Chrismo
April 4th, 2003, 11:39 AM
I bought one of them Tsunami to-off units, a few weeks ago. I think coralmorphian wrote about his a while ago...
The water level has to drop an inch and a half before it activates and pumps freshwater into the tank. Thats not too much of a problem if you have a sump or a deep tank. An inch of water lost doesnt change salinity much if your tank is 20 inches tall.
But mine's on my 10g nano! So I had to rig somethin that made the sensor activate at a specific water level. Not a 1.5" range. Here's what i did, I think it's a pretty elegant, simple, and safe solution.
I took a 2"diameter PVC pipe, and put a cap on the bottom. I stuck the bottom of the pipe in the tank all the way to the bottom, and and maked off on it where I wanted the waterline. I cut the pipe off there. Now I stuck the pipe into the tank. It's looks like an internal overflow, bt without a hole in the bottom...
Now i stuck my Tsunami-senser-tube into the pipe. Into the pipe I also stick the intake tube from my little Aquaclear Hang-on filter it constantly sucks water from the pipe. The sensor tube senses water pressure. So, it turns on when there is no-water in the Pipe. It turns off when there IS water in the pipe.
When the water level is lower than the top of the pipe, the pipe becomes empty because the Aquaclear pumps the water out of it. The Tsunami-sensor turns on and pumps freshwater into the tank.
When the water level gets higher than the top of the pipe, the water overflows into the pipe and fills it. The Tsunami-sensor turns off, and your water level is at the exact height of the Pipe.
If my Aquaclear pump stops working for some reason, Your tank wont flood. it'll just stop filling the tank with freshwater.
The only way you can really flood anything is if you pump water out of the pipe and away from the sensor tube FASTER than gravity pulls it into the pipe. Thats not gunna happen unless your pump is REALLY strong. Every time your water level gets below the pipe, and the pipe empties of water, the aquaclear will run dry for a few seconds, untill the freshwater fills the pump up again. This aint good for the pump. You could avoid that by not using dividing the intake of the pump in two, and have half of the intake pulling tank water, and the other half pulling pipe water... You could use part of your skimmers intake too.
Anyway, it's working for me, and I think it's a nice little trick. Auto top-off makes life sooo much easier!
I think I'll make a diagram later. If you dont have a Tsunami-top-off, it's hard to visualize. The Tsunami cost me $109 Canadian but i've seent them for $52 American.
Can anyone see any problems I might have with this set-up?
Chrismo
The water level has to drop an inch and a half before it activates and pumps freshwater into the tank. Thats not too much of a problem if you have a sump or a deep tank. An inch of water lost doesnt change salinity much if your tank is 20 inches tall.
But mine's on my 10g nano! So I had to rig somethin that made the sensor activate at a specific water level. Not a 1.5" range. Here's what i did, I think it's a pretty elegant, simple, and safe solution.
I took a 2"diameter PVC pipe, and put a cap on the bottom. I stuck the bottom of the pipe in the tank all the way to the bottom, and and maked off on it where I wanted the waterline. I cut the pipe off there. Now I stuck the pipe into the tank. It's looks like an internal overflow, bt without a hole in the bottom...
Now i stuck my Tsunami-senser-tube into the pipe. Into the pipe I also stick the intake tube from my little Aquaclear Hang-on filter it constantly sucks water from the pipe. The sensor tube senses water pressure. So, it turns on when there is no-water in the Pipe. It turns off when there IS water in the pipe.
When the water level is lower than the top of the pipe, the pipe becomes empty because the Aquaclear pumps the water out of it. The Tsunami-sensor turns on and pumps freshwater into the tank.
When the water level gets higher than the top of the pipe, the water overflows into the pipe and fills it. The Tsunami-sensor turns off, and your water level is at the exact height of the Pipe.
If my Aquaclear pump stops working for some reason, Your tank wont flood. it'll just stop filling the tank with freshwater.
The only way you can really flood anything is if you pump water out of the pipe and away from the sensor tube FASTER than gravity pulls it into the pipe. Thats not gunna happen unless your pump is REALLY strong. Every time your water level gets below the pipe, and the pipe empties of water, the aquaclear will run dry for a few seconds, untill the freshwater fills the pump up again. This aint good for the pump. You could avoid that by not using dividing the intake of the pump in two, and have half of the intake pulling tank water, and the other half pulling pipe water... You could use part of your skimmers intake too.
Anyway, it's working for me, and I think it's a nice little trick. Auto top-off makes life sooo much easier!
I think I'll make a diagram later. If you dont have a Tsunami-top-off, it's hard to visualize. The Tsunami cost me $109 Canadian but i've seent them for $52 American.
Can anyone see any problems I might have with this set-up?
Chrismo