Need help with ATO plumbing

[gregr]

I'm not mr. do-it-yourself-guy so I need some help here getting the right parts. I want to make a holding container (in a rubbermaid trashcan) for an auto top-off system. I want it to have a valve that shuts off the water flow from the ro/di unit when the trashcan is nearly full and a valve that turns the flow on to fill the trashcan when the trashcan is nearly empty. The reason for this is that when the ro/di unit kicks in for just a short while the water has a fairly high tds- it has to run for a little while to put out pure water. So if I'm constantly making small amounts of ro/di water I'm gonna kill that di cartridge pretty quickly.
Anybody tried this before? Suggestions? Thanks!

[BubbaWPB]

I personally would not hook a trash can sized reservoir to my top off. If you have a single point of failure at the top off switch, you'll wind up giving your tank an incredible hyposalinity treatment along with a huge mess on the floor. Fish might suvive but if you have inverts they probably won't survive. I've heard too many horror stories about people who have tried this.

Although I'm sure there would be a way to do what you want using two float switches in series. The one at the bottom would be mounted upside down so that when the float falls, it turns on. Then when the other at the top rises, it will shut off. You could do this on a large RO/DI reservoir with a separate smaller top off reservoir that you refill manually (valve) from the larger RO/DI reservoir....

[gregr]

Hey thanks for the input and advice. I guess I'm being lazy or cheap... one or the other lol. I could solve the problem by manually filling a medium sized container every few days or so... but that's not very "auto". Or I could just accept that I will need to replace the DI cartridge every couple months.
When I was looking around yesterday I found this for sale:
http://autotopoff.com/products/DT1/

[lost_at_sea]

I would NOT connect your RODI to a top off without an Auto SHut off valve... speaking from experience you WILL forget it some point and flood your floor.

Get a Auto Shut off and a float valve and you should be all set.

[gregr]

Thanks I appreciate the warning. I've got a god auto top-off (float valve) in the sump and that all works like it should. The problem is that using small amounts of water uses up the ro/di filter/membrane pretty quick. If I make lots of water all at once then the filters last a lot longer. This is what the folks who make the ro/di unit say and they most definitely know their stuff. So I was thinking I could add a 44g trashcan next to the tank, plumb the ro/di water to that, and have the auto top-off deplete the whole trashcan before it re-fills. Maybe not the entire trashcan but most of it anyways. I kinda put this project on the backburner because... I have a really short attention span

[Original Fin]

Greg,

I've seen some DIY's doing what you're talking about, but with float switches instead of valves. I think I remember some sort of basic IC/relay interface with the pump that only refills the reservoir once it empties.
Also, I'm pretty sure Genesis Reef Products (Which has a forum here on RL) has a product that does the same, but it probably costs more than than the RO/DI I'd be using it on.

Say something about a short attention...something? What was that again?

[gregr]

I'll go check out their forum now.
Turlock- did I already mention I lived there when the population was 17,000?

[Original Fin]

You might have.... transplanted here from MA in 2006, so I don't really have a frame of reference, but I think we're right around 70,000 now.

Are you still in the area?

[gregr]

Yeah I think I mentioned it a while back. Anyhow- I've been back down in southern Ca, where I grew up, for about 20 years now.
I looked at the Genesis Reef Products and they look awesome. Fit the bill perfectly too. Now I just need to pay for it