ATO Stuck Again !!!

[Gary Majchrzak]

"Reef Angel" is a controller? (Sorry- not familiar)

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I run kalk through a separate control mechanism than my ATO. If the ATO fails, I'll just be messing with salinity; not pH, calcium, and alkalinity as well...

well... I think we all know what you mean HOWEVER...
even if an ATO fails with freshwater it will affect pH, calcium and alkalinity.

With a float type ATO hook it into a timer... not only for safety, but also so limewater only gets topped off at night when aquarium pH is lowest.

I've avoided using an ATO on my personal reef aquarium up until this year.
I must say that it's spoiled me. I NEVER want to go back to manual topoffs.
The stability afforded by using an ATO has been readily apparent in my Acropora.

 

[ReddyW]

"Reef Angel" is a controller? (Sorry- not familiar)

Yeah, open source controller, so all the code is user developed. It takes a little bit of reading to get one going, but it's great if you like that kind of thing.

Reef Angel

 

[AmherstReef]

"Reef Angel" is a controller? (Sorry- not familiar)

Yes

www.reefangel.com

 

[tmz]

Gary what ato do you use? I'm considering dong something like setting the liter meter kalk dosing a few liters short of top off and running a timed ato to make up the difference or somehow combining things to get automatic daily water changes.

 

[Subw00er]

If you want a little more security, you can buy one more float switch on ebay for about $4 and wire it in series with your primary float such that BOTH floats have to be reading the same level for it to activate. That way, if you get a snail or something on one, it wont matter because the second is still blocking the connection back to the sensor circuit.

You can just make out mine on the left side, middle of this pic. The two floats are mounted next to eachother.

The other thing you can do is get a higher quality float that has a casing around it. Grainger sells a few nice ones for around $20.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

thanks for "Reef Angel" link

thanks for "Reef Angel" link

Gary what ato do you use? I'm considering dong something like setting the liter meter kalk dosing a few liters short of top off and running a timed ato to make up the difference or somehow combining things to get automatic daily water changes.

I chose to use a peristaltic pump on timer.

My BRS topoff doser failed a couple of weeks ago and a Litermeter is on the way.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

question for Tom

question for Tom

what do you dose with your Litermeter besides kalkwasser?