Found a cheap, properly shape/size ATO reservoir

smoleral · Mar 12, 2021

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share what I’m now using as an ATO reservoir. I, like many others, have very limited space in my tank cabinet, so finding a reservoir that holds a decent amount of water but also takes up a small amount of space has been a challenge. I have a solid foot of space between the cabinet wall and my sump, so yes a 5 gallon bucket would probably fit in there if I wanted to drain down my sump so that it’s light enough to move over, but my lazy butt didn’t want to do that, I’d rather find a container that is slim enough so that I can take it in and out as needed. Even though I have that foot of space, there’s really only about 5-6 inches of space to move a container past the edge of the sump and into the cabinet. I also am not a fan of spending $100+ on a fancy acrylic reservoir.

Anyways, I found this pet food dispenser for $19.99 at PetSmart. I was surprised to find out that this thing holds a full 4 gallons of water (advertised on the container as 16 quarts). It’s only about 5 inches wide, so it easily slides in and out of the cabinet. While they don’t advertise the lid as being airtight, it fits on pretty nicely and I have used the spout on top (which is made for pouring dog/cat food) as the opening for the pump tubing and wire. Overall the spout is barely open, so I think this lid will prevent most of the evaporation. Here are some pictures. Have a nice day people.

Montiman · Mar 12, 2021

Cool! I use a Charcoal container that looks almost the same. it works great.

SuperDave531 · Apr 7, 2021

I found mine at Target, both the cubby basket and the coke bottle colored reservoir container. Since my tank sits in front of a mirror and it doesn’t have a background I wanted to keep the rear of the tank free of any kind of plumbing or cabling lines. I am also running a can and no sump; the tank isn’t drilled nor is there any real space in the cabinet underneath for any kind of workable sump.

Otherwise it’s very unsuspecting. It holds about 2.5g and lasts me between 5-6 days. Easy enough for me to walk over to the utility room and refill it with a little 2g bucket