Remote ATO in Garage

sdreef

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I am in the process of planning out a 300 gallon build and most of my filtration will be located beneath the tank. In order to maximize the space, I wanted to locate the ATO reservoir in the garage which is about 90 feet away. Since I already owned the Neptune ATK V2 for my current system, that's what I used for the set up. I also considered the Tunze Osmolator and Spectrapure WXM like the video.


The PMUP V2 is reported to push water 14 feet vertically. For my garage it's about 12 feet to the attic from the reservoir and then approximately a 90 foot horizontal run so I figured I was pushing the max the PMUP is recommended to handle.

One FMM was used by the sump under the tank for the optical sensors and a second FMM in the garage to run the PMUP. I routed a 125' aquabus cable and 120 feet of 1/4" RO tubing from the garage through the attic space to the tank. Routing the tubing and the wire took a few more cuts in the drywall than I would have liked, but other than that I am happy with how thing came together and the lines will be concealed by the new stand.

IMG_0281.jpg
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TheHarold

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One thing I would recommend in this application is a check valve, so it does not need to refill the entire length of the tube every time.
 
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sdreef

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One thing I would recommend in this application is a check valve, so it does not need to refill the entire length of the tube every time.
Thanks, the PMUP is holding its prime while it's submerged so far, but that's a good suggestion. I'm going to do that.
 
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sdreef

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Initially the set up with the ATK V2 worked. The PMUP would deliver water albeit it slowly. I ran into the issue the top off would time out. I adjusted my programming to have a longer run time. This too failed for me a couple times where the PMUP was encountering too much resistance in the line. I tried adding a check valve to help prevent air from entering the line, and ensure I was holding prime, but it created too much friction loss for the PMUP. The demand of the distances was just pushing the max that was recommended for the PMUP.

I updated the setup with the TUNZE Osmolator 3155 and Spectrapure water exchange module. I adjusted the potentiator in the Tunze controller to max. The pump is located by my sump and pulls water from the reservoir in the garage at a reassuring rate. It seems to be handling the demand well so far. Will see how it goes.
 

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Awesome setup! I am looking to do something similar for the build I am planning. Could you give a little more description about how you ran the RO line and aquabus cable? Do you have attic above all of where the run went? If i decide to do it this way mine will be in the sheetrock ceiling between floors. I'm thinking this might be difficult to do, so I'm also considering ways I could hide the reservoir in the open.
 
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Awesome setup! I am looking to do something similar for the build I am planning. Could you give a little more description about how you ran the RO line and aquabus cable? Do you have attic above all of where the run went? If i decide to do it this way mine will be in the sheetrock ceiling between floors. I'm thinking this might be difficult to do, so I'm also considering ways I could hide the reservoir in the open.


Thanks! I live in a single story home on a slab and it required a few cuts in the drywall to access the walls and a soffit that ultimately connects to a contiguous attic space. The attic is not all walkable but contiguous to the garage and enough space to pass tubing easily. Instead of cutting into the soffit, I could have gone between the joists in the ceiling which also runs to the attic space. This would have been a shorter more direct run with fewer cuts into the wall. Ultimately, decided against this because it would have added height and head pressure which I was trying to minimize. I also saw some people use cord concealer when I was looking into making a plan for my set up.

IMG_0270.jpg



I used two 500' spool of 1/4" John Guest tubing. There are no connections or junctions of the tubing, just a single piece of tube from the garage to the tank. I used two colors and need the additional lines for the automatic water change set up that also runs from my mixing station located in my garage.


One nice thing about using the spectrapure water exchange module/Osmolator combo for the ATO is that it is located in the stand and would not require an aquabus cable to be run to the remote location. However, I do use the aquabus for the AWC.

Here are some photos of the set up in the garage. I added a bulkhead to the top of the reservoir to extend the line a bit. I thought I left myself more than enough slack, but was a little shorter than I wanted to keep things looking clean. I weighed the line down in the reservoir using a piece of pvc with a 1/4" hole.

My particular RO unit has a 3/8" line at the bottom of the reservoir that it uses to flush the RO membrane after making water to keep the TDS down. I added a 3/8" to 1/4" T-adapter and a valve to this line in order to get small quantities of RO water as needed.

The set up has been working well for me without any issues for the past couple months.

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Rhoads238

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Really nice. I hadn't thought of using the pump from the stand. I'll have to look into doing it that way. I'm thinking I'll still have to run the aquabus cable because I would like to have my fishroom on the same apex as the display, but at least wont also have to run the wires for the osmolator sensor
 

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How is this setup working for you? I've been trying to design a similar setup. I definitely like being able to remove the ATO container in the stand by using Tunze + WXM. I do want to run a Kalk reactor, though, and not having an ATO container in the stand means I'd have to run another line all the way from the garage like in your setup. Any suggestions?
 
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How is this setup working for you? I've been trying to design a similar setup. I definitely like being able to remove the ATO container in the stand by using Tunze + WXM. I do want to run a Kalk reactor, though, and not having an ATO container in the stand means I'd have to run another line all the way from the garage like in your setup. Any suggestions?

This set up continues to work well for me. Works perfectly 99% of the time. It is important to set the potentiometer dial in the tunze to the max setting to ensure max power to the pump.

The one issue I have encountered is that approximately once every 6 months the ATO times out and doesn't finish filling. I have always caught this early. Initially it was with the conductivity meter when the salinity started going up unexpectedly. I now have optical sensor set up to notify me if the sump level is low. This is just below the level of the osmolator optical sensor. This doesn't come up often, but has occurred unexpectedly.

Regarding the stirrer, it continues to work adequately for me. I supply water to the stirrer using an apex DOS that pushes water from the garage to the stirrer in the stand. I use a doser as my primary means of maintaining the water chemistry, but I add 2 liters of kalk solution a day and this supplements calcium and alk and bumps up the pH.

