What equiptment do you think i should add?

[MrManz1691]

Right now on my 100gal i have a euro-reef skimmer and a Two Little Fish phosphate reactor that i run with carbon an phosban. I also have a Kent marine drip kalkwsser dripping into the tank that i refill and clean once a week. I have extra cash due to the sale of one of my motorcycles, so i would like to get some new equiptment for my tank. I am getting new lighting this week and would like to know what else others are running that would benefit my tank. So what do you guys think would be a good addition? What do you run on your tank?

 

[tuberider]

Dunno if you need anything, good test kits are a plus, along with a calender date book to record your readings, maybe a refractometer. Fuge if you like one, but a good skimmer and lighting can go a long way in this hobby.

 

[sid700]

AquaController. Acts as a timer, temp and pH controllers, re-lights MH during an outage. Not needed but very useful when you're out of town for a day or two.

 

[Elite]

Buy some cool corals and share with us ;D ..

 

[MrManz1691]

A controller and refractometer would be sweet. As for the cool corals, I have been to the wholesalers and there hasn't been much. But there have been some really nice highend stuff. However 45-100$ per mouth I have a hard time.

 

[Gomer]

If you don't have one, an AutoTopOff for evaporation.

 

[MrManz1691]

I don't have room for a gravety fed one. Would I need to rig it or is there kits.

 

[Elite]

www.autotopoff.com

I should receive mine pretty soon 8) ..

 

[Gomer]

I have the double float valve kit from autotopoff.com

For a pump, I use the Aqualifter (I got mine at marine depot). It doesn't have a lot of pressure, but if you are dosing into a sump then yu should be good to go.

 

[pixelpixi]

For auto top off I've just been using an aqualifter on a timer. It's set to run for 8 minutes twice a day, pumping fresh water into the sump. If your evaporation rate stays fairly constant it's a nice cheap quick way to do it, and you don't have to switch it off before doing something that lowers the water level.

In the future I'd like to make my DIY controller do auto top off based on readings from a salinity sensor. I'm kind of surprised that I haven't seen products which work that way. (maybe they're out there, though?)

 

[iani]

I think the reason why there isn't something like that is b/c it is much easier to hook our tanks up the a float valve that can regulate the top off water really well. With a double float valve ATO there is pretty much no way that you could overflow your sump. Also a salinity monitor would have to be really sensitive to regulate the top off water as well as a float valve. I would think you would need to calibrate something like that really often.

 

[pixelpixi]

[quote author=iani link=topic=3880.msg46216#msg46216 date=1213775088]
I think the reason why there isn't something like that is b/c it is much easier to hook our tanks up the a float valve that can regulate the top off water really well. With a double float valve ATO there is pretty much no way that you could overflow your sump. Also a salinity monitor would have to be really sensitive to regulate the top off water as well as a float valve. I would think you would need to calibrate something like that really often.
[/quote]

Ah, well that's a good point. I handle that by just never having enough water in the top off reservoir that it would overflow, but I suppose that might not be practical in all situations.