How would I make an ato out of a hamster water bottle??

well think of it like this. the little bearing or metal ball inside of the output keeps the water from coming out unless pushed inside. if you take the little ball out water will flow out. the goal is to take the ball out, put water in the bottle, put finger over hole and somehow flip it upside down with the tip in the water. when ever the water level goes down then water will come out form the bottle. and thats how i believe it would work.

think about it like a cup of water under water, you put it upside down in the water and pull it up, the water stays inside till off the surface and air goes in letting the water in the inside fall back into the water

I wouldn't do it. Most of the hamster water bottles have metal tubing and it would have to be partially in the water(see where I'm going with this?). If you find one w/o metal, you'll still have to suspend it above the tank with part of the nozel in the water. you'll also have to take out the little ball mechanism that keeps the water from falling out. if you do the said above and leaves this in, the pressure from gravity will keep the ball pushed down and make the whole thing useless.

IMO just do the same thing with a waterbottle... works ok for my 10

then your tank water and top off water will just mix and lower the salinity of your tank water. an ato has to keep the fresh top off water separate from the tank water or else it just dilutes your tank.

what??^^^

How could I make one then? Easy, I don't want to spend alot of money, and made out of easy to get stuff


this theory has been busted. It doesn't happen. Somebody one here did an experiment to show it didn't happen

Try this one. Works great and really cheap to put together. Only complaint I've heard from others is the noise when it kicks on. Doesn't bother me any though...

Air Powered ATO

the way he described it, or at least the way i understood it, is that there wouldnt be any separation between the top off water and the tank water because the ball would be removed. therefore, two different waters would mix and the water in the bottle would become salty while the water in the tank would become slightly diluted.

as for a cheap top off look up sun tea jar top offs in the DIY section and i think thats more like what you want.

if he didn't take the ball out the ATO wouldn't work period.

and this actually isnt true. I've filled a standard 16oz water bottle and at the end of the day tested the sg. everytime I did this it always read 0. There is slight mixing where the water meets but thats it. Once the total tank water level drops, the force created by the vacuum pulls fresh water out where it then mixes in the tank.

really? did you try it after a few days? im trying to think why that wouldnt happen, because the salt water is denser maybe?

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=172031

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You mean something like this?



I've been using these bottles for over a year now. Check my tank link for more details, testing...and naysayers

I believe its a combination of density differences as well as the vaccuum seal created but you'd have to ask someone with more knowledge of physics...I just know it works from personal experience and multiple sg tests

I took a hamster bottle, ripped out the metal tube, shoved in and siliconed a short piece of 3/8" airline tubing, tada, awesome.

just make sure you get a rigid bottle, other wise it may not work very well

I use a smart water bottlle held up by a clip and zipties. Works perfectly. No sg drop in 1 year. Cost = $2.

im considering that even the water in the bottle will almost become salt. if theres no seperation from each other. salt attracts water.

That doesn't happen. The salt does not travel up into the bottle.

plain & simply put

you are my hero

i am gonna do this with my 5.5g aio

We all know the Law of Diffusion, it makes life possible. But when we look at a static system and say it won't work due to diffusion, well there are a lot of variables involved that makes it not necessarily so logical. That's where experimentation comes in.
My opinion of why the bottle doesn't get salty is that the diffusion rate is offset by a net flow out of the bottle. For sure if you made the tube sufficiently large and allowed no flow out of it, there would be diffusion. But since the tube is small and there is a net flow, no dilution of the tank water!
Of course it's always easier to explain why something observed happens or doesn't happen. I mean, you already know the answer after you do the experiment. You just have to figure out what the question is!
Good work and a great looking tank.

saltwater is denser than freshwater. there are places in the ocean where there are pockets of very high sg water that actually look like a lake under the ocean. the water should stay separated with no problems.

Someone did a test on here and tinted the water red.. NO water was mixed between the two.

You are my hero...simple, and elegant, and perfect for my classes 10 gallon! Now to get to petco in the next few days so i can test it before Thanksgiving vacation!

Yeah, I did the test.