ATO Help!

[ghellin]

Ok I am going on vacation tomorrow and my ATO is going to flood my house! I just set everything up with brand new float valves and when my ATO pump kicks on it never turns off. I have 3 float valves; Switch 6= sump low. Switch5= sump high, Switch4 RoDi Reservoir. I am using a maxi jet 1200 as my pump currently but I may go change it out to a maxi 400. I would also like to have the pump stay on for a maximum of 15 seconds as a backup fail-safe. Here is my Code please tell me how to fix this thanks!


Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Switch6 CLOSED Then ON
If Switch6 OPEN Then OFF
If Switch5 OPEN Then OFF
If Switch4 Closed Then off

 

[ghellin]

ok update, So I tried plugging in a light and it seems to work just fine. I am using outlet 5 I figured a maxi 1200 would pull enough current to not fall in the (this item may not work on outlets 1-3 or 5-8 category). Is this my problem?

 

[RussM]

A small pump like a MJ may not operate properly on EB8 outlets 1-3 or 5-7. Those outlets are controlled by a solid state device called a TRIAC. Some low-power devices (which draw just a few watts) will turn on, but will not turn off reliably. Outlets 4 and 8 on EB8s use a mechanical relay to switch power on and off - low-power devices work fine on those outlets.

I see you have your ATO on outlet 5. I suggest that you swap it with your return pump on outlet 4.

And IMO, a MJ1200 is way too much pump for ATO in a 58g system. Put that MJ400 on ASAP An AquaLifter probably is an even better choice.


I'm assuming that the float connected as Switch6 is inverted from normal - closed when down / open when up. Is that right?

 

[RussM]

ok update, So I tried plugging in a light and it seems to work just fine. I am using outlet 5 I figured a maxi 1200 would pull enough current to not fall in the (this item may not work on outlets 1-3 or 5-8 category). Is this my problem?

Easy way to find out.

Put the output tubing from the MJ in a bucket.

Unplug the MJ from outlet 5
Set outlet 5 to Manual OFF
Plug in the MJ to outlet 5
Set outlet 5 to Manual ON
Set outlet 5 to Manual OFF

Does the pump stay running?

Unplug the MJ
Plug it back in

Did the pump stay off?

If the answer to both question is YES, then you are running into the TRIAC/low power device issue.

 

[ghellin]

ok I will be switching the pumps and outlets thanks for the help! I have used the maxi 1200 with a JBJ for a year without incident and figured it would be fine on outlet 5 since it was a 20 watt pump.

While tinkering I found it does work just fine when I switched it to outlet 6 is this weird?

Switch 6 is closed when water is low and open when water is normal yes. My switches are DIY with Snail guards.