Fri, 12/09/2005 - 02:34

I thought I'd show you guys my new auto top off system. It isn't a huge change, but it is nicer than before.

First I went to Home Depot and bought more wrapping paper rubbermaid containers. At Walmart these cost $9.99, but at Home Depot they were under $5 each. I bought three, but after placing them in the fish room, they still took up a little too much space. So I used two, and the third one is holding wrapping paper at the moment.

I drilled a couple of holes in the front of each container, and inserted 1/2" bulkheads, and then joined the two containers with 1/2" PVC.

I put these in place, and they fit nicely against the wall out of my way. I may make an acrylic kickplate just to avoid hitting that plumbing accidentally.

Since the container aren't close enough to the tank, I have to stretch some tubing from the AquaLifter pump to top off the sump. I decided to drill a hole in the flange of the sump, then use a piece of rigid tubing to insert it, keeping it in place.

Now when I have to get over to the electrical panel for something major, I can simply lift out the top off tubing and set it aside, and once done, put it back.

Each container holds 10g of water, and my tank evaporates between 3 and 5g a day, depending on the time of year. So now I can have as much as 20g of water available. I still can add a third one later, if it seems necessary. I tried turning them sideways, but didn't like the way it looked. The way I did this tonight, they hug the wall nicely under the shelf with the test kits.