Considering ATO

[Myka]

I won't use anything other than a Tunze Osmolator. Never had any issues with them. I have two that are 3 or 4 years old.

Originally Posted by fishytime

never plumb a never ending source of fresh water directly to your tank.......dont be lazy and use a reservoir

Agreed. 100%

Originally Posted by sphelps

I see little difference between filling a sump or a bin...

If there is a malfunction the difference is a wet floor vs a potential crash from sudden salinity drop. I know of at least 2 or 3 tanks that have had complete crashes this way. Redundancy is insurance, laziness is risk.

[wingedfish]

DIY
Couple of eBay floats in series with an aqua lifter.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by wingedfish

DIY
Couple of eBay floats in series with an aqua lifter.

I feed my rodi water directly to my sump, but through two floats (similar to yours). One is mounted slightly higher, and if the lower one malfunctions for some reason (not sure how, as they are pretty simple mechanical devices), the other will catch it. Cheap, and foolproof, IMO.

[tim the toolman]

Pressure sensitive activated and have enough extra room in my sump to hold my entire reservoir.

[kien]

auto top off from an 8gallon reservoir with an autotopoff.com float switch (with emergency cutoff float switch to prevent over filling). Two and a half years with this gadget now and no issues.

The only thing I would change on this system if I could would be a larger reservoir, but I don't have the space for it sadly.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

(not sure how, as they are pretty simple mechanical devices).

salt creep, snails?

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by fishytime

salt creep, snails?

No snails in my sump. Salt creep doesn't have a chance to form, as the water varies enough (with water changes, skimmer cleaning, other fiddling around) and washes it off. Besides, I have the higher back-up one that would kick in.

The 2nd higher float gets exercised regularly too, when I vary the water level, with other stuff I am doing in the sump. Lowering the skimmer water level (to clean it) happens at least once a week, which then raises the sump water level.

And once in a while, I test them, by just pulling the float down with my finger.

When water flows in through the float valve, I can hear it quite clearly (like a fizzing) so easy to keep an eye on it.

[paddyob]

Thanks. Appreciate the input.

[whatcaneyedo]

I used a simple float valve and bucket for a few years. It worked well except then I wanted to start including kalkwasser in my ATO which would cause the valve to plug up all of the time. I would also manually fill the bucket which meant packing about 15 gal of water across the basement each week. To deal with the kalkwasser issue I bought a used Tunze ATO for $50. It lasted for about 5 years until recently the photo eye started to act up. Sometimes it wouldn't start and sometimes it wouldn't stop. Rather than replace it with a new system I recently just added two float switches and a maxi jet to my Apex and programmed it to do the ATO. So far so good so I'll just leave it alone for now.

To cut back on my weekly bucket brigading and for a few other reasons I've got an RO/DI on a solenoid controlled by the Apex to top off a fresh water can three times a week. I recall reading somewhere that its not good for the membrane to run short bursts of water through it so this allows me to run it non stop for a couple of hours at a time. It also means that if something sticks on I won't flood the aquarium with an excessive amount of freshwater.

[Money pit]

My first was a JBJ, my second is a Tunze. I like the Tunze better, but I would recommend either depending on your budget.