Aqua-Lifter ATO?

[herostar]

I have been thinking of making an ATO for my 20H by using an Aqua-Lifter pump set on a digital timer to run for 1-minute as many times as necessary over the course of the day to keep up w/ my evaporation. It would be plumbed into some sort of resevior directly under (~4") my tank.

I was wondering if anyone has done this before? Just looking for a little advice... I don't have any experience with this pump and the ammount of head it can push/pull. It seems like a cheap/easy solution.

[DHyslop]

The Aqualifter is a great pump for a top-off, but your evaporation rate will change with the weather. Use a float switch (or better yet, two in series) in the tank, wired through a 12V relay to control the Aqualifter--that way it always knows the right amount of water to add.

For more redundancy, you can put the whole thing on a timer so its only active for 15 minutes a day. That way in case the relay or the pump fails on, the timer will still stop it before a flood.

[foshizzle]

My preference is a 2 floatswitch system with an off failsafe switch
http://www.aquahub.com/store/index.html

[herostar]

Well I was still thinking of manually topping off some. I've found that over the past year it's taken relatively the same ammount of top off each day, so I was thinking of just reducing the amt. of auto ato to half that, and then manually toping off the rest. I'll still be checking it all day long...

Any other info/ideas on the equipment?

[jbarone]

autotopoff.com has great ATO's

[balsaaaq]

I was planning Aqualifter with dual float switch. I dont know if the timer would allow much fill, due to the slow flow of the lifter. Maybe 15m intervals thrice daily....bals:bum:

[herostar]

Ya I figure I'd kinda watch and see how much it pumps. My timer can do up to 10 on/off cycles a day, but I was thinking of using only 5; shorter times at night (2 x 1 minute) and longer in day (3 x 2-3 minutes).

[raddogz]

I use an Aqualifter that is tied to a kalk stirrer.

Two floatswitches operate the Aqualifter.

[herostar]

How long have you been using that setup. What sort of head is the pump pushing? What is the flow like?

[maguro]

herostar,

i was actually planning on doing the same thing for auto-topping off my 20gal because my tank's evaporation rate is quite consistent, and i really don't have room to put the float switches. i found that most conventional timers don't have 1-min intervals, but there are those which are normally used for labs do have 1-min intervals (~$50). i have an Aqualifter, and the spec says it's max lift height is 30" at 3.5gph, which is about 7.5 ounces a minute (roughly a cup). so it should be doable. pls let us know how your project turns out.

[raddogz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10083727#post10083727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by herostar
How long have you been using that setup. What sort of head is the pump pushing? What is the flow like?

I have been using this setup for the last three years. The pump is capable I believe to push up to six feet, but not sure.

The pump pushes the water from my 5g top-off jug to a Geo skimmer and then three feet to the sump.

[sabbath]

i use the Aqualifter pump with the 2 float switch from autotopoff.com it has worked great for a couple yrs now.

[herostar]

Has anyone had a problem with the on/off cycles with the aqualifter?

[DHyslop]

My ATO system is on a timer so its only active 15 minutes a day to limit on/off cycles.

Now, given that its a diaphram pump and when its running its essentially switching on and off a number of times per second, I can't imagine frequent cycling would be an issue. On the other hand you're a mechanical engineer and I'm not!

[herostar]

Any other opinions on this? I just ordered my aqua-lifter....