Auto top off

[andyjd]

I'm going to be out of the country Dec 24th to Jan.6th and need a way to keep the water levels on my tank topped up.

Unfortunatly neither is near the RO filter so i will need a couple of brute cans and some float switches etc.

can anyone reccomend a ready made solution I can buy?

Ta

Andy

 

[8BALL_99]

Well this is a tough choice! I've got two different ones. I've got a dual float switch setup from www.autotopoff.com. I've got 3 of them and they work pretty well. I had one go bad on me a few months back. But it was a couple years old and had got soaking wet once or twice.. When it went bad it just stopped kicking on so didn't really cause a problem..

I've also got 2 of the JBJ top off setups JBJ TopOff Its also a dual float switch setup. This one is a little nicer has led indacator lights. Plus has a added bounus it wont run more then around 10 mins then it shuts down.. So if you have a leak or if something just goes wrong it will shut off after 10 mins.. I like this feature and it got used last night lol when I left my topoff water line out of the tank in the equipment room :rolleye1: But The only small issue with this is if it shuts off it never restarts.. You have to unplug and plug it back in to reset it.. With you this might not be a problem just use a decent size pump so the pump has plenty of time to fill the sump up.. My problem with it is I topoff my tanks with kalk so I have it set to a trickle. So sometimes my sump doesn't get refilled before the time limit is up.. So then my topoff quits working till I reset it.. To me I rather have that happen then have a flood.. lol hope all that makes since

IMO out of these two I like the JBJ the best. It is 20 bucks more though.. But heck when I got my 2 they were 100.00 a pop so 79.00 each isn't a bad price.. HTH

Will

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Is this the same autotopoff.com guy where I got my float switch?! He added a number of things to his product list. He used to sell a float switch for something like $5 a piece. Of course, it was nothing but a float switch. It's really nice that he sells the controller set-up's now

The float switch I bought from him is still working well in general. Just like 8Ball's one of my float switches sticks ocassionally. I caught my auto top-off device (with a 4 year old switch) one time trying to empty all the water out of the top-off container :eek2: Another time it was stuck at a high position and the display tank water level was way down. After four years of use it was kind of gunky - some coralline and junk on the float and the snail guard (some holes on it were half way plugged up.) It was high time I did some maintenance on it.

Tomoko

 

[andyjd]

Thanks for that guys, the JBJ one looks good!

I have two questions:
#1 Pumps, i have a couple of maxijets around should i be ok to use those?

#2 water flow once the pump stops, wont it continue to siphon ?

Andy

 

[8BALL_99]

Maxijet powerhead would work great for a pump for either controller

Yes you would have a siphon if the water line in your topoff tank is taller then your sump.. When I used a topoff tank I had a small hole in the topoff line above the water line but still in the container.. When the contoller kicks on some of the water will spray out of the hole but most of it will still go to the sump.

Will

 

[KwajRocks]

Andy,

Have a nice vacation.

 

[andyjd]

Ordered a pair of the JBJ units

 

[andyjd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8756987#post8756987 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KwajRocks
Andy,

Have a nice vacation.

thanks i'll try, although the weak dollar is not helping so far

 

[andyjd]

JBJ out of stock, so I have ordered a pair of Reef Fanatic Level Controller w/2 Float Switches

 

[andyjd]

Just my luck, am trying to get them working and one seems DOA

 

[andyjd]

Bought a AquaHUB DIY kit from Aquarium Fantasies. seems to be working ok and should be ok until i return.