ATO accident prevention?

[BrianKC]

I'd like to amplify the points of not connecting your RODI to your ATO. My timer+float rig failed after 3 years of flawless performance while I was on vacation. Flooding the living room and basement and killing everything in the tank. Like others have said; use an ATO reservoir that is smaller than what would kill your reef if it all dumped into your tank. Your ATO will fail at some point. Setup a system that can tolerate it.

 

[mullerjd]

So I am fairly new so I kept it simple, single float switch, small ATO (less than 10% of tank volume), this way if the float switch gets stuck like it did when a snail went for a ride the impact is minimal.

 

[flananuts]

ATO accident prevention?

I use a high quality sealed float switch connected to a normally closed 1/4" solenoid switch that opens when he circuit is complete. To slow the entrance of water into the sump I have a gate valve that only allows the Rodi water to drip in slowly until the switch rises up and breaks the circuit. It works really well well and was easy to set up.

 

[BrianKC]

So I am fairly new so I kept it simple, single float switch, small ATO (less than 10% of tank volume), this way if the float switch gets stuck like it did when a snail went for a ride the impact is minimal.

Solid.

 

[Ytsejam02]

Another thought... I was going to go the ATO reservoir route... do you put a heater in there, or just leave it as room temperature, since it's probably not adding enough water to the tank in one shot to change the water temp much?

 

[oh207]

Get a reliable ATO, like a Tunze Osmolator.
Ensure that your ATO reservoir is not too large.

Or don't have an ATO reservoir that is so large that if the dosing pump stays on forever and dumps all the water into your sump it will not be enough to overflow the sump. Depending on the size of your sump, this might mean that you might need a small ATO reservoir (which means you might have to refill often).

Most standalone ATO setups have built in timers to automatically shutoff the pump if its on for more than x minutes. If you get a DIY solution with a Controller like an Apex, then you can also program the same functionality.

 

[Hitch08]

That sounds awesome, no Apex system at this time unfortunately.

It's an interesting thought tho... I might be able to hack an ATO system with a power relay to toggle the power on/off to the pump without a control system.

I have to laugh at myself about this one. I have an Apex and an ATO, but I don't have the Apex set up to shut it off.

The good news is that my ATO reservoir only holds 5 gallons. I have to top it off at least twice a week.

 

[Greybeard]

So I am fairly new so I kept it simple, single float switch, small ATO (less than 10% of tank volume), this way if the float switch gets stuck like it did when a snail went for a ride the impact is minimal.

Yup.

Plan for failure... it's going to happen, might as well do what you can to minimize impact.

I'm using 5g reservoir. I have a line run from my RO/DI system, to a float valve in the reservoir, with an inline hand valve. Once a week or so, I open the valve for a couple of hours. If I forget to close it in time, the float valve should stop it. If not, there's a water alarm in the bottom of the stand, and the stand itself is built like a bathtub. Gravity line to the sump, with another float valve. Valve fails? No more than 5g of RODI water gets added... slowly... in a ~75 total volume system, no big deal. Nothing overflows, salinity impact is minimal, all good.

One thing I've seen people overlook. Failure in an overflow with an ATO system can be disastrous. You've got a double float switch system and a large reservoir... Suppose your overflow gets clogged. Pump empties return compartment into tank, probably not a big deal, until your ATO starts refiling the return compartment. Water is low, that's what it's supposed to do. With a large reservoir, or worse, an endless direct supply, you could be setting yourself up to walk in to squishy carpet and a specific gravity of 1.

 

[A.Astore]

I have been running the smart ato for 2 years. Has worked perfect so far. Knock on wood. I clean the glass by the sensor every few months.

What size tank do you have your AutoAqua Smart Ato on? Heading on a vacation in about a month in a half and need to get one ordered so I have plenty of time to make sure everything is running flawless for the tank sitters. We have it narrowed to this one you have and then the Tunze only thing is I am having a hard time swallowing the price of the Tunze system because we don't have the intention of keeping it up unless we are away from the house for more than 24 hours (yes, everyone we understand how an ATO will keep levels stable but at the moment we are not ready to have the reservoir there 24/7 due to young children and having no space inside the cabinet).

