Auto top off advice

I have a JBJ auto top off, and I think it sucks with a aqua lifter pump personally. It would never keep up with my tank, so I put a 260 pump out of a stock biocube and it works like a champ. I know Gered has the Tunze and it works awesome. But you might be able to use two float switches with your APEX, and control it through there.

 

I use a topoff from autotopoff.com.

I have a solonoid hooked up to my RO line and feed it that way. I run it in my sump. I have the double switch controller.

It works great. It was $50.00.

One day I suppose it will misfunction but that day has not come yet.

 

I know they make an ATO for the reefkeeper units. Do they not make one for the apex?

 

I run the JBJ ATO.  I love the unit. I'm running it with an aqua lifter, and like Matt said it sucks.  So I would use a differnt pump personally.

 

If you wanna buy my JBJ unit Ill sell it to you.

 

I have a JBJ ATO hooked up to my quarantine tank and it works pretty good. I'm using it in conjunction with a solenoid and for some reason, sometimes the solenoid does not kick on. I need to check it every couple of days or so to verify that it's at the right level. If it looks low, then I cycle the power on the solenoid and it's fine again. This is an issue with the solenoid, not the JBJ ATO. I could fix this by plugging the solenoid into an Apex controlled EB8 and cycling power every few hours, but I don't have an extra EB8 to hook up to my quarantine tank.

I've also heard good things about the top offs from AutoTopoff.com. Make sure that you get the dual float sump mount model as the second float is used as an emergency shut off...and the snail guards are an important option too... It's only a few dollars more for some nice redundancy.

The Apex is capable of doing the ATO, but there's no easy out of the box kit that addresses this. You will need to buy the floats, make something to mount them (pretty easy just using some strips of acrylic, a drill and a blow torch), get a Neptune breakout box or manufacture something one using a mini-din cable (some nice DIY guides available on RC), then once you do all that, write the code to evaluate the floats to determine if you need to turn on a pump/solenoid based on the position of the float valves (I think there is sample code available in the Neptune Systems vendor forum on RC). I bought the float valves from BRS to do this, but have not had a chance to make a breakout box or play around with the programming to get this set up. Until then, I use a LevelLoc ATO...a little more than some of the others, but it's been great. Uses a float valve, plus a solenoid/float switch shut off for redundancy so you can confidently connect your ATO directly to your RO/DI (which under just about any other conditions, is not advisable)

Good luck!

--AJ

 

I use the JBJ also with a tunze 12 volt pump. Theres pics on other thread "JBJ ATO" Hope this helps

 

If you haven't considered a Litermeter III, you should. They're trouble free, and you don't need to worry about floats. You do have to make seasonal adjustments to get your replacement water calibrated, but that's a piece of cake. One of the best pieces of equipment I've purchased for my tank. I thank Foo for the recommendation.