Your Pico Top Off Solutions

[DrFeelGood]

Well the 1 gallon pico is on the desk at work, and I'm really enjoying that. Overnight, I evaped only about 1/4 inch of water, but in this size tank, that really does a number on the salinity. (Temp was stable with the heater though, so that's a win!)

 

So, I guess I'm going to need do something with an auto top off. I really did NOT want to do that, but with weekends I think I might kill the tank without it.

My primary concern is overflowing if the top off gets stuck.

I guess if I have two floats, I can put a fail safe in, but with this tiny little tank, I'm very leary of the potential disaster of putting too much fresh water in, not to mention the visible float switches which will be ugly (and maybe a pain to mount at that)...

 

Any of you pico at work guys have advice for me on how you deal with weekends and top offs?

 

-doc

[neanderthalman]

Before you invest a great deal of time or money in an auto-top off system, try to address the source of your evaporation. It takes nearly a week for 1/4" of water to evaporate from my 1.6 ga pico. Do you have a top on your tank or is it open to air? Do you have any fans inside your hood?

[DrFeelGood]

No fans, but it is an open top.

The ambient temp in the area is pretty low.

Perhaps I'll try a piece of plexi over the top of the tank for the weekend.

thanks for your good thoughts.

-doc

[adamjonpeterson]

Want to be cheap, try this. You can do it with or with out the kalk.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/skip/agu/kalkdripper.htm

[newbiecarlz]

my pico used to go the weekend at work without any top off. i guess it depends what you are keeping, mine just has shrooms and a shrimp. my boyfriend now has it on his desk at home, i would bet it dosent get top-off every day, but it is still doing great.

[neanderthalman]

I like the design of that kalk dripper.....as you say, would also work for top-off. Good to hear that the acrylic top is working well for you DrFeelGood;)