Anyone have a Tunze Osmolater?

hazmat319

hazmat319

New member
I currently have the JBJ ATO with the float switches in my sump. Last night it dumped an entire 5 gallons of RO water into my tank. I have stomatella snails in my sump and I think one of them may have pulled on the float. This has happened before. I also had issues with it functioning correctly while running on the generator. The power surges would make the pump run longer than normal causing too much water to go into my tank.

Anyway....was wondering if anyone has the Tunze and can give me a review. It's pricey. But after this past week and all the issues I've had I'm ready to try it.

Another question....does anyone use the Seachem Salinity salt? I purchased a bucket because Joe at PC stopped carrying the Seachem Reef salt and I was desperate. I've been mixing WC water since Wednesday and every time it precipitates. My first 3 garbage cans (18 gallons)have all precipitated. Today I went and picked up some different salt mix because I need to get this water change done. Anyone have an issue with this salt mix?? It's frustrating because it takes 5 hours to get my 18 gallons of water. Then mix in the salt and let it circulate. It ends up being an all day affair. And, like I said, I've been mixing water since Wednesday!!:headwally: What a waste!
 
Tunze osmo is fantastic and 100% reliable going on two years now. The only thing you have to make sure of is that the output of the hose into your sump always remains higher than the water level in your reservoir. It uses an optical eye with a float switch above it for safety measures. I highly recommend.
 
Thanks. My 5 gallon reservoir sits on the floor next to my tank. Obviously the sump is on the floor of my stand. As long as the tubing that feeds the water into the sump is out of the water it's OK, right? To prevent any kind of siphoning of the sump water into my ATO bucket. Right now the tubing from my JBJ is zip tied to my emergency overflow drain that sits above my sump. Same concept, right? Or is there another consideration with the Tunze?
 
Tunze osmolator is the way to go. I would never trust any other. Tunze has also made slight improvements to make them even better.

As far as the salt, I would just buy red sea or reef crystals and be done with it. If your tank is mostly frags or small colonies then I would recommend red sea coral pro.
 
hazmat,

i have had my tunze osmolator for almost 1 year now...works great!! comes with an additional float just above sensor you can mount incase the electronic optical one fails it will shut off the pump and sound alarm. Great backup feature!! I run a 40G long as my sump and find it would dump approx 1-2 gallons in before backup float shut off pump. I run two overflows (no drillage) so i also have the tunze water level alarm...another great product! Shuts off return pump if water levels get too high or low. Another nice thing about tunze is that they will stand behind their products....needed a new power adapter for my level alarm and they sent it right away, no questions asked. Hope this helps.

benn
 
hazmat319 said:
Thanks. My 5 gallon reservoir sits on the floor next to my tank. Obviously the sump is on the floor of my stand. As long as the tubing that feeds the water into the sump is out of the water it's OK, right? To prevent any kind of siphoning of the sump water into my ATO bucket. Right now the tubing from my JBJ is zip tied to my emergency overflow drain that sits above my sump. Same concept, right? Or is there another consideration with the Tunze?
Click to expand...

So long as the output hose from the reservoir that dumps into the sump is higher than the water level in the reservoir, you are ok. Otherwise, the gravity feed will continue to empty the water. It's a great product and in fact, they are now produced with a magnet mount rather than the plastic stick. The magnet is super easy and you can adjust the safety float valve above it at your desired level. Great product.
 
I am also a big fan of the osmo unit. I have the water reservoir in the basement pumping up to the floor above it with no problems. I was worried head pressure would be a problem but it works like a champ. It is costly but definitely worth the money.
 
I need to also order one of these for my RSM 130 that I'm setting up, not much room for error in these AIO tanks.
They seem to be about $203 with free shipping from a couple of places, some $197s but they charge shipping. Probably good to order a spare pump while your at it.
 
^^+5 on the Tunze. I do have the newer unit with the magnet and love it. Has worked flawlessly so far.
 
Glad I revisited my thread....

I just got it and now I have another question or two or three!

Do most people mount the sensors on the same magnet or one on each magnet? I figure when I turn off my pump to feed the high alarm will go off. But then again it would be nice to have that safety shutoff so that minimal water will go into my sump in case of malfunction of the eye. Also, what about if the reservoir goes dry? Any issues to the pump if it runs out and I don't notice right away? I noticed someone on a different thread mentioned using the float switch as a low water sensor in their bucket. Defeats the purpose of a safety switch tho.
I've always had the JBJ which shows you when your water is low in the reservoir with a red light.
Any info would be great. I'm pretty good with technical info but this is a little confusing:o
 
my2girls said:
Put the float switch and optical eye on the same magnet.
Click to expand...

Then when you turn off the pump to feed do you just have to listen to the alarm go off for 10 minutes?

Those magnets are a pain to move around!! I'm trying to work with them on the side of my sump. I feel like a contortionist!!
 
There are several ways around that. The easiest would be not to turn off the pump when you feed. You could set your controller to turn off the tunze while feeding.

There is an adjustment on the magnet. Set it to the maximum. If those options won't work for you then use two different magnets. You can set the as far apart as you need.
 
my2girls said:
If those options won't work for you then use two different magnets. You can set the as far apart as you need.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of doing this originally and placing the float high enough so if I turned the pump off for water changes it wouldnt go off. What kept me from doing this is if the optical happened to fail at any time I would end up with a lot of fresh RO water being pumped into the tank until it hit the float sensor. For me it was piece of mind keeping the salinity stable and suffering for a few minutes instead of having the tank at risk the rest of the time.
 
I have had one for ~5 years. No issues with it at all. One of the best purchases I've made for my tank.
 
Thanks for everyone's replies. I ended up putting the eye and the float on the same magnet for the exact reason MarkL said. Because when my JBJ went out it must have been some internal issue because it just kept running the pump even after the float was under water. Twice I had a bunch of RO water go into my tank. And nothing showed on the controller. To the naked eye it all looked normal. That's why I thought a snail had pulled on the float the first time. I'm just now getting the salinity back to normal after all that water dumped in.

I ended up turning off the alarm completely. It tells you how to do this in the instructions. So when I turn off the return pump it will show "High" but I won't hear anything. That alarm makes my dogs freak out!

Another issue....the 2 black pieces that connect the wires from the pump to the wire of the controller. One of them was not connected and I can't get the wire to stay inside of it. Is this only used to connect the wires together? I swear.....those Germans!!! Sometimes they make things difficult! I can say that because I AM German (my name is Heidi) and my entire family is from there. I say that with a smile on my face:lol2:
 
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