Need Help with autotopoff

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

I just got finished putting together a new and improved auto topoff last night.

The old topoff served well for the last 5 years, but it was getting tired and I was afraid it would break soon. With that being said absolutely nothing was wrong with it other than I was being OCD.

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

So out with the old and in with the new

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

Shep · Jun 9, 2015

Looks good, what did you need help with? lol

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

Shep said:
Looks good, what did you need help with? lol

LOL. I'm getting to it

hawkinsrgk · Jun 9, 2015

So the next step in this process was to get a Kalk Stirrer, however I need to hold off on that for a few. Basically what that means is my wife is getting unhappy about all of my crazy spending on the fish tank.

I am considering putting Kalk in my topoff container. My PH has been on the low (7.7 - 7.85) and I would like to increase it.
Would like to know opinions about how to go about this.
For example how high off the bottom should the topoff pump intake be so it is not in the danger zone?
Container is 15 gallons. How much Kalk should I start off with? I have read 1-2 teaspoons per gallon. Wanted to verify this is correct. Also, if this is a bad idea and I should not do it until I got a stirrer let me know.

Any other info to help me get this started.
Thanks
Randy

hawkinsrgk · Jun 10, 2015

So after all of the reading this is what I am thinking.

1. Raise the intake in the topoff container by 2 inches. It is currently sitting on the bottom
2. Mix up about 30 gallons worth of limewater in the garbage can.
3. pump that into the topoff container without getting the sludge that will form on the bottom.

Shep · Jun 10, 2015

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] , they might be able to help

Chameleon · Jun 10, 2015

Hi Randy,
The main concern with putting the kalk in the ATO is not the sludge but more so equipment failure or dumping all your ATO water into the tank at once which just so happens to also have kalk. I wouldn't concern yourself with mixing up the kalk in a separate container to eliminate the sludge from getting in your ato. I too do not have a kalk stirrer but do use it in my ATO water. What works for me is using flexible airline tubing inside the ato attached to a pump on top. I attach a porous floating filter of some sort (very large pore sponge in my case) to the end of the tubing and it floats at the top of the ATO water level. Then at the bottom I have kalk sludge that I stir when I make new water (if I remember, but it happens rarely now). The floating airlin tube makes sure I am aalways pulling water farthest away from the sludge and the sludge is only a problem if the ATO is empty. The porous sponge keeps particulates from going in the tube and crudding up the plumbing. This has worked for me with minor variations the entire time I have used kalk in my ato. I used to use a faster pump on the ATO, but after float switch failures causing issues I have switched to a slower peristaltic pump that will limit the total that can be put in in a day due to the slower pump speed. This is now my backup so I can still use my ATO with kalk and evaporation instead of dosing a predefined amount of kalk (less than evap) and supplementing the rest wiof evap with RODI water. Hope this helps and feel free to come by and check out my setup anytime.
-Tyler

Chameleon · Jun 10, 2015

Oh I also see you used an aqualifter for your ato pump. They can be a bit finicky with kalk in the water. I had several die within a few months until I got a good one that ran for a long time. Looks like a good setup very similar to mine though.

Fieryfrog · Jun 11, 2015

I guess I am a little odd. I use a 5 gallon beer bottling bucket. It has a spigot on the bottom, that I can adjust, and then I have an adjustable airhose unit on the end of the hose. It works well. The bottling bucket spigot is raised from the bottom to keep yeast from your bottles.

hawkinsrgk · Jun 11, 2015

Thanks Tyler

You brought up several good points. Thank you for the detail explanation.

On the overdose part, I reduced the the time the aqualifter pump runs from 2 min every 20 min to 1 min every 20 min. Assuming the 3.5 g/h is correct that would make my topoff at 4.2 gallons per day. If I ran the pump for 45 seconds every 20 min then I think it would come out to 3.15 gallons. My evaporation rate seems to be somewhere around 3.-4 gallons. So I will see how it goes and adjust so the topoff isn't so dependent on the float switch.

I really went back and forth between the toms aqualifter and the BRS 50ml/min peristaltic pump. On the aqualifter pump, the opinions were so divided. On one hand you had the group that said buy three of these things at a time because they are junk and the other group said these things are great and mine lasted 3 years with no trouble. It really came down to the company I bought the SLX and the PH probe from had the aqualifter so I could get free shipping if I got it and also a 10% discount. In the end most likely I will get the BRS pump when I have to do an order. Seems to be about every other month. I was able to get the ato pump for around $13.

If you are free Sat or Sun maybe I can stop by. Whenever is good with you. I have been wanting to check out your new LED/T5 setup anyway. It would be nice to see how you have the tubing connected to a sponge. I didn't think about setting it up that way, but it could be switched over really quickly.

Thanks
Randy

Chameleon · Jun 11, 2015

Hey Randy,
Glad I could help some. I'm free Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Just let me know when you want to come by.

hawkinsrgk · Jun 11, 2015

Fieryfrog said:
I guess I am a little odd. I use a 5 gallon beer bottling bucket. It has a spigot on the bottom, that I can adjust, and then I have an adjustable airhose unit on the end of the hose. It works well. The bottling bucket spigot is raised from the bottom to keep yeast from your bottles.

Thanks Aaron
I think the concept of your setup is fairly popular. Did you have a hard time dialing it in with the evaporation?

Thanks
Randy

Fieryfrog · Jun 11, 2015

I guess I should have said that this is how I dose Kalk. Not for top off.

hawkinsrgk · Jun 11, 2015

Fieryfrog said:
I guess I should have said that this is how I dose Kalk. Not for top off.

Got it. I was just impressed that you were able to drink 5 gallons of beer and then setup a kalk doser.

Fieryfrog · Jun 11, 2015

hawkinsrgk said:
Got it. I was just impressed that you were able to drink 5 gallons of beer and then setup a kalk doser.

Haha. Thank you for that. I am sitting at the DMV, bored out of my skull. And that made me laugh like a wacko. I'm surprised people didn't move seats to get away from me.