How fast pumping freshwater from ATO

[Jyetman]

How much freshwater can I pump into my display tank at a time without hurting the corals? My ATO is programmed with Apex using a small power head that squirts freshwater @ 3 seconds through a 5/8 hose. I'm limited no sump goes into display tank.

[billdogg]

I don't use an ATO, instead I add when the water level in the sump gets to the low mark. That = ~ 8 gallons to a 120, about weekly, at as fast as a mag18 can pump up from the basement - about 2 minutes or so I think.

[maroonman]

I don't use an ATO, instead I add when the water level in the sump gets to the low mark. That = ~ 8 gallons to a 120, about weekly, at as fast as a mag18 can pump up from the basement - about 2 minutes or so I think.

Really??.
Thats gotta be a little stressful...The salinity swing has got to be pretty tall on 8 gallons.
My AutoAqua smart ATO kicks on and will add roughly 1 gallon in 90 secs. Best ATO i have used yet.

[Reef Frog]

How much freshwater can I pump into my display tank at a time without hurting the corals? My ATO is programmed with Apex using a small power head that squirts freshwater @ 3 seconds through a 5/8 hose. I'm limited no sump goes into display tank.

You pump enough water to get the salinity back up where you want it to be - in other words replace the amount evaporated. Nothing more, nothing less. So it's impossible to answer your question directly.

The amount of evaporation can change with the seasons and other factors in your house. So unless you can maintain rock solid humidity levels in your room, it would be very difficult (I would think) to properly maintain salinity by dosing a fixed amount daily by controller. Stable salinity is critical to maintaining coral health.

Even worse, you risk a flood IF the volume of your fresh water container can overflow your tank if added all at once. Example: You're away & the house gets humid for some reason - evaporation would decline and your pump is operating at the same rate & it over fills the tank.

I would look into a float switch or other sensor that would go right in the display tank or just do it by hand. There are lots of cool new products on the market that look to be quite discreet.

[SNAKEMANVET]

I use a auto top off float switch that activates my aqua lifter pump to top off.

[Crooked Reef]

Is it in a float switch at all? Not real familiar with the apex units so I don't know if you use them in conjunction. If it's not on a float switch and you can wire one I would definitely go with one.

[fishgate]

Going to lower salinity is not terribly stressful. Going higher can be. I would not worry about the small amounts that an ATO delivers.

[tkeracer619]

Better have float switches in the display or you will end with a flood. What happens when the apex gets stuck on?

[Jyetman]

You pump enough water to get the salinity back up where you want it to be - in other words replace the amount evaporated. Nothing more, nothing less. So it's impossible to answer your question directly.

The amount of evaporation can change with the seasons and other factors in your house. So unless you can maintain rock solid humidity levels in your room, it would be very difficult (I would think) to properly maintain salinity by dosing a fixed amount daily by controller. Stable salinity is critical to maintaining coral health.

Even worse, you risk a flood IF the volume of your fresh water container can overflow your tank if added all at once. Example: You're away & the house gets humid for some reason - evaporation would decline and your pump is operating at the same rate & it over fills the tank.

I would look into a float switch or other sensor that would go right in the display tank or just do it by hand. There are lots of cool new products on the market that look to be quite discreet.

I have a three float system including redundant. The three seconds is used in a OSC command so used as a safety net.

[Reef Frog]

Oh ok I see. From your initial post it sounded to me like you were using timing only based on consistent evaporation. You can pump as much as you want to keep salinity where you want it.

BTW a run away ATO could easily stress sensitive corals & inverts if the salinity gets low enough and goes uncorrected. But that delends on the ATO container volume and the display volume. #7 would be true however in a fish only tank.

[o2manyfish]

If you have the 3 float system and the Apex use that to turn the top off pump on/off. Using a 3sec oscillate feature is just going to cause whatever you are using to control the waterflow (pump/valve/solenoid) fail or have the opportunity to fail 3x more often.

If you have a triple float switch system the primary float switch will probably have a range of maybe an inch of height in your sump. And the resevoir side of a sump is usually not that much of a percentage of your total system volume. So an inch of water height in just the sump shouldn't affect your parameter by much.

Now the next step is to program your Apex so that it doesn't trigger until the float switch has been activated for 10min constantly- This saves you from triggering the Apex when the water level is bouncing at the low level of the switch.

I found in my system that my float switch was triggering my RO topoff solenoid 100s of times a day when the float switch was bouncing at the limits. Now the float switch has to be on for a solid 15mins before the top off kicks on and the topoff only runs a few times a day.

Dave B

[Reef Frog]

Interesting, learned something there. But the OP said he had no sump I believe & didn't give tank or RO resevoir details. I just pictured a 5 gallon ATO jug going nuts in a filled to the brim on a 12g nano or something.

[Crooked Reef]

o2manyfish, have you tried a slosh and snail guard on your float switches? It is basically just a plastic cup with some holes drilled in it to keep waves from hitting your switch. It also keeps snails away so they don't lodge themselves in and switch it on or off.

[o2manyfish]

Crooked Reef,

My system is different than most for a couple of reasons. First it's 1100gallon total with 4 tanks entirely open topped, 3 of which are outside. During the summer I use evaporative cooling. In the triple digits of the summer I will topoff more that 30gallons of water a day.

Secondly my primary filtration sump is a 100g tank. I run a 2 story surge tank on my display tank. The surge tank is 26g. When the surge tank is fulling it's pulling the water from the display tank, which is lowering the water level in the sump tank. This means the water level is fluctuating 6"+ every 90 seconds. A

Then when the surge dumps it drops the 26g into the display tank in less than 10 seconds. The display tank has dual 2" overflow lines and drains the excess water back to the sump in less than 20 seconds.

So the water level in my surge changes dramatically and has some violent flow. I use a double float switch which is mounted inside a 4" piece of PVC pipe with a screened cover to keep out algae and snails.

And I use the Apex to shut the top off off when the surge is running. During the summer months I have to run the surge less because we need more time with the top off running to keep up with the evaporation.

Dave B

[hbrochs]

Wow, that sounds really cool. Would love to see a video of that.

Howard