Auto top-off

I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia

--

billy
--
Need tech help?
http://www.winextra.com
news://news.winextra.com

Here is an inexpensive float valve,
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=KM1675
I used a pump and switch and had a flood when the switch stuck on. Two
switches would have worked better one cut on and one emergency
cut off. For now I just turn the pump on and off manually to top off
which is still better than dipping water out of a bucket. When I get
time I will rig a float valve to my RO/DI unit. Good luck.

Dinky wrote:
I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia


--
John N. Gretchen III
Port O'Connor TX
http://www.tisd.net/~jng3

If you want gravity fed, the easiest thing is to get a container that you can
put up on a stand next to your tank. Drill a hole near the base, and insert
some type of grommet or bulkhead that allows you to affix some 1/4" tubing
without leaking. Home Depot sells that gizmo for evaporative water coolers.

Run the tubing to your sump, and affix a float valve in your sump. As
eveaporation takes place, the valve will drop and allow water to gravity feed
into your sump, and the float lifts back up to seal the line until needed again.

Marc


Dinky wrote:

I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia

--

billy
--
Need tech help?
http://www.winextra.com
news://news.winextra.com

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

Just in case you ca

http://www.autotopoff.com/

Marc


Dinky wrote:

I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia

--

billy
--
Need tech help?
http://www.winextra.com
news://news.winextra.com

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
| If you want gravity fed, the easiest thing is to get a container
that you can
| put up on a stand next to your tank. Drill a hole near the base,
and insert
| some type of grommet or bulkhead that allows you to affix some 1/4"
tubing
| without leaking. Home Depot sells that gizmo for evaporative water
coolers.
|
| Run the tubing to your sump, and affix a float valve in your sump.
As
| eveaporation takes place, the valve will drop and allow water to
gravity feed
| into your sump, and the float lifts back up to seal the line until
needed again.
|
| Marc
|

I'd really like to stay away from any more electrical components. I'm
already worried about how much I'm dragging out of this outlet as it
is, (return, tanklights, fuge lights, powerheads, skimmer, heaters)
and like I said, I don't want to buy much. Most of the options I'm
finding require installation of yet another water pump, or electric
valves.

I found this:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/to...hon/index.html

and I think I'm going to puzzle this one out. The bloody thing has
the description in the format of a bleeding IRC session, nut it's the
only thing that meets my apparently unrealistic criterion.

tyvm marc, john.


billy

I wanted the same thing without spending much money .

What I have is two plastic five gallon gasoline containers (they never had
gas in them) I put rigid tubing in each one with a little bit of the tube
sticking out of a hole I made in the top of them. These tubes go all the way
to the bottom of the tank I then put a lot of silicone at the hole to make
it air tight. Another rigid tube goes into the vent hole of each tank, again
I made the holes air tight with silicone. Then I tok an old air pump that I
had and connected it to one of the riged tubes with standard airline tubing.
and connect one container to the other in the same way. connect the air pump
to a timer and voila.
What happens is that the airpump will pressurize the gasoline container and
send water up the airline into your tank for a set amount of time. By
regulating the time that the timer is on, you can reguate how much water is
added daily. Just make sure that the end of the tube is dripping into your
tank and is not actually in the water, otherwise when it turns off the tank
water will siphon back into the casoline containers. This also works for
watering plants etc.
"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
Just in case you ca

http://www.autotopoff.com/

Marc


Dinky wrote:

I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia

--

billy
--
Need tech help?
http://www.winextra.com
news://news.winextra.com

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

you can use this siphon effect to make an autotopoff without any switches or
floats.

needed:

5 gallon water bottle
plastic waste paper basket
1/2" tubing
small pieces of 2x4 used to make a stand for the waste basket
water crock spigot
small hose clamp

drill hole in side of basket near the bottom
insert spigot
using clamp, fasten hose on spigot
fill basket with water
insert end of hose in sump under water
lift basket until siphon starts
find the correct height of water such that the height of water in the basket
is about 1/2 way
using the wood, make a stand to hold the basket at that height
invert the 5 gallon jug in the basket

when the water level in the sump drops, it will suck water from the basket
through the siphon. when the water level of the system drops enough, the
water will come out of the jug to replace it.

note: turn off the power and watch what happens to the water level in the
basket. ensure it won't overflow.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

"George Burnt" wrote in message
.. .
I wanted the same thing without spending much money .

