so i have to run to the grocery store to buy it right now anyways. thanks for the help
auto top off help
- Thread starter zlwags85
- Start date
HartfordWhalers
New member
Im pretty sure you take a Bottle, make sure its higher then the tank. Take a tube and put it in the top of the bottle. use silicon to make it airtight, htne run another ube in the bottom of the bottle and mae that one air tight. Put the other side of the ubes in the tank. make suer that one is at the level where you want your water to stay! then just fill it and the air shuld push the water into the tub going into the tank. Atleast this is what my friend told me. Im making one tomorrow with him, so ill let you no what im sdoing by then
~andrew
~andrew
bassnman11
New member
Get yourself a aqualifter pump, a timer and a sparkletts bottle and some plastic airline. Put the inlet from the aqualifter in the bottle of r/o water and another piece from the outlet into the tank. Turn on the aqulifter and see how long it takes to bring your tank to the desired water level. Ste the timer for that time period and plug the aqualifter to it.
jameschho
New member
This is how I built my DIY ATO, I have three of these that I built and I think they work really well.
Parts:
What I had laying around:
Airline tubing: $2 (LFS / Hardware Store)
Aquarium Silicone: $3 (LFS)
Epoxy Putty: $5 (Hardware Store)
What I purchased:
Rigid water dispensing jug: $2 (kmart)
Hagen Elite 801: $5-$10 (LFS)
Rigid airline tubing: $1 (LFS)
Floatswitch (splurge): $39 (autotopoff.com)
Floatswitch (economy): $18 (aquahub.com)
The economy floatswitch includes the following parts from aquahub.com:
i-float Float Switch (FLT001) $6.49
12 Volt DPDT Relay (RLY002) $6.99
Mold-a-Holder 9ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ (MAH001) $3.95
The economy floatswitch also requires a old dc adaptor of some kind ~12V DC ($0) and a old extension cord to hack up ($0). It takes a little more work but it's mad cheap for a floatswitch controlled system. The shipping to my zip code was under $3 for the parts above. If you have some electrical knowledge this should be a easy hack. I won't go into detail here but basically you wire the hot from the extension cord through the relay and pull it with the wall wart switched via the floatswitch. I used a setup like this until I purchased a floatswitch from autotopoff.com.
Start with the rigid water dispensing container I got mine at KMart it was labeled as a "martha stewart everyday 2 gallon beverage dispenser" Find it close to the tupperware and plastic pitchers ect. Make sure you get the rigid wall kind, it has one large cap for filling a one small removable spout w/ a o-ring seal. You can use any kind of rigid wall air tight container, the concepts are the same.
This is what I did:
Remove the large cap and the spout.
Remove the internal foam liner from the large cap and dispose.
Coat the threads of the large cap and the inside rim of the cap with silicone.
Screw the cap back on and set aside to cure, you will never open this cap again.
Saw off the spigot portion of the small cap so now you have a hole in the middle of the cap, the threaded collar is now loose, don't lose it.
Cut two sections rigid tubing, one about 3 inches long and one long enough extend from the bottom of the jug to about a inch above the small cap.
I placed the tubes on opposite sides of the hole in the small cap, adjusting them so the short tube was just barely clearing the inside flange of the cap and the long tube was touching the bottom of the container.
Stuff mixed epoxy putty in between the tubes to "keep em' separated" and in place height wise, allow to harden.
Coat the inside of the small cap with silicone to get a air tight seal and to prevent contamination; allow to cure.
Take the remaining rigid tubing, grip one end with pliers and gently heat over a gas stove or candle. Apply some pressure while doing this and slowly bend it as the plastic begins to soften. Gently form a hook to go over the lip of your tank, this may take a few tries to get right. Be sure to test fit the hook on your tank.
Cut the hook off the remaining tubing, leave a straight section (about 3 inches) to connect up the airline tubing.
Allow all the silicone to cure overnight. If you are building your own float switch/relay setup you can do that now.
Once all the silicone has cured slip the threaded collar over two stubs coming out of the short cap.
Connect a length of airline tubing from the air pump to the short tube on the container.
Connect a length of airline tubing from the long tube on the container to the straight end of your hook.
Fill the container w/ your top off water and secure the small cap with connected tubing to the container using the threaded collar.
At this point if you plug in the air pump it should push air into the container and as pressure builds it will force water out of the long tube and out through your hook.
