Boneheaded ATO mistakes...

[Sk8r]

..that I personally have made.

1. wait to get an ATO right before a trip out of town. [There's a learning curve.]
2. make a lastminute adjustment to have the tank perfect [this requires turning the ATO off for a moment].
3. forgetting to plug the ATO back in before leaving for the weekend.
4. starting up an ATO with no siphon break (it just keeps going, depending on the relative height of the two water sources).
5. having (usually) the simplest kind of siphon breaks, ie, a delivery hose to the sump that doesn't ever touch the water...and letting it touch the water. FOr the next number of hours, the ATO pump would deliver enough water to the system to let it cut off. Then the fact the hose was now well into the sump water let water from the sump siphon itself back into the ATO reservoir. This siphonage gradually lowered the water level in the sump so far that the ATO pump then cut on again and delivered more water. Given a lengthy time to work, with (thank goodness not the full 30 gallons in the ATO reservoir at the time) this seesaw action equalized the salinity in the whole system---including the [supposed-to-be] freshwater ATO reservoir. Fortunately it is safer to abruptly LOWER salinity in a tank, but it's a pita raising it safely over the next number of hours.

Don't do these things! :lol: Please.

 

[gone fishin]

#2 & 3 guilty.

I have also removed the floats and line to clean and forgot to put the line back in the tank. Thank goodness for the $10 water floor sensor.

 

[Tom39]

I consistently fail to remember to plug my ATO back in after maintenance. The bad part is that I don't remember that I didn't until my DT is full of micro-bubbles because my return pump is sucking air.

 

[oldbones]

ATO line was placed well clear of the water line in the sump, that is, while the return pump was running...

Turned the return off for mx, sump level went up. I'm dutifully working on whatever it was I was working on, when suddenly my socks start getting wet. Yep, ATO line is now submerged, and quickly siphoning water from the tank to the ATO reservoir which is now overflowing and running out of the stand onto the carpet.

Oops.

 

[nvladik]

Would like to add #6. After #4, skimmer overflows and dumps plenty of waste into the sump > tank.

At one point or another, guilty of #1 - #6.

 

[thelawnwrangler]

6. Asking the wife if she is okay with another bucket that you are going to cover with a hamper in the living room. (hint she wasn't)

For trips I think I am going to run my ato for a week work out kinks before I go anywhere

 

[BrianKC]

..that I personally have made.

1. wait to get an ATO right before a trip out of town. [There's a learning curve.]
2. make a lastminute adjustment to have the tank perfect [this requires turning the ATO off for a moment].
3. forgetting to plug the ATO back in before leaving for the weekend.
4. starting up an ATO with no siphon break (it just keeps going, depending on the relative height of the two water sources).
5. having (usually) the simplest kind of siphon breaks, ie, a delivery hose to the sump that doesn't ever touch the water...and letting it touch the water. FOr the next number of hours, the ATO pump would deliver enough water to the system to let it cut off. Then the fact the hose was now well into the sump water let water from the sump siphon itself back into the ATO reservoir. This siphonage gradually lowered the water level in the sump so far that the ATO pump then cut on again and delivered more water. Given a lengthy time to work, with (thank goodness not the full 30 gallons in the ATO reservoir at the time) this seesaw action equalized the salinity in the whole system---including the [supposed-to-be] freshwater ATO reservoir. Fortunately it is safer to abruptly LOWER salinity in a tank, but it's a pita raising it safely over the next number of hours.

Don't do these things! :lol: Please.

Ha! Done all of them. Now my obligatory cautionary statement from experience: NEVER. EVER. HOOK YOUR ATO SETUP STRAIGHT TO YOUR RODI. something will fail and you will empty the whole city's water supply into your system while you're on vacation.

 

[Itchy fishy]

Luckily I caught the hose in the tank before it was an issue. Think it was right after a water change. I'm watching it like ***.... then it hit me. Could of been real real bad.

 

[cwschoon]

Tunze or ATK? Which is less prone to boneheadedness?

 

[kmbyrnes]

We the jury find the defendant guilty on all counts.

 

[RedStangGA]

..that I personally have made.

1. wait to get an ATO right before a trip out of town. [There's a learning curve.]
2. make a lastminute adjustment to have the tank perfect [this requires turning the ATO off for a moment].
3. forgetting to plug the ATO back in before leaving for the weekend.
4. starting up an ATO with no siphon break (it just keeps going, depending on the relative height of the two water sources).
5. having (usually) the simplest kind of siphon breaks, ie, a delivery hose to the sump that doesn't ever touch the water...and letting it touch the water. FOr the next number of hours, the ATO pump would deliver enough water to the system to let it cut off. Then the fact the hose was now well into the sump water let water from the sump siphon itself back into the ATO reservoir. This siphonage gradually lowered the water level in the sump so far that the ATO pump then cut on again and delivered more water. Given a lengthy time to work, with (thank goodness not the full 30 gallons in the ATO reservoir at the time) this seesaw action equalized the salinity in the whole system---including the [supposed-to-be] freshwater ATO reservoir. Fortunately it is safer to abruptly LOWER salinity in a tank, but it's a pita raising it safely over the next number of hours.

Don't do these things! :lol: Please.

Done all 5. Sadly some more than once. I forget to turn my ATO back on repeatedly. I really need to develop a checklist to run through before leaving for vacation.

I'll add a #6. Don't leave any room for a Jack Russell, terrified from a thunderstorm, to make his way to the back of your tank and then through the stand and out the front door unplugging things left and right. Especially before you go on vacation. Thank goodness for tank sitters and good friends!

 

[Sk8r]

Number 6. Ninja dog...

 

[ca1ore]

Let's see .... check, check, check, check and check ..... yup royal flush!

 

[Ztous]

6. Not having the line secured firmly and having it get knocked outside the tank.