Setting Up The 29g. Totally Psyched I Have Saltwater In My Living Room

[kj23502]

http/www.autotopoff.com/products/DT1/

Bought an ATO. Shipping is 2-4 days. We're going camping and the house sitter is going to Vegas.

I needed something like this so my sg doesn't go sky high.

 

[seffieuk]

Stupid question alert

How do they work?

Seffie x

 

[kj23502]

That's alright Seffie. Just got it in the mail and will try to do a detailed setup later. Maybe tonight or Monday. I just need to get some larger tubing. 5/16" or 1/2" tubing to be exact. That's all I need.

 

[kj23502]

Since I had some phosphate issues I went ahead and busted my Rowaphos out of the container

I put some in the baggy and was trying to get a picture with an angle so you could see where the level on the bag was. I put in about 2-3 tablespoons. Just dropped in the center of dual hang on back skimmer. LFS seemed to think it'd do alright there as well as others too.

My ATO. Pretty much all the pieces are sitting there except for the tubing and the pump, though I had the pump when I took the picture. First I had to figure out where the holder would sit so I could position the switches at the right water level and then fasten them w/zip ties. Then I put it in and tried it out. Worked so far. I just needed to get another power strip as the current one is full. I had to unplug my light to test it out. Really crazy how many plug in's we need for all our stuff

This is where the pump is plugged in. The opposite end comes out of the square black box that the white switch wires attach to. The other end plugs into the power supply.

I did cut the zip ties after the picture.

It works by a sensor that senses when the water level gets below it and also when it touches it. When the water gets lower it'll turn the pump on and when it's back up to the right level it shuts the pump off. That's about all I know...lol

One thing is to make sure your tubing won't be in the water in the tank. Since my resevoir is lower than my tank it can back siphon until the water level evens out. That could be bad.

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks good KJ, does that model ATO incorporate hysterisis into it's function?

 

[kj23502]

It worked for the weekend!! YAY!! The new light timer worked as well. Well the lights were on when we came home anyway.

I have no idea what that is Ski.

Is this what you're referring to?

"Hysteresis
When a ferromagnetic material is magnetized in one direction, it will not relax back to zero magnetization when the imposed magnetizing field is removed. It must be driven back to zero by a field in the opposite direction. If an alternating magnetic field is applied to the material, its magnetization will trace out a loop called a hysteresis loop. The lack of retraceability of the magnetization curve is the property called hysteresis and it is related to the existence of magnetic domains in the material. Once the magnetic domains are reoriented, it takes some energy to turn them back again. This property of ferrromagnetic materials is useful as a magnetic "memory". Some compositions of ferromagnetic materials will retain an imposed magnetization indefinitely and are useful as "permanent magnets". The magnetic memory aspects of iron and chromium oxides make them useful in audio tape recording and for the magnetic storage of data on computer disks. " http/hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/solids/hyst.html

I have no idea. Should it. I guess I could shoot them an email to ask about it.

 

[SkiFletch]

No no, hysterisis refers to having some span in the function of topping off. If the system only uses input from the bottom float switch, the topoff pump starts and stops a lot because there isn't much difference between the tank needing water, and the float switch tripped the other way. The constant on/off of the pump is not very good for it's physical longevity.

If you were going to incorporate hysterisis, when water level gets too low below the lower sensor, the pump turns on. Then it does not turn off until you get up to the level of the top sensor. Once that level is reached, the pump shuts off and stays off till evap gets it back down to the lower sensor. The other way to deal with hysterisis is for the topoff pump to just run on a timer for a set number of seconds. So low mark reached, pump comes on for a period of time, pump goes off.

Make sense?

 

[kj23502]

I could try moving the bottom switch a little lower. They're only held by zip ties so I'm sure I could slide it a little bit. That would lessen the frequency of quick on and offs. I guess I was nervous about evaporation and swings in the sg so that's why I made it a small window.

 

[SkiFletch]

So it does turn on at the bottom and turn off at the top one? Thats good

 

[kj23502]

Well, it turns on at the lower switch and will turn off when the lower switch is floated back up by the water level. The 2nd switch is a fail safe which will shut the pump off in case the first switch sticks.

I could've bought the single switch setup for $15 less but opted for the extra comfort the fail safe switch provides. Especially when I go out of town.

 

[kj23502]

Well it appears I'm not getting any new fish for awhile. My QT is now officially occupied by a little piece of poultry

We didn't know if it'd actually hatch or not and it did. Know what it is?

 

[garybuk]

What is it???

 

[kj23502]

It's a baby turkey

I think I may just have to buy another tank And this time it's my hubby's fault

 

[garybuk]

It's a baby turkey

I think I may just have to buy another tank And this time it's my hubby's fault

HAHA kool!! ware you get that from?? how is it doing? is it in the right condictions? how you going feed it?

 

[kj23502]

My hubby took it from a nest. Naughty man

Yea, it's in good conditions. We've kept it right around 100 degrees F and it seems to be doing great. It will eat chick feed which we'll offer to it this evening. It will also drink it's own water. Kinda neat. Glad we don't have to hand feed it.

The reason we have it in the fish tank is b/c its easier to heat it with one of my aquarium lights over the top with the other half of the tank covered by one of my glass tops. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to keep it warm enough.

The yellow cup that you saw in one of the pictures is to keep some humidity in the tank.


---edit
I have a thread in household pets which is where I'll post updated pictures. If you have any more questions about it please put it in that thread. Just wanted to show you what's in QT since I think a fair amount of us don't venture outside of the salty section <a href="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=293491" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=293491</a>

and it'll eat turkey feed, not chick feed.