If this works then install your float switch and plug the air pump into it. Adjust the float switch so that the current water level is just above the trigger point of the switch.
Place the hook over the lip of the tank and the setup will now maintain the current water level.
The total cost is about $30 if you diy your float switch / relay.
Here are some pics of my setup:
Spout before being sawed off:
Parts:
What I had laying around:
Airline tubing: $2 (LFS / Hardware Store)
Aquarium Silicone: $3 (LFS)
Epoxy Putty: $5 (Hardware Store)
What I purchased:
Rigid water dispensing jug: $2 (kmart)
Hagen Elite 801: $5-$10 (LFS)
Rigid airline tubing: $1 (LFS)
Floatswitch (splurge): $39 (autotopoff.com)
Floatswitch (economy): $18 (aquahub.com)
The economy floatswitch includes the following parts from aquahub.com:
i-float Float Switch (FLT001) $6.49
12 Volt DPDT Relay (RLY002) $6.99
Mold-a-Holder 9ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ (MAH001) $3.95
The economy floatswitch also requires a old dc adaptor of some kind ~12V DC ($0) and a old extension cord to hack up ($0). It takes a little more work but it's mad cheap for a floatswitch controlled system. The shipping to my zip code was under $3 for the parts above. If you have some electrical knowledge this should be a easy hack. I won't go into detail here but basically you wire the hot from the extension cord through the relay and pull it with the wall wart switched via the floatswitch. I used a setup like this until I purchased a floatswitch from autotopoff.com.
Start with the rigid water dispensing container I got mine at KMart it was labeled as a "martha stewart everyday 2 gallon beverage dispenser" Find it close to the tupperware and plastic pitchers ect. Make sure you get the rigid wall kind, it has one large cap for filling a one small removable spout w/ a o-ring seal. You can use any kind of rigid wall air tight container, the concepts are the same.
This is what I did:
Remove the large cap and the spout.
Remove the internal foam liner from the large cap and dispose.
Coat the threads of the large cap and the inside rim of the cap with silicone.
Screw the cap back on and set aside to cure, you will never open this cap again.
Saw off the spigot portion of the small cap so now you have a hole in the middle of the cap, the threaded collar is now loose, don't lose it.
Cut two sections rigid tubing, one about 3 inches long and one long enough extend from the bottom of the jug to about a inch above the small cap.
I placed the tubes on opposite sides of the hole in the small cap, adjusting them so the short tube was just barely clearing the inside flange of the cap and the long tube was touching the bottom of the container.
Stuff mixed epoxy putty in between the tubes to "keep em' separated" and in place height wise, allow to harden.
Coat the inside of the small cap with silicone to get a air tight seal and to prevent contamination; allow to cure.
Take the remaining rigid tubing, grip one end with pliers and gently heat over a gas stove or candle. Apply some pressure while doing this and slowly bend it as the plastic begins to soften. Gently form a hook to go over the lip of your tank, this may take a few tries to get right. Be sure to test fit the hook on your tank.
Cut the hook off the remaining tubing, leave a straight section (about 3 inches) to connect up the airline tubing.
Allow all the silicone to cure overnight. If you are building your own float switch/relay setup you can do that now.
Once all the silicone has cured slip the threaded collar over two stubs coming out of the short cap.
Connect a length of airline tubing from the air pump to the short tube on the container.
Connect a length of airline tubing from the long tube on the container to the straight end of your hook.
Fill the container w/ your top off water and secure the small cap with connected tubing to the container using the threaded collar.
At this point if you plug in the air pump it should push air into the container and as pressure builds it will force water out of the long tube and out through your hook.
If this works then install your float switch and plug the air pump into it. Adjust the float switch so that the current water level is just above the trigger point of the switch.
Place the hook over the lip of the tank and the setup will now maintain the current water level.
The total cost is about $30 if you diy your float switch / relay.
Here are some pics of my setup:
Spout before being sawed off:
You can normaly find these at Lowes/Home Depot -
http://www.intermatic.com/?action=prod&pid=203
HTH
David
jameschho
New member
The float switch in the pic is in a sump and the one in my nanocube is in the back behind the false wall so they are both hidden. The one from autotopoff.com that sits in the sump has a very long holder, it extends about 10" below the rim.
autotopoff.com has some pics of their "tank mount" model:
http://www.autotopoff.com/products/ST1/index.htm
autotopoff.com has some pics of their "tank mount" model:
http://www.autotopoff.com/products/ST1/index.htm
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