Auto Top Off W/Basement Reservoir ???s

[1-900-REEF]

I'm planning an Auto Top Off system but have no room in the stand or nearby for a reservoir. I do have a perfect place for it under the tank in the basement. I'll be using float switches & a relay to turn on & off a pump in the reservoir, & probably 1/4" ID tubing from the pump, up through the floor, & to my sump. Someday it will probably feed a kalk reactor, but that's a future project.
What kind of pump would I use for high head, & low flow?
Any potential problems I may be missing with this kind of set up? (other than float switches sticking, or siphon issues if I don't set it up properly)

[Junkzoo]

No help here on the details of what pumps etc to use sorry.
Prob the only thing i can offer is mebbe to have a backup as far as check valves etc. just in case of a future problem . Dunno if that would be overkill, or stupid to do, but i would think having a second device to shut things down (2 check valves, or a siphon break type setup) would be worth the trouble, rather have redundancy in the system than the problems of a "situation" in equipt failure.

Hope you get the info/input you need,
and don't forget some pics of what you decide to go with, ya know how we are about pics LOL

[saltysupply]

jbj and tunze make a pretty affordable auto top off system That way you know it works.

[digitalis]

The other option too, Todd, is to set up a peristaltic pump. Mine works great. I have mine set up on a timer 3 minutes an hour, 12 hours a day. It never siphons, there is no float to stick, it pumps extraordinary head. It only pumps like, I think 100 ml/minute. It's NOT fast. But it will never flood your tank in a day or two. It would take weeks. (Trust me I know, I wasn't paying attention and normally my sump has 4" of water in it, and 2 weeks later it was up to 5" from the top!) I think I'm going to find an alternate way of topping off the new sump. I haven't gotten anything going yet, so I top off by hand so far. It sucks.
Let me know if you have any questions about my (old) setup.

[b16drag]

Check out http://www.autotopoff.com/products.html for the valves etc. Get the double switch controllers for added safety.

In terms of pump, not sure... How high is the head? I'm assuming around 15ft?

[salt-rookie]

Check out http://www.gapproducts.com

[ckusnierek]

Mine is simple. I have a ro/di unit downstairs. I put a 1/4" hole in the wall and ran tubing to the sump. I use a $15 kent marine float valve. Simple and works great!! the water pressure pushes the ro/di to the float.

[grallster]

Originally Posted by ckusnierek

Mine is simple. I have a ro/di unit downstairs. I put a 1/4" hole in the wall and ran tubing to the sump. I use a $15 kent marine float valve. Simple and works great!! the water pressure pushes the ro/di to the float.

Of course if this fails, you would end up with a freshwater tank and a flooded house. Plus this doesn't work if you want to add kalk to the top-off.
I use the reef fanatic level controller and have for years. It has a back up float for safety (keeps your sump from overflowing). The worst thing that can happen is the primary float switch fails and no top-off gets to the sump and it fries whatever pumps you have in there--but at least there won't be a flood and odds are everything in the tank is fine.
This scenario did happen to me while I was on vacation of course. I have no idea how everything works fine 51 weeks outta the year until I go on vacation.

[grallster]

As far as what pump to use, I don't think it matters much as long as it handles the head, even if it only puts out 10 gph.

[1-900-REEF]

Thanks for the replies.
I'm looking into a peristaltic pump. Since they are pretty expensive, & I don't really know much about them, I am really going to have to do my homework to make sure I get something that will work for me, but not overspend needlessly.

[ckusnierek]

Are there really any "fail proof" ATOs?

[tellycoleman]

I have a JBJ ato and it has a redundency that can be set up in many ways.
i set both my float switches in the sump
one is used for the ATO purpose.
and the other one is not even in the water but just right above the water line.
in case my ATO float switch gets stuck. when the other switch will engaged buy the rising water and the pump shuts off.

[b16drag]

Another option would be to have the RO/DI water from the basement go into a small reservoir via valve/solenoid/float valve (with a manual valve) and then having a small pump just pumping water over into the sump when its low...

[Tasher80]

You can still top off with kalk water through the RO/DI
I have my RO/DI unit running to a solenoid. That solenoid is triggered by two floats. One for the main float. One is the backup. When the float triggers a fill, the water passes through my solenoid into my kalk reactor. The water flows through there into the sump. Very simple, no resevoir.

[Hop]

Originally Posted by ckusnierek

Are there really any "fail proof" ATOs?

Not that I'm aware of. This is why I spend so much time thinking Better to have multiple lines of defense on each major system so that if one thing fails, another prevents catastrophe. This is why, even though, I have a 70 gallon reservoir, I only fill it to about 30 gallons. This way I have about 5-7 day of top off, and if everything fails, it only drops my sg to 1.022 and it won't flood my sump

now I just need to get my skimmer failsafe figured so if it goes nuts, it will shut it off rather than pump sludge back in the tank