Jump to content
Innovative Marine Aquariums

Modifications to AutoTopOff.com's ATO


jamescstein

Recommended Posts

jamescstein

Made some minor modifactions to AutoTopoff.coms ATO for my Coralife BioCube 29.

 

First thing. I ordered the Nano kit thinking I was getting smaller float switches. Turns out they are the same ones as the regular. No real problem but no snail guards. Since I currently have about 10 snails playing around in the back chambers I figure a guard will be necessary.

 

 

7E8FCEA1-D7E3-43E7-B63C-656C191F1195.jpg

 

Made the guard using 1" PVC end caps and thinwall 1" PVC. The Schd 40 would probably work but then the hole in the end cap needs to be dead on because there is not much room for the float valve. The top end cap has 3 holes. One for the float wires and so forth and 2 smaller holes to let air out and in so it fills with water. I put 4 small holes in the bottom to let water in. Hopefully they won't all get covered by snails. The ATO has 2 float switches so 8 holes would have to get blocked.

 

I then had to extend the wires to the float switches. I just got some 18 gauge wire and heat shrink crimp connectors to put the longer wire in. I opened the switch up and decided against trying to just run new wires to the relay.

 

66812BCB-71FA-4201-99E5-4705C2AC87CB.jpg

 

4 connectors per float. This is only one end of the splice on one float switch.

 

I went to install the ATO and realized. The holes in the BC hood for wires is too small for these float switches to go through. So I decided to splice in some water resistant disconnects so I can easily remove the ATO for cleaning, etc..

 

860BA3AC-F598-4378-8A4A-8D5B46D0AC2C.jpg

One float

 

2BDF09E8-A7AA-4629-9307-938C7AADCF99.jpg

ATO relay unit

 

CFF56ED8-0231-40D7-AE23-6D4820CEE0AA.jpg

Both floats connected to ATO

 

I also bought the bend it yourself brackets so I could mount the switches to the inside of the back chamber. The Floats sit on either side of the return tube. There is still a little more room between the bracket holding the float and the splash shield on the tank when the lid is closed.

 

94923529-106C-4E2B-9A9D-74BF9D5BDD3B.jpg

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...