RO unit and top up system

Answer:

Dave
So far so good

What you need now is a way of switching off the water when you do not need it.

For manual use you can either screw back in the bar on the piercing valve which will plug the hole or you can buy an inline tap which we are not showing on our website at present but sells at £4.49 from our retailers ROA001. This will go before the RO unit.
You must also always remember to switch off the pump if the water is not flowing or you will blow the gasket on the pump.

For auto top up you will need a floatswitch system
If you did not have the pump then we supply one with a solenoid on which you could have put in line before the RO. As you use a pump you cannot use this due to the problem again of shutting off the flow with the pump running.

You therefore need one of our floatswitches with a mains socket on the end. Into this you will plug a 2 way adaptor and into this a solenoid for the water and the pump. In this way the pump and solenoid go off at the same time.

Alternatively only use the pump when you need large volumes of water for water changes and use the lesser flow for general evaporative loss.

Be aware that if you top up with an RO unit direct into the tank that you are connected to an endless supply of water and if the float sticks for any reason you could flood your tank and drop the salinity.

Always fit a timer before the solenoid which will limit the amount of time that the solenoid will stay open. If your RO unit needs to run continuously for 2 hours a day to satisfy your evaporative loss then set the timer so that 2.5 hours is the maximum time that the RO will stay open. Even if the float sticks you are then only adding 1/2 an hour's worth of extra water rather than 22 hours worth in 1 day.
This only needs to be a low cost segment timer and you can spread the 2 hours out throughout the day rather than in one period.

Hope this helps

Stuart