Today on the brs160 we are going to top off this tank.
Hey guys my name is Ryan, welcome to another week of the BRS 160 where every week we do
our best to help you guys, members of the reefing community enjoy your tanks and find
new ways to explore the hobby.
We do that by following the set up and progression of this one hundred and sixty gallon reef
tank.
Today we are going to talk evaporation, why dealing with it is a critical component of
tank stability and protecting your equipment, the various ways to deal with evaporation
including one option where you never have to carry another bucket of top off water as
well as some maintenance tips.
We will of course finish with the auto top off installation for the brs160.
Every aquarium is going to evaporate water however reef tanks typically evaporate more
water than most other tank types because they have a lot of surface area, most often don't
have a lid on the aquarium and they have high flow with a lot of surface turn over.
It’s common for average sized tanks to evaporate anywhere from one to four gallons a day.
This is primarily a stability issue.
As you know stability is one of the biggest components that differentiate the average
to good tanks and the epic show tanks with incredible growth, health and coloration.
As water evaporates the water leaves but the salt stays so the all kinds of perimeters
start to increase with salinity, calcium, alkalinity, unwanted nutrients.
Basically everything gets increasingly concentrated and then suddenly reduced when you replace
all the evaporated water with freshwater.
Not exactly as stable as most of us would like.
Outside of that it is important to replace evaporated water if you care about your equipment
and your home.
All of your heaters, pumps, skimmers, probes and other equipment are designed to be operated
submerged underwater.
Not only can get break fairly easily if they are exposed to air but equipment like heaters
and pumps can become fire hazards or melt through your sump and become flood hazards
for your home.
Obviously things we would like to avoid.
There are a few basic ways to top off the tank staring with by hand.
If you do it every single day by hand is it is likely stable enough, some reefers will
set up some type of container with a slow drip to make it even more stable however doing
this every single day is one of the bigger maintenance pains and not a stable or safe
long term plan if you are not really going to do it every day.
Also makes going on vacation more complex.
The most popular method is what’s known as an auto top off which uses float, optical,
heat or electrical sensors to refill the tank.
The simplest form is probably just a reservoir connected to a float valve in the sump.
When water evaporates the float goes down and allows water to enter the tank until the
level is correct again.
While this works fairly well in the short term the seal on the float can easily be fouled
by algae, salt creep, a rogue snail or any number of things, if that happens your entire
freshwater storage container will empty into the sump which is obviously bad for the tank
and possible your homes floors depending on how big the freshwater reservoir is.
This is why float valves are not that common solutions for auto top off solutions in reef
tanks.
The most common solution is a pump driven auto top off which uses float, optical, electrical
or temperature based sensors to monitor the water level and a pump to refill the tank
as needed.
Reliability of these solutions is tied very closely to the quality of sensor and technology
behind it.
For instance float switches have moving parts that can get stuck with algae, salt creep
and rogue livestock, electrical sensors can get calcium deposits or other tank debris
stuck on them which prevent this type of sensor from triggering properly as well.
That said there are auto top offs out there which we trust here at BRS and a lot of reefers
have used successfully for a long time.
Like most everything in this world you get what you pay for.
The best advice I can give is to stay away from the latest technology or products out
there.
Let other reefers test this stuff which almost always has either reliability issues or component
quality issues in the first couple generations.
Make sure to read the reviews and select one that has a lot of them meaning it has been
tested long term and adopted by the reefing community.
Also look for the type of failures if there are any.
No one wants it to stop working or break but what we are really concerned about is failing
in the on position where the pump gets stuck on and empties the reservoir into the tank.
For a reefer on a budget I think the JBJ ATO is the best value.
It does rely on float switches on moving parts but it has primary and secondary sensors as
well as internal timer which triggers if the pump has been on for too long.
You can take the top off and adjust the length the timer is on if needed.
It is a low cost affordable option so you might want to consider using a float valve
in conjunction with this installed on the side of the sump slightly higher than you
want the water level so it triggers as a backup but stays out of the water and reduces chances
of something interfering with the seal.
By far our favorite option is the Tunze Osmolator and there are a few reasons for this.
First the primary sensor is optical and doesn't use any moving parts which are much more ideal
for a saltwater environment.
Includes a float back up switch and an internal timer which turns the pump off it has been
on to long as a final back up.
I have personally never seen an Osmolator fail in the on position ever.
The sensor can get dirty if you never clean it and fail off but that is much less of a
concern on most cases.
The thing about the Osmolator that pulls this all together is the time tested proven reliability
of both the mechanics of how it works as well as the quality of components.
Take a moment to read the reviews and you know you are getting the most trusted option
out there.
The Osmolator comes with a pump and if needed the flow rate can be increased or decreased
with an internal knob.
There are also a couple cool accessories with the solenoid which can replace the pump with
a valve which opens and closes a quarter inch line.
