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Would this idea work for a gravity fed ATO
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evan127 View Drop Down
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    Posted: August 19 2012 at 5:21pm
I was thinking of making a non-electrical, gravity fed auto top off. I looked online for the design I had in mind thinking that a lot of other people do this and wanted to see how they made theirs. I couldn't find many designs at all! So it either doesn't work, or I'm a genius ;)

I was thinking of making a shelf above a sump and putting a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket full of RO water and installing some airline tubing on the bottom that would connect to a float valve (like this one: http://www.marinedepot.com/Eshopps_Float_Valve_Auto_Top_Gravity_Feed_Dosing_Pumps_Top_Off-Eshopps-QH03531-FIDPGT-vi.html) in the sump. Has anyone tried this before?
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DLindquist View Drop Down
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Gravity fed top off's work great. I utilized a 5G water jug on a drip system on our 90G for almost 10 years. When we upgraded to a 400G total system, I had to upgrade the 5G to a 30G. I changed out the drip to a float valve about 6 months ago. Works like a champ.

Edited by DLindquist - August 19 2012 at 5:46pm
A government strong enough to give you everything you want, is powerful enough to take everything you have.
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evan127 View Drop Down
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Does it really? That's good to hear! Do you have any photos you could post?
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1973Ford View Drop Down
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I do the same thing on my tank at work I have a garbage can higher than the sump and I just use plastic hose hooked to a float and it works awesome.
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evan127 View Drop Down
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Did you guys find a tiny bulkhead for the airline tubing? How did you put it through the container? Silicon?
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What I did was drill a hole in the top of the garbage can and pushed tubing to the bottom. Than ran it to a float in the sump. I'd that makes any sense.
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evan127 View Drop Down
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Kind of, but I can't get an image in my head. Could you post a picture?
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1973Ford View Drop Down
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I can Tuesday when I go back to work.
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Oh great! Does anyone else have photos?
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I'll try for some pictures later today. As far as connecting the tubbing to the reservoir, I simple ran it over the top and down to the bottom of the container.
A government strong enough to give you everything you want, is powerful enough to take everything you have.
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So it was a siphon connected to a float valve?
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1973Ford View Drop Down
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Yeah.
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Make sure your float doesn't have copper or any metal in it. Home dept and Lowe's all have metal. Buy a Kent's float. This is a very common thing us salty guys use


Edited by laynframe - August 20 2012 at 7:03pm
The time we enjoy wasting isn't wasted time!!!!
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