Skimmer in sump question

[75reef]

Hi everybody, I am new to RS... I do have one question. I have an AquaC EV-90 skimmer in a Megaflow sump. This supports a 75 Gal tank.

With about a gallon of water evaporating every day, the sump water level changes enough that it greatly affects the skimmer. If it is down about 2 or 3 gallons, the skimmer produces no waste. I have the skimmer sitting off of the bottom about 3/4 - 1". What do you guys do? thanks in advance!

 

[Woodstock]

I suggest you top off the evaporated water at least once a day or better yet, get an auto top off device that does it for you ( AutoTopoff.com ).

A fluctuating salinity level is stressful on fish and corals.



Welcome to Reefsanctuary!!! :hallo:

 

[goldenmean]

An auto top off unit would add water several times throughout the day and the water level would remain more consistant so that your skimmer is not affected.

 

[Snelly40]

is there a way to create baffles so the water level by the skimmer does not change. Mine does not ever move below a certain point.
If its not possiblei would definately add an ATO, actually i would add one anyway. They are great!!!

 

[mps9506]

One of the problems with the megaflow sump I noticed is the baffling is placed so that the middle section stays at a consistent level.
The size of the last two baffles before the return pump should be larger, ideally they should have added one more to help diffuse bubbles without that silly sponge that likes to catch detritus.

But an Autotop off would help out a lot as well as decrease the amount of work you actually have to do

 

[Snelly40]

yeah, see i designed my sump/fuge so that the first section remains constant

 

[Whiskey]

I agree with the autotopoff,.. There great! I wouldn't have a tank without one anymore, plus it will probably be the easyst sulution to your problem.

Whiskey

 

[AQTCJAK]

I would agree auto top off. A few gallons a day is not alot of evaporation. The shop use between 15 on a noraml day & 25 on a hot day with the AC on I also remove about 1.5 gallons of water from the air a day with a dehumidifier.

 

[tbittner]

I have an auto topoff on my 120 and quite frankly, it makes me nervous. All it takes is a snail crawling into one of the U tubes in the overflow box and the tank fills up pretty quickly. Only happened once and I caught it in time before a flood but...

I'm going to add another float switch at the top of the aquarium to shut off the auto topoff pump if the water gets too high.

 

[mps9506]

I have an auto topoff on my 120 and quite frankly, it makes me nervous. All it takes is a snail crawling into one of the U tubes in the overflow box and the tank fills up pretty quickly. Only happened once and I caught it in time before a flood but...

I'm going to add another float switch at the top of the aquarium to shut off the auto topoff pump if the water gets too high.

Can you put a snail guard on your overflow box to keep snails out?
What I would do it put the switch in your sump so that the pump cuts off if the water level gets too low in the sump (ie overfilling the main tank or if the autotopoff fails).

 

[tbittner]

I'm going to get a piece of egg crate to close the top of the overflow box which should be all bigger stuff out of it.

I have two switches in the return compartment in the sump. One detects low water and turns on the auto topoff pump and fills it back up. Works perfect. The other one detects high water in the sump and stops the auto topoff pump from running in the event that the low water switch gets stuck on.

When water evaporates, the water level in the return compartment in the sump goes down. The aquarium water level never changes. So one more float switch in the aquarium itself to detect high water should make it almost fool proof.

(as if there is such a thing)

 

[75reef]

Are these switches you guys are using 120V or are they low voltage switched that need wired into a relay? I would like to add the float switches though just for the fact of overflow prevention.

Also, the only problem with an auto top off for me is that the tank sits in the dining room where there is not really anywhere for me to put reserve water for the ATO unit to use. I guess I will just have to manually fill it for now.

 

[Kirblit]

They use a relay that you plug a pump into so that it gets power when the level switch is activaded. Autotopoff.com comes completely assembled and is a very nice product, just make sure that you get the dual switch setup for safety reasons so that the tank doesn't get too much fresh water added. I have the dual set up and I love it.

 

[tbittner]

Same here, they are wired into a relay so the voltage near water is VERY low.

 

[tbittner]

fishbowl-innovations.com has a very nice one with a control box and two float switches and it works great.

 

[mps9506]

Are these switches you guys are using 120V or are they low voltage switched that need wired into a relay? I would like to add the float switches though just for the fact of overflow prevention.

Also, the only problem with an auto top off for me is that the tank sits in the dining room where there is not really anywhere for me to put reserve water for the ATO unit to use. I guess I will just have to manually fill it for now.

I don not know if this would be feasible for you, but my last setup had the float switch controlling a solenoid that shut my ro-di system on and off. It is very easy to hide the ro di tubing versus having a large reservoir next to the tank. You can also use this as a feed to a kalkwasser reactor if you want to dose kalk and the kalk reactors are typically small enough to put under your stand or at least next to the tank and not be extremely ugly.

 

[75reef]

That sounds good too, but the other problems is, it is not near any water outlets to be able to hook up my RO unit to. I will check out those dual switch setups. Thanks for the responses everybody!!!

I'm glad I found this site. It's nice getting to talk to other people with the same interests. I literally know not one person that has any kind of a saltwater tank. I'm the lone ranger here ...LOL

Has anybody bought anything from That Fish Place or been to it? That is where I get everything - it is a 20 minute drive for me.

 

[mps9506]

That sounds good too, but the other problems is, it is not near any water outlets to be able to hook up my RO unit to. I will check out those dual switch setups. Thanks for the responses everybody!!!

I'm glad I found this site. It's nice getting to talk to other people with the same interests. I literally know not one person that has any kind of a saltwater tank. I'm the lone ranger here ...LOL

Has anybody bought anything from That Fish Place or been to it? That is where I get everything - it is a 20 minute drive for me.

I ran my ro/di line all the way across my kitchen through to my living room The ro unit was in the laundry room next to the kitchen. I suppose if the line snapped it would have been a mess, but it worked for me.


I've heard mixed feed back about That Fish Place. I haven't been personally so I can;t comment. But I think a lot of the NJ and philly people have been there.

 

[Anselth]

I've been there once, made the mistake of going on a saturday evening. I was impressed with the layout and the selection, everything seemed to be in excellent shape, but it took an hour for me to get helped after getting my ticket. That was my only issue with it though.

 

[75reef]

I too have made the mistake of going there on the weekends. Friday night, all day Saturday and even Sunday are days that I will NOT go there. I don't know how they are with shipping items... But they are really knowledgable (most) and have such a huge selection.

They have very reasonable prices and if you live locally, they run 30% off sales about once every week for in-store customers! You can't beat that! I have saved so much stink'n money buying all my high dollar items there on the 30% off days, its crazy. The sale is mostly on dry goods although they do sometimes run sales on their livestock. That saved me about $150 just on my light fixture!

If anyone gets a chance to go there, defintiely do so - but defintiely go on a week day!