JenkinsCrew 110 Gallon Oceanic Mixed Reef Build

@jenkinscrew wrote:
Thanks for the input! I will definitely be mounting the manifold to the top with some surface mounting clamps (already ordered!) and using all schedule 80 said:
Jenks,

are you thinking of using the ATO feed, into the reactor ?

Someone with more experience on chaining those together might chime in, but seems like your discharge / effluent would be inconsistent that way (let's say you have an unusually low evaporation, and the water sitting in the reactor has extra dwell time, you could have super enriched effluent, for a time and get inconsistent dosing as a result.)

Prolly safer to just dose the ATO everytime you fill it. I always dosed Pickling Lime, or Seachem, or Mag, B-ionic, whatever you are dosing, into the 5 gallon jug, that i poured into my 10g ATO container to keep it topped off. I knew the ATO was always going to be close to empty by friday morning, so I'd fire up the RODI thursday night, and by morning I had a fresh 10G to add my supps to, and top off my ATO.

There's a million ways to do it. Your little table next to the tank gives me an idea for mine, so I'm definitely stealing that. I'm thinking of just using a plain old 5-gallon water dispenser jug, hidden inside a decorative little table / stand, and using a float valve and gravity as opposed to an ATO. (pretty much the OG of ATOs)
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Anyway, in the end I think most folks use pure RO for their ATO, and just run their dosers and drip lines right into the sump. (since thats where your probes are anyway)



I'd worry that your flow would be so inconsistent and sporadic that the saturation of the effluent would be up and down.


PS, only reason I have so many opinions is I'm pretty much at exactly the same point you are, setting up my new system, so everything is on the drawing board. I've already backed off several complex options in favor of simplicity. After all, someone beside me is going to eventually have to take care of this since I travel a fair bit. I don't want it to be a rubic's cube.
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Yes, I was thinking of using the “Smart Micro ATO” to feed an “Avast Kalk Stirrer Kit - K1” and have the micro ATO come on like every 4-6 hours.I definitely want to keep it simple but want it to be effective and consistent as well. I like your idea of mixing all your dosing stuff in the 5 gallon just and then using that to fill the ATO reservoir. Does your ATO reservoir get much kalc buildup?I asked Avast about the Micro ATO with this Kalk stirrer reactor and this was their input.<hr class="bbcode_rule" />Avast: A drip or very slow stream is best for adding kalk to a smallish system, but that pump should work fine. Can you put a valve in line to throttle it back a bit? Also, if the area of variable water level is small, resulting in less volume/more frequent ATO fill cycles, the increased rate of the pump won't matter as much.<hr class="bbcode_rule" /> My variable return section is about 6 Gallons so it is a pretty low volume. I was hoping to not put the kalk in my ATO reservoir to keep the reservoir clean with only RODI water in it and not have the kalk build up and residue in there. So I was thinking the kalk stirrer reactor would work good and could just clean it out as needed when changing the kalc. I could be wrong as this is my first time with a sump and tank this large. I definitely appreciate any guidance here.My thought was to put my ATO reservoir on the right with the Kalc Stirrer in between the reservoir and the sump. Then have the Smart ATO pump RODI to the Kalc Stirrer and then out to the return section on the right.View attachment 1047I was going to go by their Kalk dosing recommendations from their Kalk Calc and find out my evap rate.View attachment 1048Is this a good plan or should I modify my setup?
 
I doubt it will work with the SmartATO Micro. The flow rate is too fast, and I also wouldn't have it powered up and then off every 4-5 hours. I'm not a kalkwasser user because I don't trust the stuff (it has a pH of 12, after all), but if I were using Kalk, I would mix up a gallon and let it drip into the tank overnight, and let the ATO add RO/DI water when necessary.
 
So you are saying it would pump too fast and kick up the kalwasser too much and put kalkwasser powder instead of just kalkwasser solution? So If I ristricted flow would that solve what you are talking about?

Should I do it more often like every 1-2 hours to make it more gradual?

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It's not designed to be turned off by a controller. The SmartATO Micro (as well as its bigger brother) should be plugged into a live outlet.
 
I see what your saying.

On my other 2 biocubes i have it only come on once a day for 2 mins, as a saftey (hopefully the sensor wont fail but you never know). Since there isn't much evap it only really takes 30 seconds come on, register and refill the biocube. Maybe I shouldn't do it this way?

Was just thinking of applying the same method on a larger scale for this tank and was just trying to cut down on the runtime of the pump.

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@jenkinscrew wrote:
So you are saying it would pump too fast and kick up the kalwasser too much and put kalkwasser powder instead of just kalkwasser solution? So If I ristricted flow would that solve what you are talking about? Should I do it more often like every 1-2 hours to make it more gradual? Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk said:
If you want to use kalk, the reactor is the way to go. It's best to use a peristaltic pump in conjunction with the reactor to prevent back siphoning. You could keep the auto top off completely separate from the kalk reactor and still utilize the smart ato. The thing I like best about the reactor is the stability it provides. Using kalkwasser in auto top off systems is messy, hard on equipment, and inconsistent considering evaporation rates fluctuate throughout the year.
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Thank yall for the input! I think I am understanding things now. Guess I was getting different info from other places and sound like it is not good info. When I get to that point, hopefully soon, will definitely hit yall up. Thanks again!

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Thanks!

Looks like I only had 2 small pinhole leaks. One in the right drain and one on one of the return manifold outlets. Added a little more glue and fixed those issues. Gonna run for a few more days to make sure though. Also the old "Quiet One 4000 pump" is not being reliable. Sometimes it comes on when I plug it in and sometimes it doesn't, its also louder than my drain bubbles too. So I ordered a "Syncra Pro (1000 GPH) - Sicce" to replace and should be here next week. I will use the old one as a emergency backup. In the meantime gonna start getting some aquascaping concepts going.
 
Well looks like plumbing is all good. Also got the concept for the aquascape done and drilled all the rocks, cut the support rods and fitted them. So the rock will be ready to go in this weekend. Will drain the tank tonight and hopefully get rock, sand an water in on Saturday! Woohoo! :)
 
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