Tweet
Ahhh okay, only need salt mix for water changes? Now that makes sense to what Darbex said earlier with freshwater and salinity. I assumed that you topped off saltwater with more saltwater
-
-
Your water evaporates salt doesn'tComment
-
Duh, I should've known that! Good deal - I have to rethink a few things thenComment
-
Andrew I think you are getting confused by ATO. ATO is Automatic Top-Off, its a controller that watches the water level and when it goes below a set point it turns on a pump (sold seperately) to start pumping water from a reservoir (in your case the 5G tank) full of RO/DI. Like I said before to me its very important because it allows for a near constant level of salinaty. Where as with out then you will have large swings in salinaty which is bad for all life inside your tank. If you want your are welcome to come by my house and take a look at my set-up to get an idea of what it should look like. I am always available to help out a fellow fish keeper do it right. IMO the best ATO system is http://www.avastmarine.com/ssc/do/pr...ng/Top-off-Kit it doesnt have the stupid float switch which can get stuck.
Looking at the site they now have an updated ATO for a little more that connects to my Apex. I may be buying a new ATO and selling my old avast ATO. They upgraded their stuff MJ.Comment
-
Nice. I didn't even know that existed.All bleeding stops eventually...Comment
-
Yeah technically you can use ATO for any tank Fresh or salt its just not nearly as important in FW.Comment
-
Does it matter what pump is used? I'm assuming something small, but still strong enough to go up the 4-5 feet? A small maxi-jet or something? I could see a big mag pump wiping out that 5gal storage tank a tad too quickComment
-
One thing I wish was possible for FW is a skimmer. Though I know it will not be possible unless someone can figure out how to give the water the properties of SW as it comes in and not allow it into the tank. But it would be cool to be able to pull out the organics from a FW tank allowing for less water changes.Comment
-
Yeah something small. But you dont need to pump it up to the tank. And actually I recommend against it. You should have the ATO set-up in the sump and the water pumps into the sump. This allows for the FW to mix a little with the SW before being sent into the tank. This allows for the salinity to even out and you arent dumping FW all over your corals and fish for the same reason mentioned above about having an ATO. Though it will be a lot less FW than not having an ATO but still anything in the path of the pump outlet will be blasted by no salinity which somethings can handle it but a lot of livestock cant.Originally posted by Andrew_B View PostComment
-
Makes perfect sense, and much easier to setup. Next on my research list is figure out my diy sump compartments. Wet/dry concept is easy, sump seems a little more involved. I can find diagrams on google images though for themComment
-
Sump and wet/dry is virtually the same thing no difference. If you want a sump then just take out the bio balls and add LR and sand if you want and you have a sump. Now you might be talking about a refugium which is different because it allows for room to basically have a small tank under the tank to put plants and fish that will help clean the water.Comment
-
Yeah I was looking into the layouts like this: tank -> mech filter -> skimmer -> large area with chaeto and live rock/sand -> maybe some kind of carbon (if needed) then back up to tank. So I guess a refugium. Any disadvantages to either sump/refugium?Comment
-
This is what I use for ATO pump.
http://www.aquacave.com/Aqua-Lifter-...FYRgTAod8hgSZQ
pumps slow enough for the water to mix without jumping in params a small mini-jet would work too or a fountain pump from harbor freight.700g Mini-Monster tankComment
-
I like something like that a lot better than something that pumps 200gph. Awesome (adds to list of things to buy)Comment
-
My auto top off is just a float valve ran off my ro/Di pretty simpleComment
Comment