Auto Filling Your ATO Water Top Off Fresh Water Containers

[Reefvision]

Using ro smart buddy controls powere on by hydros level sensor on hydros 4. Brute can 30 gal is tied to 20 galbrute can also. Floats on all brutes as failsafe . When last brute is filled and sensor cuts off hydros won’t allow restart for 12 hrs. Works well for me!

 

[Fish man]

I have a diy autofill with a 5 gallon reservoir, I fill it manually about every 5 days. When I made it I put a sensor in the ato bucket that turns a red led light on inside my cabinet when it has about a gallon left in it and an auto pump shut off when the bucket is empty in case I forget to check the light.

 

[reef4now]

I fill up a 5 gallon bucket once a week and it works for me.One thing I got to look out for is my Mexican snails as they are big enough to trip ato and mess up the salinity and overflow.It happened once but thank God it didn’t overflow onto the floor.

 

[Hydroid]

I don't have an ATO but if I did I would fill it manually, it will be less work than the manual top off I am having to do 2-3 times a day. Getting an ATO looks better every day but I can't do it yet, that money needs to go toward a chiller since my tanks are in the garage and I'm in Mississippi, they hit 87° the other day.

Do you have a bookshelf next to your tank? If your ATO can be hidden at a higher level than your tank I can show you how to do an ATO with gravity thatll cost you les than 20$.

 

[D-Nak]

My system automatically fills up my fresh water ATO. Here's how it works:

1. My ATO is a Tunze Osmolator 3155. What I like about it is that it turns off once the pump detects that it's running without water. It won't start again until its reset. The reason this is important is described below.
   
   
2. The 3155 is connected to a 5 gallon bucket, which is located in a shed outside of my house. The pump inside the bucket feeds water through tubing that goes to my sump (through a hole in the wall from the outside of my house to the inside).
   
   
3. My RODI unit automatically feeds water to the 5 gallon bucket, and stops via a float switch. Since the bucket is outside, I don't worry about it overfilling (it never does) and draining water onto my floor.
   
   
4. If the 3155 were to accidentally dump an entire 5 gallon bucket full of fresh water into my sump, it'll automatically shut off since it detects when the bucket is empty (see step 1).
   
   
5. If too much water is added it'll trip the 3155's high water sensor so the system is doubly protected.

 

[Tundra Cuttle]

Do you have a bookshelf next to your tank? If your ATO can be hidden at a higher level than your tank I can show you how to do an ATO with gravity thatll cost you les than 20$.

I do have a sturdy shelf next to the tank

 

[54Dutchman]

manual- 5 gallon reservoir

 

[reefsaver]

The bigger your reservoir the better.

 

[rtbell1771]

I keep my ATO always full with Neptune optical sensors and an "ATO" solenoid.

When the water hits the high limit, my "ATO" solenoid shuts off and my "Fish Room" solenoid turns on and I fill a water container for my auto water change containers if it calls for it. I rigged up an optical sensor on the container cap and I just use that to set my fill height.

I use this set up so that my container fills to exactly 5 gallons, then I can mix my salt in and switch containers.

If for some reason the optical switch fails I have a leak sensor on the floor next to it and it shuts down the master solenoid to shut off all the water to the fish room. To conserve water (and a potential serious flood), I've programmed my Apex to turn on the master solenoid only between the hours of 6pm and 9pm.

 

[Hydroid]

I do have a sturdy shelf next to the tank

Im sure it could be hidden a lot better or you could use a much nicer container. Pipe could run through the back. Im sure people could get it a lot more polished but it works perfectly. You can see I drilled a float vale on the sump, and use the valves to disconnect to mix Kalk and to turn off when doing water changes. Aside from that gravity does all the work and the float valve just needs to be maintained monthly.

 

[sghera64]

I make up about two weeks worth of RO water at a time in large tubs above the tank. It gravity feeds on demand through a calcium reactor. I have to manually make up the RO water because I like to then run the product RO water through the RO membrane for 60 seconds after each use to purge the membrane of contaminants. This requires changing a couple of valves that I don't want to automate.

 

[Chris Ferrell]

So glad this came up, I thought I was crazy for thinking this. We recently did a floor remodel and installed wood flooring and ran tubing underneath the floor in the joists for a future tank build

 

[ctpeasy]

Not sure how helpful this is, but I have a 200g resevoir in the garage that I've piped through the ceiling, down into the fish room. Couple that with a pump I can control from my phone, I just hit a button and set a timer.

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. Do you have an automated way that you replace the water from your freshwater ATO containers? (NOT to your aquarium)

No , as I do not in a sense trust anything automatic due to potential failure or error


2. What have you found to work the best for keeping your ATO fresh water containers filled?

Manual filling as my container is 24 gallons and lasts roughly 2 weeks.

 

[costaricareef]

I’m doing this with my apex. I have several solenoids on my RODI filter that are controlled by the apex and float switches on my ATO reservoir. When the reservoir runs low the apex turns on the RODI and fills it, then it turns the RODI back off when it’s full. I have a number of safeguards in place to prevent a flood and the whole thing is in the garage, so even if there was a flood it wouldn’t be catastrophic. I have a lot more details about how my safeguards work and how I accomplished this on my build thread.

This^

 

[Dburr1014]

My Apex controls my rodi containers. 2- 6 gallon buckets tied together. I made a holder for the 2 float switches. Bottom turns on before the ato pump runs dry and the top turns off a couple inches before the buckets overflow. If it fails, I have a timer in the apex that will shut the main water off. When the process starts, the first thing that happens is a 1 minute timer that flushes the membrane. It also flushes 1 minute every hour. The ato itself is a tunze osmolator.
So if anything fails, the water will shut off by itself. Tunze has that built in and my timer on the Apex will shut the main off. I figure maybe a few gallons worst case would happen on a 100 gallon total water system, not bad enough to lose anything.

 

[radiata]

My container is a 55g drum with 4 Apex Optical Sensors. One turns on the RODI when the water level gets low enough, and another turns off the RODI when the water gets high enough. The two others trigger a failure alarm when the water either gets too low or too high. The too high sensor also shuts down the RODI.

 

[Gup]

I only have a 55 gallon DT with about a 15 gallon sump. My system came with a folding hard lid & my sump has 2 hard plastic covers that insert. So I lose very little water to evaporation. Therefore I always keep a couple gallon bottles of distilled water on hand

 

[lagnew904]

I have a 6 gallon ATO reservoir on a 41 total gallon tank. I don't mind refilling it.

 

[ylreefer]

No auto auto top off. But I have my rodi line plumbed around the house and into my 15g ATO container. Just turn a couple of valves and up she fills. Obviously I have to remember to turn it off. Just makes it loud easier thanrunning tubing everytime I need a refil. Plus I get to flush the membrane before filing.

So yea just wasted ya'll stone s it's not auto refil