# Water top off large volumes. Advice? Examples of your set ups?



## 12273 (Nov 3, 2012)

Hello folks! 

On my quest of knowledge about this hobby I am trying to perfect my build and want to be armed with the know-how and preparation for a high quality build. 

My question to you all is in regards to top up. I have a 34 gallon and closed lid and an evaporation rate of about 5 gallons per week. So for those of you with a 90,120,200 etc gallon tank how on earth do you keep up with top ups and RO/DI water????!!!!!!! I assume most have a auto shut off valve with a big drum hooked up to a sump or close to the tank 

So to give me an idea of your evaporation how much water do you guys use? 

My house is kept at 21-23 all year and obviously winter will be a little more due to dry air and heat as opposed to AC and humid in the summer. 

Thanks guys and should be interesting  


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jmb (Mar 20, 2012)

My tanks total volume is about 200 gallons. I have about 1.6 gallons of evaporation daily. It is also an open top. 

To maintain my water level I use the Hydor ATO and have been very happy with it. I have it attached to a 20 gallon tank with rodi water. I top that off usually once a week and a half as needed. 

Pumps and lighting are something to factor into your evaporation rate, but with yours being closed topped it shouldn't be to bad. 

HTH.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

We have about 250 gallons total on our system, and I've noticed in the last two weeks that we are starting to go through more from the resevoir. In the summer we top up about 20 litres a week (resevoir is calbrated in litres, sorry) now, we are doing close to 50 litres already. In a month or so, we will go to closed lid on the tanks, the sump has a lid, but the fuge stays open as we have a heating issue in the winter (our place is really cold) and it keeps evaporation down, too.
We have an auto top off tank that holds 25 litres, that we fill manually. 70 gallon drum in the basement for water changes and back up RO/DI
Wish we had planned a larger resevoir now.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

120gal and i go through a 5gallon jug about every 5-6 days.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

100g DT, 30g sump - go through 7 gallons a week or so.


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## dc_addict (Mar 14, 2013)

On my 150 Gallon I found I would go through about 10 gallons a week and always filling the reservoir was a PITA. On my current build I have a 100 Gallon holding tank which I use for ATO as well as I pump it to my other 100 Gallon holding tank to do water changes. The Fresh water holding tank is plumbed to the sump with a JBJ ATO.

only thing I would say to be careful of is a reverse syphon. When I first setup the ATO on my 150 I didnt understand that and ended up dumping TONS of fresh water into my tank before I noticed what was happening! Could have had a flood, so make sure you have a syphon break!


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## CanadaCorals.com (May 12, 2013)

To avoid disaster, never use a top off container larger than what can fit in your sump to prevent a flood.

You should also keep it as small as possible because if the pump fails and gets stuck on, you don't want the salinity to drop too low.


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## dc_addict (Mar 14, 2013)

CanadaCorals.com said:


> To avoid disaster, never use a top off container larger than what can fit in your sump to prevent a flood.
> 
> You should also keep it as small as possible because if the pump fails and gets stuck on, you don't want the salinity to drop too low.


That is actually a very good point, and I cant believe I looked that over while building this new system!! 
On a related note, you can also get a high water level sensor and hook it up to your controller and use that to stop the ATO from running. But honestly you shouldnt have a holding tank as large as I used (damn I cant believe I did that!)


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

This is where a controller comes in to play.
You can put as large of a container as you want as an ATO but you need to ensure that any pumps won't fail you.

On most controllers you can put a timer on for your ATO pump to come on every few hours for 2-3 minutes or so. This will ensure that it doesn't overflow.


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

My latest ATO setup is tied to the Water mixing station/Continuous water change system I use for my display tank - here is the thread I started about it.
http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72217

My main system is ~95 Gallons for the tank and sump, and there is about 3/4 gallon of evaporation per day for the open top system. The Litermeter is programmed to pump 1 gallon per day from the 20 Gal RODI container into the sump, however it has a built in sensor that shuts off the WXM pump once it hits the "high water" mark.

So far it has been rock solid, much more so than when I used a Tunze Osmolator for ATO along with the LiterMeter for continuous water changes.


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

altcharacter said:


> This is where a controller comes in to play.
> You can put as large of a container as you want as an ATO but you need to ensure that any pumps won't fail you.
> 
> On most controllers you can put a timer on for your ATO pump to come on every few hours for 2-3 minutes or so. This will ensure that it doesn't overflow.


only thing to be careful with using controllers and the accompanying power bars is that low power pumps can cause a surge when turned off, which in turn turns the outlet back on! You have to ensure you have these types of pumps plugged into higher voltage/amperage outlets or put a surge suppressor in between the pump and outlet. Reefkeeper systems have this problem and I believe Apex do as well if I am not mistaken.


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