Lyle's 3 gallon Pico

[lpsouth1978]

Do you top off daily or use a doser/ATO of sorts?

I have a 2.5 gallon tank in the stand for top off. I made a DIY ATO using an aqualifter pump to slowly deliver the RODI water when the float switch gets too low.Here are a couple of pics:

Here you can see the sump/fuge on the left and the ATO tank on the right.

Here is the DIY float setup.

 

[jmsalt1]

I chose to do the black wall overflow for a couple of reasons. The main reason was aesthetics. I think that having the wall gives the tank a much cleaner look. Without knowing that I built it, someone would look at it ind think that it came from the factory like that.

Second, I did not want to have pipes and hoses hanging off the back of the tank. With the custom built stand that this sits on you do not see any plumbing and again, it looks stock. I guess you could say that I am a perfectionist.

As for the plumbing, I used 1/2" bulkheads and things work well. I am pushing the upper limits of the flow the 1/2" drain can handle. I am running my return at about 350 gph, meaning I am turning over the water volume 100 times an hour. I can't imagine that you will be pushing more flow than that so you should be fine with 1/2".

Thanks for the insights on why you designed the way you did. Like you, I tend to be a perfectionist so am looking for the cleanest approach given my own design constraints. Nice thread.

 

[MOB1224]

WOW that is a bad a$$ tank you did some great work on it. You should go for the NTOM Looks great keep up the pics

 

[Drag Racer]

Where did you get the float switchs from . I bought a couple a few years ago and cant remember for the life of me where I ordered them from.