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auto top off question when on vacation

B

bogliman

Does anyone know what to do when you go on a vacation for a week and you have a 12 gallon that needs some fresh water filled every couple of days specially in the summer time? Besides asking a friend to go to your house and fill it up with RO water.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
You can go out and buy a complete auto top off unit and get the pumps and sump. I believe that might be a bit overkill for a 12g tank. If you have good knowledge of pumps and plumbing you might be able to rig something, I personally have none of that. You can also look for a Kent doser which is basically just a big jug with a drip line on it. You could let that drip all week, but I would want someone to come over and make sure you were not dumping to much water out.

Besides the friend route, I am not sure what else could last over a week. My fiancee and I are toying around with the idea of freezing some ro water and putting it in the refugium to regulate temp and add fresh water to help with the evaporation of the summer time, but that is more of a short term solution.
 
B

bogliman

Thanks. i will definitely try the kent and freezing RO water since i also have a 30G tank that i'm much worried about in the summer. we have our airconditioning on in the day time although i'm not sure if that will help when the temp really rises above 90 outside.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
The ice idea is for our 30 as well. We have MH on there and it is already starting to run a little hot in the apartment. I have the JBJ 12 gallon and with the hood i really don't have to deal with that much evaporation issues, and salinity is balanced out with weekly water changes.
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I had a 12g nano in my office for a few years. It had the standard hood with T5 lighting and I never really need to worry about evaporation either. I'd make sure it was really full before I went on vacation and then top it off when I got back. If you have some time, try filling yours up and then don't top it off. See if it will last the 7 days or not.
 
B

bogliman

how did you do a 12g with a T5? i've never seen one that fits a 12g. my 12g has a regular pc lighting and my 34g redsea has the T5.

i have a hood on my 34 gallon redsea and the 12 gallon jbj but i took the hood off the 12g so i could attach the jbj mh lighting clip since i have an RBT in there that i put for my maroon clown pair.
 
B

bogliman

bogliman said:
how did you do a 12g with a T5? i've never seen one that fits a 12g. my 12g has a regular pc lighting and my 34g redsea has the T5.

i have a hood on my 34 gallon redsea and the 12 gallon jbj but i took the hood off the 12g so i could attach the jbj mh lighting clip since i have an RBT in there that i put for my maroon clown pair.
Click to expand...
12 gallon jbj
24 gallon redsea
75 gallon allglass
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
You're right, the T5 was on another tank! My JBJ had PC's on it, sorry for the confusion.
 
B

bogliman

i was hoping you had it. i would have replace my pc with that. thanks anyway. I wish these nanos would make smaller T5s lighting instead of pc. There's a lot of us reefers that want a nano which can handle all types of inverts and corals. I think the smallest nano i've seen with the least HO lighting (T5) is on a 24G or a 34G.
 
V

vangvace

Whatever method you chose make sure you test it a couple times first.

I'd recommend an auto-top off hooked into one of the rear chambers if you have the room. Also it makes it one less thing to worry about daily.
 
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