JBJ ATO Issue

Mael

New member
So I got a used ATO online the other day and it has been working great except for one main issue. It turns on fine the first couple times and then Ill walk by the sump later and notice the water level is down a little, when I check the JBJ the orange pump light is very dim and the pump isnt on, if I turn the power strip it is plugged into off then on it go back to full power and the pumps works perfect.

I know I need to try a different power strip, but wanted to know if anyone has heard of or experienced this before. If changing the strip doesnt work Ill contact JBJ directly.
 
Yes, this happens to my JBJ ATO as well. Sometimes when it is filling the return section of the sump it times out and then it does this. Then the water level gets low in the return section of the sump. I then have to unplug it and replug it back in so that it will work. Not sure why it does it. Even if I use two sensors it does this.
 
Happened to me too. I just purchased a Tunze osmolator because I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.

There is a safety feature on the JBJ that shuts it off if the pump is on too long. I believe 5 minutes. Once this happens you have to restart it to get it to work.

The problem is this eventually started happening even when the pump wasn't on that long. I've owned 3 JBJ's and still think they are a good affordable ATO but I'm glad I got my Tunze to be honest I was tired of dealing.
 
I tried that but still had the issue. I went from an aqualifter to a maxijet-1200 at zero feet headloss.
 
I se the smallest taam Rio pump. I never could get it to work with a Tom's aqualift. works great with my Rio. I have 3 units set up exactly the same.
 
hm, right now it is hooked up to a small 70gph pump I got from autotopoff and the pump works great, I could use the pump meant for the reactor Im not running as it is bigger but not sure that would solve the main issue.
 
I had this same exact problem and I got mine to work by reducing the amount of tubing between my water supply and where it had to pump to using the aqualifter. Before I reduced the tube length I was hours from throwing that dam ATO into I-17 traffic but saw that I had much more than the 30" that it had to pump, reduced it and viola! No more dim orange lights!
 
hm, good to know, right now it is actually set up in a temporary layout, I will definitely keep the hose length in mind when going to the permanent layout.
 
Mine would time out between 30 seconds and 2 minutes out of the box. I turned the timer to max and it still did it. Was going on vacation so I set my controller to power cycle the ATO every 30 minutes. Removed the junk as soon as I got back and went back to gravity feed.
 
good info guys, it seems to have been working fine for the last 24 hours or so, I will keep an eye on it and if need be open it up and make some adjustments.

appreciate all the help
 
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