Just wanted to make sure that the timer would be okay for my 150 because of the timer aspect on the pump. There were no system size capabilities so I wasn't sure if this was something I needed to consider.

And I agree with the concept of the small reservoir that was one of the first things I decided on when starting the research for this. (Is it bad I will worry more about the tank than the house while we are gone?)

 

[mullerjd]

Another thought... I was going to go the ATO reservoir route... do you put a heater in there, or just leave it as room temperature, since it's probably not adding enough water to the tank in one shot to change the water temp much?

I do not have a heater in my ATO reservoir just room temperature. The amount it changes at one time for me is minimal so no real impact.

 

[Ytsejam02]

I do not have a heater in my ATO reservoir just room temperature. The amount it changes at one time for me is minimal so no real impact.

Thank you for the input, that's the route I'm going to go as well. Room temp is a lot better than the cold out of the RODI.

Currently I just have a 5 gallon drum under the tank that I manually scoop into the tank. Which is why I don't feel terribly rushed to get the automation. That being said, I'm also curious to learn the habits of my tank, meaning how quickly it evaporates, the salinity relative to the evaporation, etc. Though I'm guessing I could find a calculation somewhere for the salinity relationship.

 

[flananuts]

ATO accident prevention?

For the DIY folks you can build a pretty slick set up with fail safe for under $30 bucks. My DIY ATO cost 16 bucks for the 1/4" OD solenoid and the goat switch. For a fail safe I'm going to add another solenoid that is normally open unless the circuit is complete which will then cause it to close. By adding a second float 1 inch higher than my current water level it should not cause a significant salinity swing. I'll post pictures of folks are interested when I get it done. Just need to order the valve and wire it up.

I should clarify that I run directly off my Ro/DI system and have confirmed that I don't end up with TDS creep.

 

[BrianKC]

(Is it bad I will worry more about the tank than the house while we are gone?)

nope. After my ATO failure 3 years ago this is always in the back of my mind when I'm away. That's why I always have someone stop by once a day to check on things with orders to call my trusted LFS if anything is amiss, and to send me a pic of the tank every day since they don't know how to interpret coral behavior as early warning signs. The LFS provides tank services as needed and whomever is checking every day has permission to spend whatever is needed to fix a problem without guilt if I can't be reached.

 

[CafeReef]

I run a Lowes Iris home automation Hub ($50 when onsale), a utilitech zwave leak sensor ($29) and a GE zwave outlet ($29).

If the ATO gets stuck in the on position, and water level rises to the leak sensor, it sends me a text message, phone call and email letting me know, I can then remotely shut off the ATO through the Iris app. Works extremely well for $100.

 

[ca1ore]

The key with any mechanical device is redundancy. I use the Avast pressure switch, but than have two additional reed float switches as backup. I also have a second ATO pump as backup in the event the primary fails.

 

[BrianKC]

The key with any mechanical device is redundancy. I use the Avast pressure switch, but than have two additional reed float switches as backup. I also have a second ATO pump as backup in the event the primary fails.

Even redundancy lets us down sometimes. My failure involved a redundant system of a timed valve and a float switch simultaneously failing. The real key is ensuring that worst case mechanical failures still can't lead to disaster; e.g. In my case...ensuring your top off vessel is small enough that a catastrophic mechanical/electrical failure can't kill your system. In my case, should all mechanics and electrics fail, I either accidentally dump 10g of RODI into a 80g system (which it can absorb safely) or it slow fails over 4-5 days of no top off, leaving plenty of time to address.

 

[Ytsejam02]

I run a Lowes Iris home automation Hub ($50 when onsale), a utilitech zwave leak sensor ($29) and a GE zwave outlet ($29).

If the ATO gets stuck in the on position, and water level rises to the leak sensor, it sends me a text message, phone call and email letting me know, I can then remotely shut off the ATO through the Iris app. Works extremely well for $100.

That is awesome. Sounds right up my alley, I'll look into it, thx!