Equipment recommendations for 150 gallon tank

[Jruss54]

ATO - Auto top off, my first bit of "extra" equipment, u will need one.. RODI station, or r u buying water from lfs?
Welcome btw, have fun, enjoy, get learning and have deep pockets lol

For my current 36 gallon I have been getting water from LFS. I have the aquatic life buddie system that I haven’t hooked up yet and am in the process of getting another 55 gallon drum as I already have one. Can you give me an example of an ATO that you have had a good experience with.

 

[S2G]

Thanks for that info. As I mentioned Inever saw, nor would I think about doing baffles sump before. The more you know....

No problem. I wasn't trying to be a smart a or anything. It's just something that a lot of people do but its never mentioned. It seems like someone is always trying to sell you on some crazy expensive piece of equip and really what you're doing is paying a premium for aesthetics.

Sumps have gotten crazy expensive and the dang baffles kits are 2x the cost of your $1 per gal tank. The baffles are also acrylic most of the time which doesn't like silicone so you have to cake it on hoping it sticks to the acrylic and glass.

Things really don't have to be as expensive as it's portrayed.

 

[Colin_S]

For my current 36 gallon I have been getting water from LFS. I have the aquatic life buddie system that I haven’t hooked up yet and am in the process of getting another 55 gallon drum as I already have one. Can you give me an example of an ATO that you have had a good experience with.

I have a 150g, and the water was evaporating too quickly. This made such a difference. I watched the brstv video on them and they recommended this

Osmolator Universal 3155 Auto Top Off

NEW VERSION AVAILABLE: Tunze Osmolator 3 ATO System Bulk Reef Supply tried many different water level switches and auto top off solutions before giving the Tunze 3155 Osmolater Universal Auto Top Off BRS Recommended status. Despite its higher price this is by far our favorite solution...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

which i use. in a nut shell, it uses infra-red so no mechanical parts can get jammed.
Someone made a point about how u want to run your system. if cost/time is a factor like for me, then Triton method would reduce the amount of water changes by about 70-90%. if you're not going to use Triton, you'll use a lot of water doing water changes.. think of 30% water change (which isn't a big WC) of 125g is about 30g each time plus salt... if you do make your own water, watch the brstv video about rodi and which resin to use, I had big problems with green hair algae until I changed my 4 stage rodi system to 6 with better resin... Green hair algae gone.. After 18months of struggle...