Topoff Water

Nanz · 08/14/2009, 06:52 AM

Topoff water in my system is fed by a RO/DI system instead of manually filled but my TDS is high in my topoff tank compared to running my RO unit for 5 mins to flush it first before colleting the water.

WaterKeeper · 08/14/2009, 07:22 AM

It is always somewhat of a risk to link the RO/DI system directly to the tank. If there is a failure in the ATO the tank may get a continual flow of RO/DI and overflow. Take it from me as I had it happen and wiped out my tank.

Sisterlimonpot · 08/14/2009, 07:25 AM

I read those stories all the time. It scared me enough that I manually fill my top off reservoir. Plus you can test your TDS before adding it to the reservoir.

Rjukan · 08/14/2009, 07:41 AM

I think he is saying that when the rodi is plumbed to the ato reservoir he is seeing higher TDS than if he let's the rodi run for a couple min, then manually fill the ato with rodi? I notice the same thing and just let my rodi run for a min into the sink before I fill my ato bucket.

steri · 08/14/2009, 07:56 AM

I have a 75 gallon. I add about 3 gallons/week to my tank. I just hang one or two gallon jugs and put them above the tank and let it drip in. Takes a couple of hours to drip, but 30 seconds to set up. After t's set up, I walk away. Easy as pie.....ummmmmm pie.

Nanz · 08/14/2009, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rjukan
I think he is saying that when the rodi is plumbed to the ato reservoir he is seeing higher TDS than if he let's the rodi run for a couple min, then manually fill the ato with rodi? I notice the same thing and just let my rodi run for a min into the sink before I fill my ato bucket.

Exactly my RO/DI unit is plumbed to the topoff container not the tank. I got a TDS meter for my RO/DI unit and noticed it takes about 5-10 mins for the TDS to drop.

Oh and last time I check I am still a she, hehe

Rjukan · 08/14/2009, 09:54 AM

Lol doh! Sorry I usually never assume sex, figures the one time I do I'm wrong

Wow yeah 5 to 10 is a long time IMO, mine it's about 30sec to a min and it's down to 1 or 0. But my tap TDS is only 45ppm.

Nanz · 08/14/2009, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rjukan
Lol doh! Sorry I usually never assume sex, figures the one time I do I'm wrong

Wow yeah 5 to 10 is a long time IMO, mine it's about 30sec to a min and it's down to 1 or 0. But my tap TDS is only 45ppm.

NP

My tap TDS is 175

Mike31154 · 08/14/2009, 12:44 PM

I prefer to make my RO/DI in larger batches for precisely the reason you stated - it takes a few minutes for the RO output to reach its normal (for me) operating level of 1 to 2 TDS. My source water TDS is around 200 to 210.

I use two 7 gallon glass carboys normally used by winemakers as my ATO reservoirs. The carboy is fitted with a robber stopper with two holes fitted with rigid air tubing and an air pump on a timer to pressurize the container. As the air pressure builds up, the water is pushed from the carboy into my display. Took a while to figure out the evaporation rate and set the timer to the appropriate interval in order to keep up. Still not perfect but it's pretty close, top up rate changes somewhat as the container level drops. One 7 gal carboy is good for about a week's worth of evap in the display, approx 1 gal/per day for my 75. So about once a week I need to lug a big glass container from the basement up to my display, don't have a sump yet.

WaterKeeper · 08/14/2009, 12:55 PM

Regis-

You elected to Poll the audience. Almost 90% say,
B, No. Do you want to use that as your final answer for $4000?

Sorry,but Millionaire has been on all week.

gowingsgo · 08/14/2009, 01:24 PM

I have seen so many people have there ATO fail at one point in time. I even had mine fail only after having it in my sump for two months do to scum build up on the shaft. I now clean it every other week. My reservoir is a 5 gallon bucket so at most my salinity will not drop to much if it fails again. I have a 125 gallon tank with a 60 gallon sump 185 total gallons. I lose about 1 to 2 gallons a day. If I know I am going to be out of town more then 3 days I just put a 10 to 15 gallon bucket under my tank. also I made sure that my sump could hold all the water from the ATO reservoir and have extra room if my return pump fails well I'm out of town. It is no fun coming home to a tank crash and wet carpet.

cveverly · 08/14/2009, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sisterlimonpot
I read those stories all the time. It scared me enough that I manually fill my top off reservoir. Plus you can test your TDS before adding it to the reservoir.

