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cyano

auto top off up and running

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3 Comments
by
cyano
, 07-30-2011 at 11:41 AM (2420 Views)
It has been a while since I have had the time to make any changes or upgrades to my tank let alone post anything on here but this morning I finally got around to getting my diy auto top off up and running to get this one mounted I got a left over piece of pvc from my closed loop setup and used a bastard file and my dremel to cut a notch on both sides of the pipe so it would have a snug fit over the acrylic that makes up the sump. using heat shrink and but clamps as well as wire nuts i not only extended the wires out farther away from the sump but kept them water tight (there is also a ziplock bag and alot of electrical tape around the wire nuts) the tubing fits right into the pvc that is mounting the float switch so there is no splashing and no siphon. finally to ensure the inlet tubing doesn't float i took a small piece of pvc and wrapped both the pvc and the tubing in teflon tape and finally tied off the tape to ensure that it doesn't come apart any time soon.

the beauty of this and what I am most proud of is how that pvc is notched and mounted because if need be I can just attach a coupling to it and raises it up if I ever wanted to have an even higher freshwater reservoir. this was a very simple and easy setup requiring no specialty skills and only about 2 hours of my time using my own imagination, I know this can be done much faster with proper tools and a clear mind.

I would like to thank Melev for his input and website
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‎ Electrical , ‎ Plumbing , ‎ DIY projects , ‎ Equipment

Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    Oh, I see what you did. So the riser pipe fits down over the sump baffle to hold your float switch as well as to direct the top off water into the sump, still acting as a siphon break or at the very least to keep the tubing from flopping out, right?

    The other end that is in the green bucket is taped together (as an anchor to weigh it down). If you have a drill you can make a hole through the PVC pipe to either insert the tubing or you can tie the tubing to the pipe with zip tie.

    I just wanted to point out what isn't so obvious is that he's using the AquaLifter pump with this float switch. This is important because it uses low wattage. If you used a bigger pump like a Mag pump, the switch would fry due to too much load.
  2. snorkeler's Avatar
    Very cool DIY ATO rig. Simple and functional. The only thing I'd suggest you add is another switch in parallel to stop the flow, just in case your primary one locks up. I'm a little paranoid about having single points of failure in critical elements like ATO (that can flood your room).

    Outside of that, super congrats, very very nice and simple setup.
  3. cyano's Avatar
    yes melev you are right, it serves multiple functions and can could very easily attach more pvc to the top of that or even some hose to extent higher then the water reservoir and break siphon if i even decided to install a much larger holding tank that is.

    snorkeler I already need to do that apparently some time in the night it either stuck or the switch itself is faulty i have yet to get around to figuring it out but all my reserved water was added to the tank.....just in case something like this happened i made sure there was only enough in reserve to go over the float to show me it happened but not enough to over flow the sump so needless to say I will be modifying it again soon, any info or suggestions will be well met