fish, and top off question

[playa0069u]

ok well I know how to make one, but how are the gravity auto top offs. Does anyone use them? I dont have the cash, no matter how cheap, to make an electric one. ALSO how are bicolor blennies, clown gobies, and neon gobies when it comes to polyp nipping. I have a softy tank.

 

[GlobaLPimP]

I use a gravity auto top-off that I made myself. I used a Kent Marine float valve and a Oceanic salt container for the top-off storage. It's not big but I can now go 2 or 3 days before I have to manually add top-off water. Works great for me...I just need to bet a bigger container that will fit under my stand so I can store more water. You know where I live and you're more than welcome to check it out if you want...

 

[CMcNeil]

i use gravity as well.i made one that fits behind my tank between the closed loop plumbing.it holds about 9.5 gallons and lasts about 5-6 days.i use a simple float switch to shut it off.

 

[Gimplar]

i've thought about setting up a gravity auto top off, but the thing is, you have to set it up so it's absolutely fool proof. Because you're messing with a device that can really screw your salinity up, you risk a tank crash. I honestly dont even use a auto top off, i just have a 7 gal bucket with a maxijet+hosing and it never has failed me yet . And in my opinion if im goign to get one, imight as well just save up and get the icecap autotop off or something of quality and reassurance. but hey thats just me

Ive never had a bicolor or clown goby so i wont comment on them, but ive had a few neons and they were 100% reefsafe and they actually stayed out and cleaned my fish more then my cleaner shrimp. He was awesome but they get lost easily

Hope this helped

-Nelson

 

[CMcNeil]

i dont think that even if my top off failed and dumped all 9.5 gallons into my system it would lower the salinity enough to hurt my tank.im not sure about this,but 9.5g of fresh into 120g of salt.how much would it change?i know there is a formula to figure it out.now you got me wondering what would be the actual change to my system.

 

[ReefArtist]

Hi playa0069u - I use a gravity top off made by drilling a hole in a 10g tank and putting in a bulkhead and a hose with a control knob on the end - works great.

I have two green clown gobies - they haven't niped any of my corals. They hide in them but not hurt them at all, I love these little guys.

 

[Gimplar]

checkinhawk is most likely right, but another thing that could happen is over fill your sump and spill water all over the floor, really depends on how big your sump is and how big you make your topoff water container.

 

[playa0069u]

wow cool guys thanks. So by gravity auto top off I meant like a bottle with a hose going into the tank at the water level and a siphon. The kind without an electric valve. I am only going to use like a 1 or two gallon container so it wont mess with my salinity too much if it gets messed up. I dont have a problem with adding water too it, I just want my salinity to be more constant.

 

[CMcNeil]

i did post in the chem forum.i gotta know the truth lol.
playa my valve isnt electric.it is a $8 float valve used to shut off ro/di systems.

 

[Gimplar]

hrrm, thats a good idea playa, but are the affects of small salinty fluctuations that significant? i have no idea, and if it is, maybe ill join you in the project, lol, im just going to use an auto flush toilet for a autotop system :lol:

 

[ReefArtist]

Hey Playa - mine either - it's not electric it's a 99 cent little valve and don't let people scare you about the top off. Mine just slowly drips in - one little drop at a time .

 

[playa0069u]

so how does it work? this is what I was talking about. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/topoff/siphon/

 

[playa0069u]

so how does it work? this is what I was talking about. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/topoff/siphon/ It's just my salinity fluctuates ALOT cause I'm bad... lol

 

[ReefArtist]

That's about it except I used a 10g tank - fill it up once a week and let it drip in.

 

[Gimplar]

hrrm i never thought of a drip mechanism, did that take you long to figure out how fast it needed to drip reef artist? or did you do the approximate volume of water loss over X amount of time divided by whatever a drop of water measures out to?

 

[mflamb]

I like that drip idea. I'm thinking 3 to 5 gallons per day on my 390. I have overflow protection on my sump. It's a 1 inch pipe that goes straight through the wall to the outside and into a drain. See the small pvc fitting at the top of the center section.

 

[ReefArtist]

What I did was take the average that I had to manually fill each day. I took the lowest number (No worry about it overflowing) and timed my drips and filled a cup. I then computed that into gallons and there ya go. Nerd alert .

 

[CMcNeil]

ok randy chimed in on the chemistry aspect of the water topoff.they say that if i dump my whole topoff sump into my system it would drop the salt from 1.025 to 1.023,not that dramatic of a change so i think im safe even if the switch failed.

 

[mflamb]

Where would we be without engineers!!!

 

[CMcNeil]

completely clueless and lost lol.