Our mission

Gravity fed ATO for my ATO need connection ideas

So my new sump from the waterbox 90.3 DX has a 3 gallon ato chamber that’s impossible to reach and fill without spilling water(eventually anyway). It came with a float valve I can use but I’m not trying to add any more tech, specifically no mechanically pumped water outside the tank.

Lucky I can set up something on the other side of the wall. I want to add a 3-5 gallon water tank and gravity feed into the float valve. But I’m having trouble googling a waterproof 1/4 bulkhead. Something like this but for underwater(with gaskets)

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-4-push-connect-bulkhead-tank-adapter.html


Alternatively I get a hard acrylic tank and tap it for NPT? So I can use this?



Ideally I find the bulkhead with a gasket so I can just temporarily drill a lychee jelly jug and use that until I find a tank I like.

Thoughts? Do I just source my own gaskets or just silicone it up?
 
If you're avoiding electrical in attempt to avoid flooding, you could go the route I did.

I have a gravity ATO on the tank (the one that comes with reefers). To avoid manually filling, I have a tube attached to a mechanical ATO, which fills the main reservoir. There I'm using an optical water level sensor with a mechanical back to to disable it if it triggers.

Then the backup to all that is I have the ATO on a timer. It only runs twice a day, so even if it overran, it wouldn't flood the floor and would only dump a bit of extra water into the tank.

Regarding the approach you're discussing, I would use a plastic/acrylic reservoir to make the drilling easy. From there, I'd buy a standard thin water line tap/bulkhead. If you can't find one, there's a ton of through wall float valves. You could just rip the float off.
 
So you want the bulkhead for the container itself (lychee jelly box, and I hilariously know exactly the container you mean! (https://www.amazon.ca/Lychee-Coconut-Candy-Jelly-Container/dp/B0038KCCMS)

Or you want it for the side of the sump? Does the sump already have the mechanical float valve set up and you are simply looking for a way to attach a 1/4" line into a jug/bucket/empty lychee jelly container?

The BRS one with aquarium silicon as a washer/gasket would probably work for something like that. Just the jelly jug in an elevated position, and inside of a wash basin in case the jug/bulkhead leaks (so it will leak into the washbasin and not the floor!).

V
 
Thanks Richiev I’m more worried about just having hoses going outside the tank. the sump could handle a complete dump of the internal ato and external reservoir without flooding. But thanks I think I’ll put the internal ato in a timer to run when I’m home

The ato in the sump already has a mechanical float valve yea. For external filling I assume. There’s just a small hole at the top for the ato line into the main sump
? Does the sump already have the mechanical float valve set up and you are simply looking for a way to attach a 1/4" line into a jug/bucket/empty lychee jelly container?
 
Alright I ended up getting something from advanced acrylics and plan to tap a 1/4 npt hole near the bottom to gravity feed into the tank. I’m gonna try with a beverage washer and oring beverage lock nut first. If that fails silicone solves all.

I’m looking at the float valve waterbox gave me it kinda doesn’t make sense. It seems to feed from the bottom? Is there a way to adjust it so it’s fed from the top? Or do I just run the water line and let it water fountain out.

Waterbox has not been too helpful they seem to keep forgetting they even offer an acrylic sump.

10F25722-7F89-44D6-81A1-24A0599AB980.jpeg
E3F17B44-544F-4E6A-8658-C8CD5985B7B9.jpeg
E200CF35-C1A3-422C-9120-224F3F25A99B.jpeg
 
Following up. Ended up tapping 1/8 npt into an acrylic res thinking I had the straight push in connectors. Apparently all the straight connectors I have are an even bigger thread?? Even on my rodi the one random straight connector is something bigger than 1/8 npt. So much for that.

Stopped in at taps and got an acrylic specific 5/16 drill bit, used that first then the drill bit that came with the tap by hand. Then the tap by hand. The metal drill bit def would have cracked that acrylic.



So for now there’s an elbow coming out lol. But I’m pretty satisfied I’ll keep an eye out for a straight. But the elbow gives me some more usable shelf space oddly enough.

Gravity feeds into that float valve

39974D2C-D598-4EA7-A633-E70551953286.jpeg

257AF63F-74AD-4953-B274-5EA118D7034A.jpeg

96B93F64-AC96-4F25-9663-884724B29034.jpeg



Tank came from advanced acrylics asked for the extra hole ontop not to be drilled since I didn’t need it https://advancedacrylics.com/products/ato-clear?variant=16393407681
 

Attachments

  • 163940CC-95B9-4906-BDE5-FE0977F94F56.jpeg
    163940CC-95B9-4906-BDE5-FE0977F94F56.jpeg
    157.8 KB · Views: 56
Back
Top