$25 ATO

[CaravanShaka]

First off, I take no responsibility for damage to your components, or if the end product fails.

This general design has worked for me for several tanks, from 3g up to 120g.

Parts purchased:
- $15 Tom's Aqualifter
- $5 float switch from amazon
- $5 Water safe magnets from BRS

Parts laying around:
- airline tubing (flexible and rigid)
- wire
- random part from a maxi-jet kit (sorry, forgot to take a before pic of it)


First, make your float switch mount:

- There is a part in every maxi-jet kit that I have never seen anyone use. It is a long bracket looking piece with a hole drilled through one end, and it loops around on the other end. Cut this piece in half, then heat it up in the middle to bend it into an 'L' shape.
- Superglue one of your magnets to the side of your 'L' that doesn't have a hole in it
- take your float switch and mount it to the hole on the other side
- cut a 1 inch long piece of rigid airline tubing, and cut a 1cm ish piece of soft tubing
- drill a hole the same diameter as the rigid tubing (you want it to fit snug) so that your water will go through the tubing down into the tank. Use the 1cm piece of soft tubing as a stopper on the under-side, then you can mount the rest of your tubing to go to the output of the aqualifter on the top side

Wire it all up:
- cut a set of speaker wire to the length you need to get from your float switch to the aqualifter
- solder and shrink wrap the side closest to the float switch
- cut one of the power cords on the aqualifter (make sure you cut the ground side, or the side with the larger blade on the plug)
- take the other end of the speaker wire you extended the float switch wiring with and temporarily connect them to the cut wires on the aqualifter
- plug in the aqualifter and test to see which state of the float switch causes the aqualifter to turn on. If it is working as intented (should be float switch down turns on the pump), then solder the connections together.
- if it was opposite, take off the temporary connections and switch them and re-test. you should be good to go at that point

now you can mount the arm in your sump on any wall with the magnets and connect your aqualifter to a container of RODI for a cheap and effective ATO

 

[Mike M]

Thanks for posting this. Much cheaper than getting a JBJ. May have to give this a try on my next build.

 

[melev]

Only downside to this design is the 110v running through the switch, not unlike the ATO I made years ago. I have since switched over to a relay system so the float is using 12v of power instead of 110v.