Today I worked on setting up a gravity fed Auto top off system for the tank. Not for everyday use, just for when I go on vacation or anytime that I am away from the tank for a few days (which I know is a big no-no for reef tanks). Anyhow I found a thread on nano-reef.com on a ATO made from a ferrets water bottle and here’s what I came up with. i made a stand out of those eggcrate light covers to hold the water bottle and the brackets that came with the bottle hook right onto it as if it were the side of a ferrets cage. Here are some pictures;
ATO Stand
ATO stand Brackets
Water Bottle
New ATO
New ATO
nice pico
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that metal tip on your water bottle is not gonna be good for your tank
Thank you.
Yes I realize that the metal tip probably won’t be good. But for a seven day vacation with someone coming over maybe one or two days to check on everything. I am hoping that this will be a good top off for that time.
Just cut a 2 inch piece of vinyl hose attach it to the metal part so that only fresh water contacts the metal.
I’ve been using the the big PetCo bottles 24/7 for over 1-1/2 years without any rust issues whatsoever.
The metal tips on these bottle are made of stainless steel, but only certain types of stainless are truly ‘rust-proof’. Your planned limited use of this ATO does make the possible rust issue much less critical, but still, hopefully the SS grade used by the manufacturer of your bottle is one of the rustless ones.
[...] rust in the salt creep that was on the metal tip that was in the water. One of the replies to Vacation Top Off a user said that they have been using the pet bottle for a long period of time with the metal tip [...]