Anyone have their ATO reserve 30 feet or more away from their sump?

[jdthomas24]

I have mine in the garage about 35 feet away form the sump. it goes up the wall into the attic and back down the wall to the tank. I use a mag5 pump on a 3/8 outter diameter, 1/4 inner diameter line. when i first got it going it was hard to prime up to get it going. i had to help it by syphoning it but after that it worked all the time. today i removed the res tank to do a water change and now it will not prime up again. The pump is working and when i turn it on it tries to push out air in the lines but its like to gives out after a few minutes but when i go to the pump and without the line on it , it works..... anyone have this issue before? the pump is a month old BTW

[Sisterlimonpot]

Do you know roughly how much head pressure it is between that 35 feet? Maybe that mag 5 is too small of a pump. I constantly run out of water from my reservoir, I know I wouldn't want to keep priming my system.

[jdthomas24]

not sure, i will have to go by the guys store i got it from tomorrow and check, he said it would work but i had to manually prime at and it finally started. i figure at mag 5 would be plenty to be honest though, there is probably 55 feet of line though now that ithink about it. still i would think it would work .

[Sisterlimonpot]

Use this (http://reefcentral.com/index.php/head-loss-calculator) head loss calculator to determine your loss.

Since the upgrade this page doesn't fit properly so you have to use the "Tab" button to get to the "submit" icon

[reefer321]

The mag 5 has a 10 ft 6inch shut of so that is most likely the problem... it works when you start the siphon because of the water pulling on the down side giving the pump a false lift... hth

[Reefugee]

Personally - I would not use a Mag pump for ATO. The constant on/off will break your impeller. I went through 3 impeller in one month on my mag 5. I have been using an OceanRunner for over a year now without any problem.

[Playa-1]

I have mine in the garage about 35 feet away form the sump. it goes up the wall into the attic and back down the wall to the tank. I use a mag5 pump on a 3/8 outter diameter, 1/4 inner diameter line. when i first got it going it was hard to prime up to get it going. i had to help it by syphoning it but after that it worked all the time. today i removed the res tank to do a water change and now it will not prime up again. The pump is working and when i turn it on it tries to push out air in the lines but its like to gives out after a few minutes but when i go to the pump and without the line on it , it works..... anyone have this issue before? the pump is a month old BTW

You need to also be aware of the potential for a siphoning problem in the current configuration. What do you have in place to stop the water flow once you get it moving?

[Reefer2727]

I wouldn't use a Mag pump for this application either. I have my ATO reservoir in my basement and it gets pumped up to my main level. I did my research and ended up getting the SpectraPure Ultra Precise Level Controller. I must say it was worth the money. The pump is a peristaltic and there are absolutely no worries about anything. I set it up about 6 months ago and have not had an issue. I would highly recommend it as it totally takes any ATO concerns away. Here is a link:

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p7.htm

[jdthomas24]

so do i ned to upgrade to a mag7? mine is new so im sure i ca ntrade it in because the guy told me it would work.. if i upgrade to a mag7 would it be better?


also i have a control valve 12v DC en-route to make sure the syphon doesnt happen. it happened a coupel times so i shut it down till the valve gets here. so at the sump when the float cuts the pump off it will also cut the valve off causing it to close up. safty :)
im thinking about upgrading my 1/4 inner diameter line to a 3/8 inch inner diameter line. a friend of mine works for a hose supply so he is goin to get me more hose. i was going to use 1/2 inner but its a little big. what do you guys think? should i go with 1/2 or 3/8? inner ?


The mag 5 has a 10 ft 6inch shut of so that is most likely the problem... it works when you start the siphon because of the water pulling on the down side giving the pump a false lift... hth

[Playa-1]

what do you guys think?
I think it sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. Maybe with a float valve, solenoid operated valve, controller with specific gravity monitoring capability to control the pump and the solenoid. Otherwise I think you should rethink the idea. You could consider something like Reefer2727 suggested with the Peristaltic pumping capability or maybe using the current configuration to manually fill a smaller reservoir near the tank. Just keep in mind that you can't afford to find out that solenoids fail sometimes the hard way.

[jdthomas24]

what do you guys think?
I think it sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. Maybe with a float valve, solenoid operated valve, controller with specific gravity monitoring capability to control the pump and the solenoid. Otherwise I think you should rethink the idea. You could consider something like Reefer2727 suggested with the Peristaltic pumping capability or maybe using the current configuration to manually fill a smaller reservoir near the tank. Just keep in mind that you can't afford to find out that solenoids fail sometimes the hard way.


with that being said, i have tried to make it full proof but things can happen. solenoid valve, floats and now im thinking of putting a timer on the float control so that it only can put water in it at night when i am home. :) Also thinking of putting a " T " i n the attic where it comes down the wall and putting a small peice of line with a check valve on it to help control a syphon. In all even with what reefer2727 suggested, it can fail but if i have all of these safty devices in place then i could be better protected, i allso have an emergency bucket plumbed from the sump, when it gets to a certain level in the sump it drains in the bucket. i am thinking about putting a float in it and on a small pump and run a hose to the drain so that if it gets water in it the pump will come on and drain it but ithink that is overboard though.

[Playa-1]

It can be made to work, just make sure you have more then one fail-safe in place for each scenario. Don't rule out pest chewing water lines in the attic and reverse siphoning.