There is also a socket adaptor which allows you to use most AC pumps if you wanted.
With any auto top off you are going to want to get a storage container for the top off
water.
Synergy reef created a cool one for our clown harem tank but any reef save container will
do.
My suggestion is to get a stool or chest to put next to the tank and hide the container.
I personally try and get a container large enough to hold a weeks’ worth of water.
So I only have to fill it every weekend when I do my other maintenance.
If you don't trust the auto top off you have you might want to consider only adding a few
days’ worth but that kind of defeats the purpose in many cases.
That’s where the last method of topping off your tank comes in where you never have
to hall around another bucket of top off water in your life.
Hooking your RO/DI system directly to your tank to automatically replace the top off
water as it evaporates.
First thing you need to understand is you are plumbing a never ending water supply to
your tank which means if it fails somehow it is almost certainly going to wipe our your
tank and destroy your floors or home.
Float valve gets stuck, solenoid breaks, you cat or dog chews through the line really all
kinds of things.
So if you do this know there is risk attached to it and everything you do is about managing
that known risk.
This typically starts with connecting the RO/DI system to the sump with a float valve.
First step of managing that risk is try and use a fixed float valve rather than adjustable.
The wing nut is just something that can get bumped and loosen and fail.
Since a float valve in a saltwater environment isn't reliable on its own we need to add some
redundancies.
A solenoid connected to an auto top off or float switch on an aquarium controller is
a great idea.
In this case if the water level gets to high the sensor will trigger the solenoid to close
and shut off the water supply.
You can also use standalone leak detectors or leak detractors for aquarium controllers
like your apex which can be used to close a valve or solenoid as well.
Keep in mind you can use these solenoids to either shut off water supply to the sump or
alternatively even use them to shut off water supply to the ROI system itself.
There are also water sensing leak alarms like the watchdog which sets off an ear piercing
alarm if the water level gets too high and for those of you with pets or young children
consider routing the RO line inside of pipe or some type of cable management system you
consider to be child proof enough.
If you are into reefing long term seeing up a long term top off system like this is probably
worth the time, effort and expense because it not only makes your tank more stable and
but it also drastically reduces the work involved with a reef tank both of which really increases
the over all chances you are going to be successful long term and stay in the hobby.
One note on this type of permanent solution is you are going to experience increased DI
resin consumption because the initial spurts that come out of the system once it is turned
on are typically higher in TDS.
This is pretty much just a reality you are going to have to live with, you will use more
DI resin than you did before but verses the time spent caring water around the savings
are probably less than minimum wage on a time verses cost basis.
You are also somewhat less likely to spill water all over the house which is a whole
different issue.
If it is really important to you to minimize DI resin consumption you can set up a timer
and a solenoid so the RO system is only on once a day.
This has a small impact on stability but will reduce TDS creep effects.
You could also build and elaborate system which fills a reservoir and doesn't refill
until it is emptied but that’s way beyond what most of us are willing to do to save
a few bucks a month in DI resin.
Last tip on auto top offs before we get to the BRS160, just like every other piece of
equipment on the tank.
If you don't maintain it expect it to fail.
As part of your monthly maintenance make sure to disassemble and clean all the sensors,
valves and switches.
If you do this properly even most of the value top offs out there will last you a long time
and the premium options will likely outlast the tank they are on.
On the BRS160 we want an ultra-stable option that requires the least amount of work so
we are going to hook our BRS universal water saver plus RO/DI system directly to the sump.
The primary level sensor is going to be the Tunze Osmolator with the solenoid accessory.
This will allow us to adjust the level fairly easily with the magnetic sensor mount.
To back that up we drilled a hole in the sump
and installed a float valve.
Notice we used a fixed float valve so we don't have to worry about the wing nut getting loose.
We also installed a flow lok leak detector outside the sump as a final back up.
The flow lok is a neat RO accessory which has a pad that expands when it gets wet and
triggers a shut off valve.
We also installed PVC pipe with these pipe clamps along the wall to protect the RO tube
itself so no animals or anything else can damage the RO tube.
Even with all this it could fail but I personally think we have done our due diligence and the
benefits outweigh the risks.
We haven't installed a controller on this tank yet but we will near the end of this
series.
When we do this we will almost certainly also install a horizontal float switch and solenoid
as well as leak detectors like those that are available for the Neptune apex.
This is really the final frontier and most advanced level of protection.
But more than just protecting me from issues the apex is going to notify me via email or
text message that there is a problem I need to do something about ASAP.
Hopefully we answered all your auto top off questions today, next week we have protein
skimmers, there is just so much to cover on this topic I think it will be an exciting
week you don't want to miss so hit that subscribe button.
If you are interested in any of the top offs or protection products we talked about today
check out this link.
Don't forget to hit that like button if you find what we do here each week valuable, see
you next week with week 17 of the BRS160 Protein skimmers.