does any one here use one of these and how does it work. I want to look into this since ive found my sump running almost dry a couple of times the problem is where i have my ro/di units it is at least 15ft away from my tank. I know from the unit is not enough to reach all the way over there is there a pump that comes with these units. Also does this connect straight to the ro unit or do you need a special tank.
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automatic water top off units
- Thread starter saltwaterguy112
- Start date
My RO unit is about 10 feet or so away from my water storage drum (probably closer to 20 after the tubing is run along the walls to get to the drum). The way I have it set up (and probably most others) is that you have your RO/DI unit hooked to a float switch in some sort of drum. Then you have a pump in that drum that will be controlled by the Auto Top Off unit. So when your sump level gets low the ATO will kick on that pump in the storage drum, when the level in the drum goes down the float switch will drop down and kick on your RO/DI unit. I think to do this properly you also need a Auto Shut Off Valve (ASOV) so your RO/DI doesn't continually run.
Hope that helps!
Hope that helps!
I see the thing is i have my drum located right in front of my ro unit so to achieve this i would have to place the auto top off in the drum and run a line 15ft or so into the sump if this is possiable or does the drum have to be closer to the sump in order to achieve this. Also how many drums do you guys operate with. I have one where i have my salt water mixed up and fill up a 5gallon bucket everyday to top off. Am i going to need a whole new drum to have only fresh water set up.
Brian said:
You would be surprise how far a Maxijet 1200 can send the water. My 55 gal R/O drum is on the floor and 20 ft away from the sump, so it goes up 6 ft and over 20 ft and back down and still has no problems filling the sump when the ATO kickes in.
Now one more thing to understand this 100% u have to drums one for salt and one tap water. Your ro unit supplies water to both drums at the same time with what i would guess would be some type of Y connection.Or do you swithch lines back and forth. It is then connected to the float valve which would cut off water to filled drums. Then on the tap water drum you would have you auto top off unit with the return pump inside which would feed water over to sump which would also have another type of float valve to shut off pump. Assuming this is all correct how do you get the ATO controller(unit for powering the pump on) over to the drum with the pump. I am assuming that the controller will be placed in the sump triggering on/off the pump which is about 15ft away.
To simplify this my question is how do you get the power over to the pump which is going to be feeding the water into the sump when the float that controlls this unit has to be located in the sump.I am pretty sure that the cable is not long enough to reach all the way back into the tank.
Here is how I do it using the JBJ topoff controller http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=JB5111 , but the concept works for any type of controller.
My RO/DI unit feeds a 55 Gallon Drum that sits up on blocks. The drum has a Kent Float arm near the top to turn off the RO/DI water flow via an ASOV (Automatic shutoff valve) that is provided on most RO/DI Units.
My saltwater mixing drum is on wheels and I just roll it over to the 55 gallon RODI drum, open a valve on the bottom of the drum and let water dump into it. Then I roll it out and put salt in and let it mix. At that point the RO/DI drum starts to refill from the RO/DI unit.
The AutoTop controller is mounted near my sump with switch A in the sump. Switch B is extended with about 20 feet of speaker wire and sits near the bottom of the RO/DI Drum. A Maxjet 1200 is in the bottom of the drum with 1/2" tubing going back to the sump, and the pump has an extension cord on it that goes back to the controller. The controller only turns on the power plug for the pump when Switch A is low (sump level is low) and Switch B is high (RODI drum is not empty)
I go one step further to stay out of the flood of month club, and have the topoff controller plugged into my Aquacontroller 3 and only allow it to run for 1 minute every 2 hours (assuming the float switches are calling for water).
Clear as mud?
My RO/DI unit feeds a 55 Gallon Drum that sits up on blocks. The drum has a Kent Float arm near the top to turn off the RO/DI water flow via an ASOV (Automatic shutoff valve) that is provided on most RO/DI Units.
My saltwater mixing drum is on wheels and I just roll it over to the 55 gallon RODI drum, open a valve on the bottom of the drum and let water dump into it. Then I roll it out and put salt in and let it mix. At that point the RO/DI drum starts to refill from the RO/DI unit.
The AutoTop controller is mounted near my sump with switch A in the sump. Switch B is extended with about 20 feet of speaker wire and sits near the bottom of the RO/DI Drum. A Maxjet 1200 is in the bottom of the drum with 1/2" tubing going back to the sump, and the pump has an extension cord on it that goes back to the controller. The controller only turns on the power plug for the pump when Switch A is low (sump level is low) and Switch B is high (RODI drum is not empty)
I go one step further to stay out of the flood of month club, and have the topoff controller plugged into my Aquacontroller 3 and only allow it to run for 1 minute every 2 hours (assuming the float switches are calling for water).
Clear as mud?
I'm using a 32 gal rubbermaid can and SP3000 dosing pump which are located in my basement, I have that plugged into a float switch also in the basement which is then plugged into a timer, the sensor is located on the first floor in my sump. I extended the wire using regular speaker wire. The SP3000 pumps around 30ft from the basement to the fist floor livingroom which is on the other side of the house.
This is the float switch I use
http://www.tfjpetcenter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=274
This is the float switch I use
http://www.tfjpetcenter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=274
I hear what you are saying but i don't have the luxury of moving the drums around. I have the ro unit located in the laundry room with the drums. What i want to do is have two drums one with salt one just tap water. Have a Y splitter splitting one line to each which would be connected to the float valve. Also want to place a ball valve in line on each. Install the controll float in the sump and no other choice but to run an extension back to the drum. As far as the solenoid valve which i assume is needed where should i place that right before the ro incoming line? Thanks
I just set up my auto top off and it works like a charm. I underestimated the power of the pump that i bought with it. It is an AquaLifter Pump. I ran 1/4 tubing from holding tank to near my sump about 10ft then from the pump another 5ft into the sump and it works great.