Last minute auto top off?

[DijonMustard]

Going away for 3-4 days next week so I can’t manually add water to my nano (10 gal).
Any options for a sort of last minute ATO?

I live in a dorm room without a roommate, and due to the university’s policies, I can’t have someone come in to take care of the tank while I’m gone. I am also broke, with only enough money set aside forever emergencies within the tank, so if the solution is to buy an expensive system, that won’t be happening quite yet (in the future, it will!)

 

[DijonMustard]

If it matters, the tank currently hosts my mantis (N. wennerae), one ocellaris, a couple of zoanthid frags and some other, smaller invertebrates.

I top off daily with about half a liter. I plan to close my curtains to hopefully get a bit less sun, but I doubt it’ll make much of a difference in evaporation

 

[Fish Fan]

Maybe try a gravity fed from a bottle style of ATO, like this one for $8.

Good luck!

 

[GSPClown94]

A tight fitting lid and an air stone should help reduce evaporation and still allow some gas exchange.

 

[Joe31415]

A tight fitting lid and an air stone should help reduce evaporation and still allow some gas exchange.

That's what I was thinking, and probably add some extra RODI to the tank before leaving.

 

[DijonMustard]

A tight fitting lid and an air stone should help reduce evaporation and still allow some gas exchange.

I currently use an old HOB filter, just for flow and oxygenating the water, would that be enough or should I see if one of my aquarist friends can lend me a spare airstone?

 

[DijonMustard]

Maybe try a gravity fed from a bottle style of ATO, like this one for $8.

Good luck!

Think there’s a way to DIY this? I have spare flexible tubing. If not, I may just take my chances and hope that my post office has a quick processing time

 

[GSPClown94]

I currently use an old HOB filter, just for flow and oxygenating the water, would that be enough or should I see if one of my aquarist friends can lend me a spare airstone?

That might work too, but with the air stone route you can completely seal off the tank with a lid and some packing tape and only have a little opening for the air tube.

 

[Fish Fan]

Think there’s a way to DIY this? I have spare flexible tubing. If not, I may just take my chances and hope that my post office has a quick processing time

Yes, I think it might be possible to DIY this, it's pretty straightforward what's going on, but you'd want to take care to not have it just flood your tank while you're gone.

 

[Fish Fan]

This is an example:

DIY: Tea Jar Auto Top-off | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

If you need a great DIY auto top off device, then you might want to look at this clever invention. The auto top off uses a Sun Tea jar, and a air tube that fills the tank automatically.

reefbuilders.com

 

[ClownSchool]

I just searched how to build an ATO with a 2 liter bottle, super glue, and a piece of air tubing.
The trick is to find a way to get the bottle positioned above the tank, but there are videos on how to do it.
The sun tea jar mentioned above looks like a good model to go by.