ATO - Which one do I get?

[cwschoon]

I have been in this hobby forever but never had an ATO. I just never really had the need for one and IMO, it was just something else that could possibly cause a flood.
I recently set up a 120 and have decided to get an ATO but am paranoid about water leaks in my condo. Any recommendations or advice is appreciated!

 

[retin78]

tunze 3155. you won't regret it

 

[retin78]

tunze 3155. you won't regret it

 

[cwschoon]

Are you confident that it will not cause a flood? My LFS sells the Hydor.

 

[BigT75]

Gonna be honest there's nothing bulletproof if that is a concern I'd take your gut feeling seriously cause yes anything could happen like the float cause it to keep filling etc etc but I never had any issues where my brother has


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[cwschoon]

I am very familiar with "nothing is bulletproof" and have confidence with the Tunze brand but there are many to choose from.

 

[Mark Bianco]

Any ATO can fail. Trust me I know. I do like the 3155 Tunze for several reason.

First they have been on the market for several years and are proven to be reliable.

Second they have a reduntant second switch mechanical incase the optical sensor fails.

Third optical sensor for the primary sensor ie no moving parts to fail.

Forth you can adjust the flow rate of the pump.

Fifth the pump is what usually wears out and a new pump is in the 20.00 range to replace.

I am not saying any others are bad. I am saying the Tunze have never failed me over the years.

Mark

 

[jayball]

your protection from flooding is to make sure that your ATO container is not bit enough to flood your sump. As an example my ATO container on my 90 gallon is a 5 gallon bucket, enough to mess up my skimmer but not swing my salinity enough to matter. I have to fill it about 3 times in 2 weeks.

if you have it plumbed from a much larger source consider both electro-mechanical float switches and a float valve to back it up

 

[cwschoon]

Thanks for the replies. The Tunze 3155 seems to be the choice of most and the reviews are excellent!

 

[cwschoon]

Is anyone familiar with the Coral Box A 100? One dealer who sells this and the Tunze prefers it. Says the Tunze fails 15-20% in the first year and they have been selling the Coral Box for 2 years with 0 returns!

 

[jda]

I still turn ball valves to fill up my tanks. I will carry buckets if I need to.

You can make them to where the damage is minimal if they do fail, but there are two types of ATOs... those that have failed and those that will... so just make sure that they fail off or if they fail on that the reservoir is not all that big.

 

[sde1500]

Not a big fan of the Tunze, I have their nano. Got one with a bad controller. They knew they had a bad batch of controllers, but took forever to admit it. Found a thread on here from someone else having the same problem. It stopped working soon after I installed it, they sent me a new pump, didn't work again within days, then they admit it was a bad controller, test a new one a bunch, send it out. Finally works. Took more than a month to finally get my ATO working. Even now every so often I find that it has turned it self off. No clue why. But it is so random, can't be bothered to do anything more than turn it off and back on, and then it starts working again. It can go months between shut offs though.

 

[scybulski]

Tunze hands down


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[Valentini89]

Tunze hands down


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I will be purchasing a tunze

 

[Horace]

If you have an apex, build your own with a breakout box and some float switches. I used 3 for safety, and use a solenoid on my RO/DI unit. This is somewhat more risky than a container with a pump, but IME it is Very reliable when setup properly and I have never had an issue. Not only do i have a high level mark in the sump above the on/off float, but I also have a shutoff swtich that will close off the ro/di feed if a "flood" is sensed.

 

[Radioheadx14]

I've used many, but always pay extra for the Tunze 3155 (full sizer). I have had a pump fail once because I forgot to refill the reservoir for a weekend of travel. Easy and cheap enough to replace.

 

[cwschoon]

I was going to go with Tunze but am now going to look into the Coral Box A100. The dealer I spoke with sells both. He advises the coral box, even though it costs far less!

 

[Cheapreef]

I was going to go with Tunze but am now going to look into the Coral Box A100. The dealer I spoke with sells both. He advises the coral box, even though it costs far less!

I'd imagine it a profit margin thing on his part pushing the CB.

 

[GQsmooth]

Has Tunze fixed their pump issues?

 

[jda]

In the history of the world, nobody has every thought that Jebao (Coral Box) was superior to Tunze in build quality or reliability... just money. This is not a piece of equipment that you can afford to go cheap on.