[volitan_fa]

I'm in the stages of putting together a 120 gallon in-wall system and would like to make a simple ATO by simply hooking a solenoid up to the water source that will be run in the cabinet (filtered, no worries :P) and controlled by a float. Anyone ever attempted this? The water source hasn't been run to the cabinet yet, so there is flexibility in this. Also, would like to keep this as cost-effective as possible (ie, not a $300 solenoid).

Thanks all for your input ahead of time!

[pogodzib]

Yes, many people have done similar things, but personally, I don't like having a water source connected directly into my reef tanks because of two reasons:

a.) The water source is always on so if hte ATO system fails, it could flood the house and

b.) If the water source fails, your tank water salinity can drop quickly, causing loss of livestock.

I prefer having my water source being filters and connected into a large container (44 gal rubbermaid trash can works good) and then I pump my fresh RO water into a seperate ATO container that is connected into my main tank. This way, I can shut off the water source without shutting off my ATO system and my ATO system does not have an unlimited water supply.

[map95003]

I'm with Brian on this....I have some experience...I flooded my basement, not sure if the float switch just got stuck or what, after the flood everything seem to work OK. Luckily I did not have any thing in the tank but LS and LR at the time.

....but I did not want to take any more chances, so I switched to a 20 g ATO acrylic tank that I fill up every few weeks and I gravity feed my sump via a float valve...very low tech, cheap and seems to work well.

[volitan_fa]

The only problem with using a reservoir in this situation is the serious space constraints I have. There is a 48"x30"x40" high cabinet to fit everything into under the tank. But there is a water line and drain built into the floor in the cabinet so I'm trying to take advantage of this...

Any ideas for reliable solenoids?

[eb6713]

Aquarium Level Controller

Has 3 safety's built in, I love mine

4 years no problems

[volitan_fa]

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for, although at a slightly higher price

[Frogfish]

This is a pretty simple and easy DIY auto top off that can be modified to fit many situations.

I have my RO/DI system in the basement. Instead of buying a couple of hundred dollar pump to fill the sumps I am running it directly off the RO unit. Note - some people do not reccomend this as the RO membrane may pass some bad water when first started up.

I put a tee on the good water discharge from my RO/DI. One end I ran to my storage bucket. The other goes up through the floor to the back of the tank stand.

The tubing runs through a ball valve, the solenoid valve, from McMaster Carr p/n 7877K53, and to a float valve in the sump. The solenoid is powered by a digital timer. Then both the timer and float are are on water will fill the sump. This gives the failsafe backup of having two devices call for water in case one fails.

I have it set up so that twice a day for 30 minutes the solenoid is energized. For me that is plenty to keep the sump filled.