I was woken up at 5:00 a.m. to the sound of a pump out of water (cavitating) so I got up to investigate to find the sump section of my refuge dry on my 220gallon tank aprox 5-7 gallons of water missing ( in the stand & carpet) my calcium reavcor line came out and stowly pumped out the water (return is a slow airline sized return (gallon or so an hour). If I would have had auto top off this would have gone un noticed till most likely 10:00p.m. and there would have been a lot more water to deal with and the salinity in the tank would be lowered. Just some thoughts about auto top off. Mainly auto top off hooked to a water line not a water container.
auto top off thoughts
- Thread starter kyletech
- Start date
That's a good point about the auto top off...
I use a 5 gallon bucket for my ATO and I can generally keep about 3 gallons in it so that it won't siphon back into the bucket. If I was to ever have a problem like that it wouldn't take much more time for me to notice I've got an issue as my pump in the bucket would be cavitating and making a God awful sound as well as my return pump would also.
It's definately something to look over and think about though, especially when adding new pieces of equipment.
I've read far too many horror stories involving those that connect their ATO to their RO/DI directly. It may save you a step but it's not safe at all, especially in your situation where it wasn't even a float switch that failed.
I use a 5 gallon bucket for my ATO and I can generally keep about 3 gallons in it so that it won't siphon back into the bucket. If I was to ever have a problem like that it wouldn't take much more time for me to notice I've got an issue as my pump in the bucket would be cavitating and making a God awful sound as well as my return pump would also.
It's definately something to look over and think about though, especially when adding new pieces of equipment.
I've read far too many horror stories involving those that connect their ATO to their RO/DI directly. It may save you a step but it's not safe at all, especially in your situation where it wasn't even a float switch that failed.
The company from which I bought my top-off kit sells extra switches and relays. Another contingency I've thought of is a low sump level float to shut down the sump return pump and also placing one at the top of the tank to shut the sump pump off to prevent a tank overflow. Lastly, Harbor Freight sells these water leak alarms (runs on batteries) about $8 and install one one the stand floor. That in addition to the cavatation should alert you to problems.
The next step would be to hook these switches to a controller which would send signals to switch the pump off, sound an alarm as well as notify you remotely if away so you can call Twisted to go across the street and save your tanks!
Oh, or better yet your in-house butler-cleaning robot could be sent commands to fix it automatically while diving from Tahiti!!!!
The next step would be to hook these switches to a controller which would send signals to switch the pump off, sound an alarm as well as notify you remotely if away so you can call Twisted to go across the street and save your tanks!
Oh, or better yet your in-house butler-cleaning robot could be sent commands to fix it automatically while diving from Tahiti!!!!