The downside to the stirrer is the potency of the solution drops off daily. I have used the two little fishies kalk and ESV kalk. I like the ESV, it seems to mix better and I can immediately get the solution nearly saturated, but then it drops.

I top off the kalk once every two weeks and this seems to work well for me. In the figure below, I didn't get a chance to top off til the 3 week mark and the potency dropped way off.

1651849190299.png


After topping off the kalk, you can see how the potency continues to decline.
1651849138174.png


This set up continues to work for me, but important to recognize the limitations of the stirrer. For me it is a size constraint issue, but the best set up would be to have a large container containing mixed kalk solution to high potency and then simply dosing this solution. That way, you wouldn't need to deal with the change in potency of the kalk solution as a variable. In my case, since it isn't the primary method of maintaining the water chemistry, this works adequately for me.

Last thing about kalk, is I see people often talk about dosing it over night to flatten the pH curve. You can certainly do this, but in our closed systems that is also when alkalinity consumption decreases so you will increase fluctuation in alkalinity. Just a choice that you need to make. I set up the following intervals in an effort to flatten the alkalinity curve. As it turns out in my system the largest consumption is in the afternoon and evening as the lights are dimming. Not sure why that is, but I don't dose any kalk after midnight until the morning. Since this is also the time when the pH would start to go down, no question it also flattens the pH curve as well, but just balancing priorities.

A million ways to do this, but this is my current setup.

1651849772290.png


Alkalinity
1651849586454.png


pH curve
1651849619582.png


I was running a CO2 scrubber, but pH started approaching 8.5 as corals have grown and photosynthesis has increased as so I removed the scrubber recently. May bring it back on line in the future if I start up the calcium reactor.

1651850291231.png
 

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Operator Wrasse

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This set up continues to work well for me. Works perfectly 99% of the time. It is important to set the potentiometer dial in the tunze to the max setting to ensure max power to the pump.

The one issue I have encountered is that approximately once every 6 months the ATO times out and doesn't finish filling. I have always caught this early. Initially it was with the conductivity meter when the salinity started going up unexpectedly. I now have optical sensor set up to notify me if the sump level is low. This is just below the level of the osmolator optical sensor. This doesn't come up often, but has occurred unexpectedly.

Regarding the stirrer, it continues to work adequately for me. I supply water to the stirrer using an apex DOS that pushes water from the garage to the stirrer in the stand. I use a doser as my primary means of maintaining the water chemistry, but I add 2 liters of kalk solution a day and this supplements calcium and alk and bumps up the pH.

The downside to the stirrer is the potency of the solution drops off daily. I have used the two little fishies kalk and ESV kalk. I like the ESV, it seems to mix better and I can immediately get the solution nearly saturated, but then it drops.

I top off the kalk once every two weeks and this seems to work well for me. In the figure below, I didn't get a chance to top off til the 3 week mark and the potency dropped way off.

1651849190299.png


After topping off the kalk, you can see how the potency continues to decline.
1651849138174.png


This set up continues to work for me, but important to recognize the limitations of the stirrer. For me it is a size constraint issue, but the best set up would be to have a large container containing mixed kalk solution to high potency and then simply dosing this solution. That way, you wouldn't need to deal with the change in potency of the kalk solution as a variable. In my case, since it isn't the primary method of maintaining the water chemistry, this works adequately for me.

Last thing about kalk, is I see people often talk about dosing it over night to flatten the pH curve. You can certainly do this, but in our closed systems that is also when alkalinity consumption decreases so you will increase fluctuation in alkalinity. Just a choice that you need to make. I set up the following intervals in an effort to flatten the alkalinity curve. As it turns out in my system the largest consumption is in the afternoon and evening as the lights are dimming. Not sure why that is, but I don't dose any kalk after midnight until the morning. Since this is also the time when the pH would start to go down, no question it also flattens the pH curve as well, but just balancing priorities.

A million ways to do this, but this is my current setup.

1651849772290.png


Alkalinity
1651849586454.png


pH curve
1651849619582.png


I was running a CO2 scrubber, but pH started approaching 8.5 as corals have grown and photosynthesis has increased as so I removed the scrubber recently. May bring it back on line in the future if I start up the calcium reactor.

1651850291231.png
Absolutely fantastic update in such a short time! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I have designed a system that is incredibly similar to yours, so it's great to see how it has come together.

Regarding a Kalk reservoir, I was under the impression that the reactor wouldn't lose its potency as quickly because of the limited reaction area with CO2 and excess kalk at the bottom. I was hoping to use a Kalk Reactor as the primary means of maintaining chemistry. Does this mean I should get the largest possible reactor to have excess kalk for saturation?
 
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sdreef

sdreef

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Absolutely fantastic update in such a short time! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I have designed a system that is incredibly similar to yours, so it's great to see how it has come together.

Regarding a Kalk reservoir, I was under the impression that the reactor wouldn't lose its potency as quickly because of the limited reaction area with CO2 and excess kalk at the bottom. I was hoping to use a Kalk Reactor as the primary means of maintaining chemistry. Does this mean I should get the largest possible reactor to have excess kalk for saturation?

Intuitively, you would expect the excess kalk being stirred to go into solution. In practice, it just doesn't happen that way, and potency declines. I don't have experience using the kalk stirrer as my primary method of maintaining the chemistry.

I personally would just be aware that the potency of the solution may be another variable and I'm not sure this will be affected by the size of the stirrer. This may or may not be important for your system depending on what you're planning to keep and how sensitive the organism is. Clearly using kalk to maintain your chemistry is effective, but using a stirrer in my view is just not as precise.

Here is a thread that is worthwhile to read through and you may find helpful

 

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