Same here. Manually fill ATO reservoir.

WaterKeeper · 08/14/2009, 02:22 PM

In my case the ATO ran off two level probes. It would run when it reached to lower probe level then cut off when it hit the upper probe. While doing maintenence on the tank I somehow pulled off the wire to that upper probe. It was a Friday and I was gone for the weekend. I had a FW tank when I returned on Monday.

In the orginial tank, with the system below tank's top level, it would just have overflowed the feed weir box but I moved to a new place and didn't have space to have that safty factor in place. The result was everything in the tank was dead on my return.

I should not that my RO/DI then could produce a liter per minute. That would be like having a 1200 gallon RO unit connected to the tank.

wooden_reefer · 08/14/2009, 05:02 PM

You can also setup something semi-automatic. Use bottle and valves.

refer to the water cooler, the kind with a bottle of water on top inverted, for inspiration. Same principle.

fatdaddy · 08/14/2009, 08:02 PM

I put two solenoids in a series and have two sensors. I have a better chance of my tank going dry then flooding. No problems so far, but I check the system weekly to be sure.

das75 · 08/14/2009, 11:42 PM

Risk taker here, direct to ro/di for near 3 years, zero problems. Just using a humidifier float valve picked up at HD, no wires, electrical floats switches, magnetic, optical or acoustic sensors, controllers, solenoids, fuses, terminal strips etc, just a simple mechanical float valve.

Float itself is like a inverted molded cup to hold air, no seams to leak, foam to get saturated...

View Poll Results: How do you fill your topoff container
Plumbed directly to the RO/DI unit	6	9.68%
Manually fill with water from RO/DI	56	90.32%
Voters: 62. You may not vote on this poll

08/14/2009, 06:52 AM	#1
Nanz Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,389	Topoff Water Topoff water in my system is fed by a RO/DI system instead of manually filled but my TDS is high in my topoff tank compared to running my RO unit for 5 mins to flush it first before colleting the water. __________________ S.G. = 1.025, Temp = 78.5, pH = 8.00 Ca = 550 ppm, Alk = 176 ppm (9.85 dKH), Mg = 1300 ppm NO3 = 0.97 ppm, PO4 = 0.07 ppm Nuvo 30, Razor Nano LED, Tunze ATO, Tunze 9004 skimmer, Vortec mp10,

08/14/2009, 07:22 AM	#2
WaterKeeper Bogus Information Expert Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 16,147	It is always somewhat of a risk to link the RO/DI system directly to the tank. If there is a failure in the ATO the tank may get a continual flow of RO/DI and overflow. Take it from me as I had it happen and wiped out my tank. __________________ "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" Tom Current Tank Info: 130 Now out of service and a 29

08/14/2009, 07:25 AM	#3
Sisterlimonpot R.C. Fraternity President Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Litchfeild Park AZ Posts: 11,490 Blog Entries: 2	I read those stories all the time. It scared me enough that I manually fill my top off reservoir. Plus you can test your TDS before adding it to the reservoir. __________________ Jimmy MASVC President Dishes are done man! Current Tank Info: 300 in progress

08/14/2009, 07:41 AM	#4
Rjukan Day Dreamer Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: SINY Posts: 625	I think he is saying that when the rodi is plumbed to the ato reservoir he is seeing higher TDS than if he let's the rodi run for a couple min, then manually fill the ato with rodi? I notice the same thing and just let my rodi run for a min into the sink before I fill my ato bucket. __________________ - Pete Current Tank Info: 60 gal Deep Blue cube, AquaC EV180, Kessil H80 fuge, A360WE TB

08/14/2009, 07:56 AM	#5
steri Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Aurora, IL. Posts: 2,361	I have a 75 gallon. I add about 3 gallons/week to my tank. I just hang one or two gallon jugs and put them above the tank and let it drip in. Takes a couple of hours to drip, but 30 seconds to set up. After t's set up, I walk away. Easy as pie.....ummmmmm pie. __________________ 220g: French Angel, Emperor Angel, Passer Anger, Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, Snowflake Moray Eel, Lunar Wrasse Current Tank Info: 220 with T5HO lighting. ETSS skimmer.

