Scottdl99 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I'm starting this thread to see what everyone does to replenish daily water evap in their tank setup. Please post what you do to keep your tank full of water! And specify if you top off with freshwater, saltwater, tap water or what ever it is you may do. There is a resson I am asking for everyone's opinion.... is to resolve a matter of differences between myself and another person Myself: I have my tank setup on a 15g water resivor that is gravity fed to a float valve in my return pump section in my sump. I refill the 15g jug with R/O water every week to two weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopEyeTim Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 RODI water only. Salt does not evaporate Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbellm Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Tunze ATO with a 5 gallon rodi container when I had my 75gallon. I had a prior float switch DIY ato which worked for a few years but as time went on the switches started to go bad and make noise... The new tank I will have a water changing station with a tunze ato and a 55 gallon rotomold rodi storage tank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottdl99 Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 RODI water only. Salt does not evaporate Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using TapatalkThis is the main part of the disagreement. It's exactly what I've stated to them. Just wanted a thread full of responses to send to them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaco Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I have a 5 gallon bucket of RO/DI with a Dual ATO switch from autotop off and an aqualifter for a pump. I lose about a gallon a day on my 125. On my 75 I used a similar setup with a gravity fed float. Very easy to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke33 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 RODI reservoir thats 30g. It will last for a good two weeks or so. Hydor ATO fills up my tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwoller Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Tell them to go ahead and top off with saltwater and see how fast their salinity rises. I top off manually with RODI. Never bothered setting up my automated top off on this tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke33 Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 The real question is who tops off with tap water lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwoller Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Is this a customers tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottdl99 Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 It's a friend of a friends tank I'm helping them with. But she's completly stuck on what she's been told that salt evaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWags911SC Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I don't have the best setup for top-off, but I use RODI water only (not tap or saltwater), a 5 gallon clear jug that I fill up about once every three or four days. A JBJ system with the old float style switch hooked up to sensor A and a Tom's Aqualifter to get it from the 5 gallon jug to the sump under my tank. I have had no issues with changes in salinity for going on two months now with this setup, though it is a pain to refill the 5 gallon from my RODI unit. One of the things I learned is never to top off with saltwater or water out of the tap, RODI water only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solor Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 44 gal Brute with RODI water, about 1 gal a day using Liter Meter III WXM module Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lrood Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 32 gallon Brute reservoir filled about 2/3 with RO/DI, run with auto topoff unit into sump through a Kalk reactor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottdl99 Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 I just haven't had the time yet to prove it with the refractometer. I want her to see this thread tho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatO Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Rodi only. On the big tank it was 3-4gal a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bneufelder Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 What Pat said! . I have a spectrapurd ultra precise ATO. It's pretty awesome and I would highly recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBugmaster Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 5 gal container I fill with RODI water only. Using a Tunze ATO Salt does not evaporate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 200 Gallon RO/DI reservoir. My SG would climb fast if topping off with SW, that's something any newb should even know:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryansweet Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 The general rule is to top off with RODI only, which I agree with completely. There have been studies done to observe the affect of salinity fluctuations by some research aquariums by topping off with 35ppt salt water and keeping meticulously regulated water changes with a lower salinity solution to better simulate natural ocean conditions which are never 100% stable. This has to be done with spot on testing and knowing what extreme changes your animals can and can't stand up to. I don't know if results have been posted or if the studies are still ongoing, I'll see if I can't find the write up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralfarm123 Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 While salt does not evaporate you do lose some through your skimmer and salt creep, but nothing a water change won't fix. I use RODI and check salinity at water change time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plantguy Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 DI for top-off, with an appropriately sized holding container. For the floats, im using the apex on the big system, and a ReefFanatic level controller on the others. I use the TOM Aqualifters for moving the water from the holding container to the sump, they hold up well, are cheap, and if anything goes weird, the flow is slow enough to keep it from being bad by dropping the pH or salinity too fast. Another reason I only use appropriately sized holding containers, even though it may be convenient to have a really big storage capacity, it sucks to lose a tank over a snail that holds a float open and dumps that really big storage all over the tank, floor, basement... For my ~100 gallon setup at home, I have a 10 gallon container, even if it completely dumps via the Aqualifter, its done over a long period of time, and it won't overflow my sump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwoller Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 What Plantguy said for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefer82 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 RO/DI is the only way for me and I plan to do the same as Plantguy. Ill have an apex and and a tunze 3155 on the new tank. Ill probably just slap a 10gal tank in the stand for an ato reservoir. That should last a week and at which point I should probably check on things anyhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewG Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Does anybody dose their rodi top off water with kalk or other additives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Does anybody dose their rodi top off water with kalk or other additives? Used to, but kalk junks up the pumps too much imo. Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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