What I have is two plastic five gallon gasoline containers (they never had
gas in them) I put rigid tubing in each one with a little bit of the tube
sticking out of a hole I made in the top of them. These tubes go all the
way
to the bottom of the tank I then put a lot of silicone at the hole to make
it air tight. Another rigid tube goes into the vent hole of each tank,
again
I made the holes air tight with silicone. Then I tok an old air pump that
I
had and connected it to one of the riged tubes with standard airline
tubing.
and connect one container to the other in the same way. connect the air
pump
to a timer and voila.
What happens is that the airpump will pressurize the gasoline container
and
send water up the airline into your tank for a set amount of time. By
regulating the time that the timer is on, you can reguate how much water
is
added daily. Just make sure that the end of the tube is dripping into your
tank and is not actually in the water, otherwise when it turns off the
tank
water will siphon back into the casoline containers. This also works for
watering plants etc.
"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
Just in case you ca

http://www.autotopoff.com/

Marc


Dinky wrote:

I have found a couple auto-top-off plans on the net, but they are
either so poorly written that I cannot follow them, or include the
use of expensive pumps, switches, sensors, and valves. I'm not in a
position to spend much money at this point, but with the switch to a
refugium\sump from my bigass sump I took out has resulted in the need
for such a device.
I'm looking for a very basic system, gravity\siphon-fed. I can
build\fabricate most components myself, and have tubing, acrylic and
many other materials on hand.

tia

--

billy
--
Need tech help?
http://www.winextra.com
news://news.winextra.com

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

Billy:

The simplest (and one of the ugliest) automatic topoff systems I ever
saw was on a tank in a dorm room at school. This guy Bruce (physics
grad student) had a sal****er tank with a homemade top-off mechanism -
no electricity needed. As best as I can recall:

He had a water container (it was like a 5 gallon water cooler bottle,
but GLASS!!!). I think he must have "acquired" it from one of the labs
; He had created a funky mounting system out of scrap wood to hold it
upside down on his desk, with the opening about 2 feet off the desk.
I don't know what kind of cork or stopper was in the bottle, but it
had two small tubes coming out of it. One was a J-tube that connected
to some plastic tubing that was taped to the bottom (now top) of the
jar, for a vent line. The other tube went to his fish tank.

In the fish tank (no sump) he had some kind of plastic tube with slots
cut in it that the water line connected to, and he was using a ping
pong ball for a float valve. When the water level dropped, the ping
pong ball sunk a little, and let water dribble out until the level
came back up enough to shut off the flow again.

I do remember that it was pretty finicky - he was always cursing it
out, and it flooded his desk at least twice... But it was certainly
simple!

Patrick



"Dinky" wrote in message link.net...
"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
| If you want gravity fed, the easiest thing is to get a container
that you can
| put up on a stand next to your tank. Drill a hole near the base,
and insert
| some type of grommet or bulkhead that allows you to affix some 1/4"
tubing
| without leaking. Home Depot sells that gizmo for evaporative water
coolers.
|
| Run the tubing to your sump, and affix a float valve in your sump.
As
| eveaporation takes place, the valve will drop and allow water to
gravity feed
| into your sump, and the float lifts back up to seal the line until
needed again.
|
| Marc
|

I'd really like to stay away from any more electrical components. I'm
already worried about how much I'm dragging out of this outlet as it
is, (return, tanklights, fuge lights, powerheads, skimmer, heaters)
and like I said, I don't want to buy much. Most of the options I'm
finding require installation of yet another water pump, or electric
valves.

I found this:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/to...hon/index.html

and I think I'm going to puzzle this one out. The bloody thing has
the description in the format of a bleeding IRC session, nut it's the
only thing that meets my apparently unrealistic criterion.

tyvm marc, john.


billy

Billy:

The simplest (and one of the ugliest) automatic topoff systems I ever
saw was on a tank in a dorm room at school. This guy Bruce (physics
grad student) had a sal****er tank with a homemade top-off mechanism -
no electricity needed. As best as I can recall:

He had a water container (it was like a 5 gallon water cooler bottle,
but GLASS!!!). I think he must have "acquired" it from one of the labs
; He had created a funky mounting system out of scrap wood to hold it
upside down on his desk, with the opening about 2 feet off the desk.
I don't know what kind of cork or stopper was in the bottle, but it
had two small tubes coming out of it. One was a J-tube that connected
to some plastic tubing that was taped to the bottom (now top) of the
jar, for a vent line. The other tube went to his fish tank.

