Picotopes, Open Top Picos, and Evaporation

[Bonsai]

Hi everyone,

 

I recently set up a Picotope in my office at work. I'm absolutely loving the fact that I can continue my saltwater obsession into my office

 

When I first started the tank a few days ago, I made a mark on the glass where the water line was. Every morning, I top off with RO until I get back up to that level. It seems like I'm using a ton of water to top it off though. Maybe one or two cups, actually.

 

Is this normal? I am running 18 Wat lighting, and I did the AC70 'fuge mod for the picotope.

 

Jason

[circusordie16]

that sounds reasonable, especially if its open top and your office is like mine with the air conditioning blasting and sucking away all the humidity. id suggest topping off a few times a day so that its not such a sudden swing in salinity. maybe try morning, lunch, and before you leave or at least morning and when you leave. or you could try a top to keep down evaporation.

[Kirin1]

You're using an AquaClear Fuge right?

 

I used to have an AC20 on my old 5.5g. My top off was a siphon drip made from a 20oz coke bottle, airline tube and a small airline ball valve. The cool thing about this is that the drip slowly adds your top off, so no big swing in SG, and you don't have to stand there, slowly and carefully adding water to your tank.

 

Here's a pic of it set up:

 

And the Ball Valve for 1/4" airline tube:

 

There are 2 holes in the cap of the bottle, the airline passes through one, all the way to the bottom of the bottle, which is important to get it to empty all the way. The second hole is to let air in.

 

The Valve is there to let you choke back the output to a drip. It plugs into a hole I drilled in the cover of the AqClr.

 

To start the siphon, fill the bottle all the way, put the cap w/tubing on, and squeeze the bottle to force some water into the tubing (cover the air hole). Once the siphon starts to flow, close the ball valve and walk it over to the tank. Plug in the valve, and adjust the drip rate.

 

HTH

[Bonsai]

I used to have an AC20 on my old 5.5g. My top off was a siphon drip made from a 20oz coke bottle, airline tube and a small airline ball valve. The cool thing about this is that the drip slowly adds your top off, so no big swing in SG, and you don't have to stand there, slowly and carefully adding water to your tank.

 

That's actually a really good idea. My only problem with that is the unsightly empty water bottle

 

I can certainly do top offs on the tank a couple times during the day, but really, it's the weekends that I'm worried about. If I top off Friday afternoon, and again Monday morning, I'm afraid that the Salinity is going to shoot up Sat & Sun while I'm out of the office.

 

Does anyone run a full ATO system with their Picotope, like the JBJ ATO? I wonder if I could run an ATO system and place the float switch in the AC70? Would the water level in the AC70 be directly proportional to the water level of the Picotope?

[debbeach13]

I like that ATO. Looks simple enough for me to make thanks

[Kirin1]

Yeah, the coke bottle ain't pretty. I did all my top off at night when I was using this, set it up before bed, take down the empty bottle when I get up.

 

I have an ATO kit from Aquahub.com on my 2.5g Mantis Only (which has that AC20 on it). The negative there is that the float switch has to go in the display, the AC (all hob filters/fuges actually) is kept under pressure by it's pump, and the water level stays constant. I think that's because the water level in the AC is higher than of the display.

[diggman08]

why not just modify the lid to fit with the new lighting... or getter yet just get some plexyglass cut it to fit... i top off like 2twice a week

[shp111]

I have a 3g Picotope in my office and I have to top off daily. I looked at the battery topoff in the DYI section and that looked interesting but I didn't want to have the float switch in my display. I have an acrylic cover I made that helped but with the opening on the AC70 for the refugeum and and the water flowing from the filter into the tank I still get a bit of evaporation. I just keep a couple gallons hidden under my desk and add a little a couple times a day.

[Kirin1]

shp111, How do you top off over the weekends?

[Bonsai]

I have an acrylic cover I made that helped but with the opening on the AC70 for the refugeum and and the water flowing from the filter into the tank I still get a bit of evaporation. I just keep a couple gallons hidden under my desk and add a little a couple times a day.

 

For those of you using an Acrylic cover, doesn't the Acrylic get tons of condensation and foggy gunk on it? That's what I'm afraid of ... to my eyes, that doesn't look so hot.

[hcsceo]

My picotope uses about 1 gallon of water a week in top offs. I built the battery powered top off in the diy section but wired it to a dc converter so it plugs in and have it hooked up to a 1 gallon container under my desk. Works perfect and the floatswitch is hardly noticable given the fact that I have the 36watt Current fixture above. I was doing hand fills every morning with an 8oz cup but was finding that the salinity was droping too much for my liking and the weekends were a pain cause I was driving 60 miles round trip to put water in. That lasted all of two weeks before I built my top off system. Total cost for the top off was like $30 and took maybe 2 hours to build. It keeps the water within a 1/4 of center and the salinity doesn't bounce at all now. I love it and am glad I built it and would highly recommend anyone with a picotope to get one.

[shp111]

Kirin1, I work alot and usually stop in the office 1 or both days on the weekend since I am responsible for critical systems. My office is also only 8 minutes from my house so only a short motorcycle ride away. If I am away, I have a co-worker who will top off for me. The most I have gone was a 2 days and the water level dropped nearly an inch.

 

Bonsai, My acrylic does get scummy, but I clean it twice a week so normally it looks ok. The uglier part is the bow in the acrylic. I used the standard HD hobby acrylic and always has a slight bow. Not obvious to everyone but bugs me. I want to make one with thicker acrylic that fits a little snugger with the AC70 filter.

 

My picotope uses about 1 gallon of water a week in top offs. I built the battery powered top off in the diy section but wired it to a dc converter so it plugs in and have it hooked up to a 1 gallon container under my desk.

 

Maybe I will revisit this. Do you have a picture with the ATO installed?

[hcsceo]

ok with great risk to myself I removed my ato and took a couple of pics including a FTS so you can see how it looks when installed.

 

forgive my FTS shot before my tank needs some cleaning. anyway one more so you can see the pump up close.

[Bonsai]

ok with great risk to myself I removed my ato and took a couple of pics including a FTS so you can see how it looks when installed.

 

forgive my FTS shot before my tank needs some cleaning. anyway one more so you can see the pump up close.

 

Simply awesome. Great pics!

[shp111]

ok with great risk to myself I removed my ato and took a couple of pics including a FTS so you can see how it looks when installed.

 

forgive my FTS shot before my tank needs some cleaning. anyway one more so you can see the pump up close.

Thanks for posting the pics. Nice looking tank!