Dosing pump head used for ATO

[Anthony357]

Im moving my dosing pump over to my 20gallon reef tank and was thinking of using the 4th pump (currently not used) as my ATO for this tank. I dose hourly the calc/alk/etc so its small amount of liquid being run but its constantly being run throughout the day. I was thinking of using the unused pump to use as my ATO instead of buying an actual ATO pump.

My question first is, does anybody know roughly how much evaporation i can expect to see over the course of 24 hours? I have a somewhat high powered light (hydra 26hd), and open top which i have read those are things that attribute to higher evaporation rate. But roughly maybe 1/4 gallon per day? 1/2 gallon? My goal would be to get this number then have the ATO (4th dosing pump head) run maybe a couple times a day to replenish any evaporation that occurs within a given day. Just was wondering if anybody else does this, and if so what kind of numbers do you see for your evaporation. Im probably just going to start it over the weekend while i can monitor it for more than a few hours to get a visual idea of how much water goes down and how much i should manually 'dose' back into the tank via the pump.

 

[radecatur]

I guess im confused on your question.
the 20g is up and running right? so you should have an idea of your evaporation rate now.
If not, start measuring how much you put in on a daily basis. take a 4 day average and use that.
The amount evaporated is going to be different for every tank based on surface area, heat, relative humidity inside the home, etc, etc.

3785ml in a gallon calculate from there.

Just keep in mind that doing it this way will not lessen your need to check salinity to prevent swings. But it will keep the swing peaks to a minimum.

While an ato is awesome, it's not without its adjustments too. Every time i do a water change, i have to change the height of my float switch. I can never seem to get the exact amount back in that i took out.

 

[mcgyvr]

Evaporation rates change with ambient humidity,etc.... You cannot reliably use a doser for an ATO unless you have a way to trigger the doser via contact closure (float switch) as needed..

Time to change plans..

 

[Anthony357]

it is up and running, but i dont necessarily add ro water daily...i was just wondering if it was possible/people do it, to just setup a dosing pump to keep water level 'roughly the same' constantly...so lets just for numbers sake say if over a couple weeks time frame i conclude that i lose 200mL per day due to evaporation...i couldnt set my dosing pump to add maybe 200+/- or so mL per day back into the tank? i know long term you would rather have an ato to help monitor the levels of both the ro water container and one for the tank itself, but if i already had an extra dosing pump head that is not in use...could this be a viable option? maybe until i wind up getting another actual ATO pump?

 

[radecatur]

Is it better than doing it by hand daily, yes.
Will it help stabilize salinity swings, yes.
Is it perfect and eliminate the need for intervention, no.
As long as that is understood, if i didn't have an ato, id do it.

 

[Anthony357]

yea i agree with what youre saying. Longterm, of course id want the ATO because its better, more reliable...its what is what built for! lol

but in the interim, i dont see why this wouldnt atleast help out until i get one. Making manual adding of ro water a thing of the past....atleast make it less frequent lol

 

[mcgyvr]

Just be aware that you will need to check the levels every few days if not more as evaporation rates do change.. 1 rain storm and the humidity could go up and evap goes down..

 

[Anthony357]

yeah thats the only thing that somewhat worries me... with an ATO you have 2 sensors acting as backups so you dont overflow or run dry. Sensors are definitely the main thing needed for this to stop anything bad from happening, but for now atleast, i feel the dosing pump would only help and not hurt, until i get an ATO

 

[mcgyvr]

It will hurt if you aren't aware that evaporation rates change and never check/adjust as needed.. But I think I've beaten that into your head now

 

[Anthony357]

LOL, i mean im never far away, or away long, from the tank anyways, and i look at it many times a day when im home as it sits right in my living room. Its really just at the point where im using 3 of the 4 pumps to dose anyways, why not utilize the 4th one...atleast for the time being lol. Plus with the Kamouer X4 pump i have now, i can manual dose as much as i want whenever i want, just send it on my phone. So if i see it get low, whip out the phone and send 50 or 100 or however many mL's as a manual dose to raise the water level lol. I was just thinking from a 'adding water consistently' standpoint that it would keep water params as constant as possible by just adding small amounts of RO water often

 

[ksicard]

your dosing pump will be put under a lot of wear and tear from using it as a ATO. They are not designed for this use and will certainly shorten its life span. If your okay with that then go for it. ATO's are relatively inexpensive where you can get DIY kits for $35

 

[Anthony357]

Yes, very true