In the fish tank he had some kind of plastic tube with slots cut in it
that the water line connected to, and he was using a ping pong ball
for a float valve. When the water level dropped, the ping pong ball
sunk a little, and let water dribble out until the level came back up
enough to shut off the flow again.

I do remember that it was pretty finicky - he was always cursing it
out, and it flooded his desk at least twice... But it was certainly
simple!

Patrick



"Dinky" wrote in message link.net...
"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
| If you want gravity fed, the easiest thing is to get a container
that you can
| put up on a stand next to your tank. Drill a hole near the base,
and insert
| some type of grommet or bulkhead that allows you to affix some 1/4"
tubing
| without leaking. Home Depot sells that gizmo for evaporative water
coolers.
|
| Run the tubing to your sump, and affix a float valve in your sump.
As
| eveaporation takes place, the valve will drop and allow water to
gravity feed
| into your sump, and the float lifts back up to seal the line until
needed again.
|
| Marc
|

I'd really like to stay away from any more electrical components. I'm
already worried about how much I'm dragging out of this outlet as it
is, (return, tanklights, fuge lights, powerheads, skimmer, heaters)
and like I said, I don't want to buy much. Most of the options I'm
finding require installation of yet another water pump, or electric
valves.

I found this:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/to...hon/index.html

and I think I'm going to puzzle this one out. The bloody thing has
the description in the format of a bleeding IRC session, nut it's the
only thing that meets my apparently unrealistic criterion.

tyvm marc, john.


billy

I don't think you will get cheaper than this:

http://www.inreef.com/xcart/customer...cat=294&page=1



"Patrick" wrote in message
om...
Billy:

The simplest (and one of the ugliest) automatic topoff systems I ever
saw was on a tank in a dorm room at school. This guy Bruce (physics
grad student) had a sal****er tank with a homemade top-off mechanism -
no electricity needed. As best as I can recall:

He had a water container (it was like a 5 gallon water cooler bottle,
but GLASS!!!). I think he must have "acquired" it from one of the labs
; He had created a funky mounting system out of scrap wood to hold it
upside down on his desk, with the opening about 2 feet off the desk.
I don't know what kind of cork or stopper was in the bottle, but it
had two small tubes coming out of it. One was a J-tube that connected
to some plastic tubing that was taped to the bottom (now top) of the
jar, for a vent line. The other tube went to his fish tank.

In the fish tank he had some kind of plastic tube with slots cut in it
that the water line connected to, and he was using a ping pong ball
for a float valve. When the water level dropped, the ping pong ball
sunk a little, and let water dribble out until the level came back up
enough to shut off the flow again.

I do remember that it was pretty finicky - he was always cursing it
out, and it flooded his desk at least twice... But it was certainly
simple!

Patrick



"Dinky" wrote in message
link.net...
"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
| If you want gravity fed, the easiest thing is to get a container
that you can
| put up on a stand next to your tank. Drill a hole near the base,
and insert
| some type of grommet or bulkhead that allows you to affix some 1/4"
tubing
| without leaking. Home Depot sells that gizmo for evaporative water
coolers.
|
| Run the tubing to your sump, and affix a float valve in your sump.
As
| eveaporation takes place, the valve will drop and allow water to
gravity feed
| into your sump, and the float lifts back up to seal the line until
needed again.
|
| Marc
|

I'd really like to stay away from any more electrical components. I'm
already worried about how much I'm dragging out of this outlet as it
is, (return, tanklights, fuge lights, powerheads, skimmer, heaters)
and like I said, I don't want to buy much. Most of the options I'm
finding require installation of yet another water pump, or electric
valves.

I found this:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cap/raid/to...hon/index.html

and I think I'm going to puzzle this one out. The bloody thing has
the description in the format of a bleeding IRC session, nut it's the
only thing that meets my apparently unrealistic criterion.

tyvm marc, john.


billy