Anyone using one...?

[holry7778]

A nurse top-off? I'm tired of manual top off , and these look good and if they work like they should they are great b/c no elec is needed .

Pros ???
Cons :evil: ???

Have litereally no cash to put towards this but I have some things at home that I could use to build one. Here is what I'm looking at for my 55g w/ 20g sump

What do you think :?:

 

[Reef Goalie]

Is there a link or pic of what you are asking about?

 

[Tackett]

dont see why it wouldnt work. but you would need a valve in there somewhere to set the drip rate.

 

[holry7778]

So then my next question is...

What would be an acceptable drip rate?

 

[ZooKeeper1]

that system you dont need to worry about drip rate, just let it free flow. It only drips when the water level goes down, once it is up again the drip stops

 

[Entacmaea]

Yeah, a nurce-type system is really the best once set-up. I had one working perfectly on my old system, more reliable than just about anything else because there are no moving parts or electronics to fail, and it maintains a dead-set level in your sump.

One thing- because it works on a vacuum-siphon principle, the more riqid your container is the better(the sides of the 2 liter can "suck-in" adding more, granted only a little more, water than you want. I am setting up a new tank now and will make a unit from a 10 gallon aga tank, sealing off the top with acrylic. Bigger resevoir=less fiddling and fewer siphon restarts.

And ZooKeeper is right, no need to set a drip rate. That is part of the beauty!

 

[lmattix]

What is a nurse top-off system? How does it work? anyone have any pictures? I have a Aqua c EV-150 that requires a constant sump level. The Tsumani AT1 system lets the level drop an inch or more before it turns on the pump.

 

[lmattix]

Oops, when I was returned to the forum, there was the picture. Sorry.

 

[Entacmaea]

"Nurce" is actually a brand name for a company that as far as I know is now out of business. They tried to commercialize a concept that people had been using already. They made a good product, out of acrylic, but I think it ultimately failed because it was too easy to DIY.

If you have any more questions about the picture above, or how it works, let me know...

 

[Anonymous]

I used to have a DIY setup like this. Worked very well. Only issues I had were that the larger tube (air intake) needed to be cut at a 45 degree angle, and the smaller tube (drip feed) needed to be submerged for it to work.

 

[holry7778]

Entacmaea: The siphon part is easy since I use the tee with the syringe on it. Starts the Siphon for me each time. If you put it just below where the siphon tube loops to go down, it will draw the siphon for you.

Matt_Wandell: Great tips this is the kind of stuff I'm looking for! Thanks for the help