08/14/2009, 09:54 AM	#7
Rjukan Day Dreamer Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: SINY Posts: 625	Lol doh! Sorry I usually never assume sex, figures the one time I do I'm wrong Wow yeah 5 to 10 is a long time IMO, mine it's about 30sec to a min and it's down to 1 or 0. But my tap TDS is only 45ppm. __________________ - Pete Current Tank Info: 60 gal Deep Blue cube, AquaC EV180, Kessil H80 fuge, A360WE TB

08/14/2009, 12:44 PM	#9
Mike31154 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: B.C. Canada Posts: 1,555	I prefer to make my RO/DI in larger batches for precisely the reason you stated - it takes a few minutes for the RO output to reach its normal (for me) operating level of 1 to 2 TDS. My source water TDS is around 200 to 210. I use two 7 gallon glass carboys normally used by winemakers as my ATO reservoirs. The carboy is fitted with a robber stopper with two holes fitted with rigid air tubing and an air pump on a timer to pressurize the container. As the air pressure builds up, the water is pushed from the carboy into my display. Took a while to figure out the evaporation rate and set the timer to the appropriate interval in order to keep up. Still not perfect but it's pretty close, top up rate changes somewhat as the container level drops. One 7 gal carboy is good for about a week's worth of evap in the display, approx 1 gal/per day for my 75. So about once a week I need to lug a big glass container from the basement up to my display, don't have a sump yet. __________________ Mike Current Tank Info: 77g sumpless sw with rock, sand, a few critters, fishes & polyps. Lights, pumps.....

08/14/2009, 12:55 PM	#10
WaterKeeper Bogus Information Expert Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 16,147	Regis- You elected to Poll the audience. Almost 90% say, B, No. Do you want to use that as your final answer for $4000? Sorry,but Millionaire has been on all week. __________________ "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" Tom Current Tank Info: 130 Now out of service and a 29

08/14/2009, 01:24 PM	#11
gowingsgo Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: cincinnati Posts: 175	I have seen so many people have there ATO fail at one point in time. I even had mine fail only after having it in my sump for two months do to scum build up on the shaft. I now clean it every other week. My reservoir is a 5 gallon bucket so at most my salinity will not drop to much if it fails again. I have a 125 gallon tank with a 60 gallon sump 185 total gallons. I lose about 1 to 2 gallons a day. If I know I am going to be out of town more then 3 days I just put a 10 to 15 gallon bucket under my tank. also I made sure that my sump could hold all the water from the ATO reservoir and have extra room if my return pump fails well I'm out of town. It is no fun coming home to a tank crash and wet carpet.

08/14/2009, 02:22 PM	#13
WaterKeeper Bogus Information Expert Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 16,147	In my case the ATO ran off two level probes. It would run when it reached to lower probe level then cut off when it hit the upper probe. While doing maintenence on the tank I somehow pulled off the wire to that upper probe. It was a Friday and I was gone for the weekend. I had a FW tank when I returned on Monday. In the orginial tank, with the system below tank's top level, it would just have overflowed the feed weir box but I moved to a new place and didn't have space to have that safty factor in place. The result was everything in the tank was dead on my return. I should not that my RO/DI then could produce a liter per minute. That would be like having a 1200 gallon RO unit connected to the tank. __________________ "Leading the information hungry reefer down the road to starvation" Tom Current Tank Info: 130 Now out of service and a 29

08/14/2009, 05:02 PM	#14
wooden_reefer Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 4,670	You can also setup something semi-automatic. Use bottle and valves. refer to the water cooler, the kind with a bottle of water on top inverted, for inspiration. Same principle.

08/14/2009, 08:02 PM	#15
fatdaddy Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Northeast Florida Posts: 1,191	I put two solenoids in a series and have two sensors. I have a better chance of my tank going dry then flooding. No problems so far, but I check the system weekly to be sure. __________________ "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -- Aristotle

08/14/2009, 11:42 PM	#16
das75 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Edmonton AB Posts: 2,269	Risk taker here, direct to ro/di for near 3 years, zero problems. Just using a humidifier float valve picked up at HD, no wires, electrical floats switches, magnetic, optical or acoustic sensors, controllers, solenoids, fuses, terminal strips etc, just a simple mechanical float valve. Float itself is like a inverted molded cup to hold air, no seams to leak, foam to get saturated...