Help with water changes, ATO and patience :)

[mike31154]

Interested in more info about the feed line you put through the roof joists? How is that fed exactly, pump or household water pressure? Are you planning on using that as your ATO feed line to the sump?

My system is much smaller and I use a variation of gravity fed ATO through a simple mechanical float valve. Since I don't have room to elevate the ATO container above my display (yes I run sumpless) to use gravity, I use a glass wine carboy next to the tank that is pressurized by a small air pump on a timer. The air pressure provides ATO water at a trickle to the display thru the mechanical valve. This has worked great for me for a number of years now & the 7 gal carboy keeps the display topped up for 7 days. For a future basement sump I plan to use the gravity feed method with an appropriately sized container elevated above the sump.

I don't trust ATOs that have too much complexity and a pile of electrical components, there are more failure modes which can have disastrous effects on your tank or your home in the form of flooding. I've also never trusted the auto shutoff gizmo on my RODI system which is actually a mechanical device. It's never shut the system off reliably. While the float valve in the collection container works well, the waste water will continue to run & it shouldn't. I always make my RODI water when at home & keep an eye on it. With no drain in my basement floor, it's not worth trusting an auto shutoff & then come home to a flood. This is also one of the reasons to avoid feeding your sump directly from your RODI system. The other is that short duty cycles on the RO membrane are not an efficient way to make pure water. I know it takes a good 5 minutes after starting up my RODI for the TDS out of the membrane to drop to 1 or 0 with an incoming TDS of over 200. If you allow a float in the sump to control RODI production, it will likely run for short bursts every few minutes. The DI stage might take care of the excess TDS from the membrane after each short cycle, but you'll be spending a lot more time & money replacing DI media this way.

For mixing salt water, I use a separate container & allow it to stew with a powerhead for at least a day. A few hours before the water change, I'll throw a heater in there to match display temperature.

[Hustler]

The line in the the joists is just a clear 1/4" line from a filter system run to my tank, My laundryroom pipes put out about 80PSI so i have valves on both ends of everything lol. My laundry room is kiddy korner to my tank so I had to go the whole length of the basement to get it there. I used to run a chlorimine/chlorine block and add water 24/7 on a drip to my tank as its got a bulkhead in the sump that goes right to the main drain in the house. I just use it as a back up now incase something goes more wrong than i though it could it will atleast drain and not spill all over the floor.

[lastlight]

If you watch your Tds out if the ro membrane you'll notice on startup there is a large spike before it hits it's stride. This is Tds creep and I use a valve to divert ro water straight down the drain until it subsides then allow it into the di resin. Not doing this and also allowing the unit to turn off and on itself without bleeding this Tds off will exhaust your resin much faster.

[Reef Pilot]

I have a before/after TDS monitor on my RODI system. I have only ever seen 1 or 2 tds (mostly 1) after the RO membrane, and always 0 after the DI filter. My incoming tap water is around 40 - 70. I also have 2 pressure tanks (3.2 g each) after the RO membrane (and before the DI), so that provides some buffering of flow from the membrane. And I have an RO only feed to a faucet on my kitchen sink, so I don't waste DI resin when filling water bottles or whatever.