RODI top off questions

C

chadward

New member
I just ordered a Specrapure RODI unit and am going to have a line run within the wall to underneath my tank in order to Auto top off my sump. Is there a certain size and type of valve I should use at the wall underneath my sump. Currently I have a 6 gallon container underneath and will temporarily just add water to that periodically through the week until I figure out the best way to set the Auto top off and directly fill my sump without worry.

I also have a JBL ATO unit that pulls the water from the 6G container, not sure if I can salvage this or need to go a different route. From what I've researched I should still use a container, but maybe a smaller one (1 liter or 1 gallon) to top off, then have RODI water pulled from the small container into the sump as needed.

Does anyone have any suggestions? or even recommend a certain ATO setup?

I have a 80G reef tank with a 20 gallon sump below taking up 2/3 of my cabinet space. Can take pictures if it will help.

Thanks in advance,
Chad
 
I wouldn't have the spectrapure feed your sump directly. Too dangerous, imo. Scenario #2 is the most common method. Manually fill your ato res and use the jbj. You should be good for a week in between refills.
 
+1

install it in the garage or under the sink, make a few gallons a time and test the water before it goes in your tank.

if something goes wrong with your ato you wont have a freshwater tank when you wake up.
 
Or, you could just use Spectrapure's auto-topoff system. No resevoir needed. I love mine and it has been dead on reliable for nearly 1.5 years.
 
+ 1 , the spect auto is nice...

I have a love/hate for my JBJ auto. But the one constant is that it works perfectly.

The only thing I don't like( but love), and I am sure it has saved my bacon many times, is that if it runs to long it has a safety shut off and turns aqua lifter off.

I had my RO plumbed in at one time with a float...... Needless to say the first time it failed I ripped it out. Luckily for me I was sitting next to my system when water started to come out of my stand..
 
I finally added an ATO myself. I had a custom reservoir made to sit beside my DT. I didn't want to plumb the RODI directly into the sump for obvious reasons. I use an avast marine pressure switch running through my apex breakout box to control a BRS parasitic ATO pump. Don't know how I went without it for so long. Easily one of the top 3 things I have added to the system. JP
 
tatuaje08 said:
What do you hate about it?
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I have tried many ways and dig the JBJ the best, what bugs me is if my evap rate( when my fans kick on) is higher than the time it takes to replace the water, I have to reset the JBJ or reset my float switch., it may also be my float switch sticking. No way of programming the shutoff.
 
SKAREEF said:
Don't get me wrong, I have tried many ways and dig the JBJ the best, what bugs me is if my evap rate( when my fans kick on) is higher than the time it takes to replace the water, I have to reset the JBJ or reset my float switch., it may also be my float switch sticking. No way of programming the shutoff.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem, gets annoying. I'm going to try a larger pump and see how that works out
 
Thanks for the responses guys! I tried to respond last night and my phone died mid sentence. I'm definitely going to maintain the 6g bucket temporarily and just manually fill as needed until I get the float valve situation figured out. My goal is to use a small 1gallon or smaller reservoir to top-off sitting next to my sump that way if it malfunctions it will just spill all over my cabinet and floor, not into the sump. But obviously we don't want that to happen either. I like Jporters Avast float valve, but have also heard really good things about the laser top-off valves. not sure if it would be overkill though.

I've never had a single problem with the JBJ in the 2+ years I've had it. Thing works great. I wouldn't mind continuing to use it, but I still need another top-off float valve to eventually top-off my top-off (1g reservoir)

Is there a certain valve I should use at the wall below my tank? Or do I need to figure out what float valve I am going to use to know the tube size? It may be something I just need to replace down the line.
 
RO units work best when run for long periods of time.
On start up the water is higher in TDS.
After a few minutes they decrease.
One of the reasons I removed the sump from the system and started using a large container for RO water.
My liter meter takes care of the rest.
 
The tunze system is awesome but expensive. If you haven't had a problem with the jbj, then I would stick with it. I have 3 and they all work flawlessly. Just make sure the float valves stay clean and can slide up and down easily. One big mistake people make is misplacing the hose and they end up creating a vaccum which keeps syphoning the water after the pump turns off.
 
Thought I'd share an update.

Scott with EZ Plumbing came out yesterday afternoon and ran a waterline from my garage to my reef tank. He was a huge help. He Even had a brilliant idea to use my water line that runs from under my sink to the fridge as a drain for the RO unit. Scott has even recently gotten into the reef hobby himself. Feel free to PM me if anyone would like his phone number. He was a huge help, very resonable, polite, well manered and has run his company EZ plumbing for the last 12 years (I believe).

Anyways, I bought a refurbished Spectrapure 5 stage RODI unit where the RO and DI filters are seperated so I could use the RO for water at our garage fridge and kitchen fridge (directly on the other side of a shared wall). The RODI unit and tank are sitting on my garage fridge. I have a line with a split after the DI filters with one line running up into my attic and over about 20ft of vaulted ceiling and down behind my tank stand. The other line runs about 8ft long within the garage add water to my buckets for mixing salt.

1/4" poly tubing was used with a small shutoff valve under my cabinet with a 8"x8" access panel. Its prolly pretty simple to most, but was a big step for me :)

I've already made 21 gallons of Salt water and overfilled 2 of my 7G containers, so I still have to add some shut off valves to make things a little easier and not wasteful. But I'm pretty excited to not have to buy water at the local reef store anymore.
 

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on another note, it appears I've finally reached the 50 post milestone for this forum. Hooray! Now I can sell stuff. lol
 
The spectrapure float switches can stick open easily. Had this happen with a snail. Also had it happen due to salt creep. So 2 times in just over 2 years. Therfore, I don't recommend they be used to feed a sump directly from the rodi unit. Plus as already mentioned, the unit must run for about 10 minutes before the water is usable.
 
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