Ben_1313
New member
Anyone have one yet?
http://www.marinedepot.com/AutoAqua...ug_In_Units-CoralVue-CV47286-FIDPETPU-vi.html
http://www.marinedepot.com/AutoAqua...ug_In_Units-CoralVue-CV47286-FIDPETPU-vi.html
The AutoAqua Smart ATO is released! - Thoughts?
- Thread starter Ben_1313
- Start date
Mark Bianco
New member
Looks promising however I am a big fan of redundancy and for about 50.00 more I went with a Tunze Osmolator It has the optical sensor and as a backup a mechanical float. Also it if you set it up correctly it will only pump so much water and shut off so you actually have three ways of protection.
[violation]
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Stickboy97
Member
anyone have one yet? They are on sale at Marine depot through today, 15% off(cyber Monday).
[violation]
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:wavehand: Bye.
We have zero use for those that shill themselves on our forum.
plasma327
Member
I am actually going to use mine on a small 16 gallon i have and place it on the top just under the rim to keep my little tank toped off. We will see how it works out. I have a dedicated RO syste on my big tank so it is not needed for my sump. I am hoping with its small foot print, the inside if the unit should be small and non intrusive.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
Just a heads up when I talked to CoralVue about doing this they warned me it won't work with direct light above it.
plasma327
Member
Umm... Well then... I will try it regardless. I suppose worst case is it will not function that way. If so into the box with all the other expensive paper weights i have. LOL.. I am running a Kessil 150 ocean blue on the little tank. I will try it out and post the out come. I did not go with a Tunze nano for the fact of all the float mount etc... in the view of the tank area.
origreefer
Member
I installed mine today, seems to work great. Very small and compact.
I received my AutoAqua Smart ATO Monday.. here are my thoughts and some pics:
First things first, I opened it up to take a look at it (Quarter added for size reference).
It took me about 30 seconds to test assemble it without ever looking at the included instruction book (once again, Quarter added for size reference).
About 60 seconds after that, I had it the pump dropped in to a 5 gallon water jug, the fill line clamped to the edge of the tank, sensor in place, and plugged it all in. I was quickly greeted by flashing lights and loud beeps. After about 10 minutes of messing with it and reading the directions, I realized the sensor needs to go through clear glass and the back of my JBJ RL30 has black vinyl applied to it. DOH! I cut a section of the vinyl away and it started working perfectly.
What I like:
What I don't like:
Final Thought- So far I love it... I will try and come back with follow-up opinions after it has been in use for a while.
First things first, I opened it up to take a look at it (Quarter added for size reference).
It took me about 30 seconds to test assemble it without ever looking at the included instruction book (once again, Quarter added for size reference).
About 60 seconds after that, I had it the pump dropped in to a 5 gallon water jug, the fill line clamped to the edge of the tank, sensor in place, and plugged it all in. I was quickly greeted by flashing lights and loud beeps. After about 10 minutes of messing with it and reading the directions, I realized the sensor needs to go through clear glass and the back of my JBJ RL30 has black vinyl applied to it. DOH! I cut a section of the vinyl away and it started working perfectly.
What I like:
- Super simple to set up. Would have gone from box to running in under 2 minutes if I hadn't have forgotten about cutting out the vinyl on the back of the tank.
- Pump size- The nice little pump fits easily in the neck of a water jug.
- No wires running into the tank.
- Everything needed is included.
What I don't like:
- During initialization, the sensor needs to be above the water line. This means that it will need manual intervention after a power outage. Not a big deal, but it means I will be woken by its error beeping if the power pops off and back on in the middle of the night.
- Water pump rate- it pumps water faster than my Tunze ATO, and a lot faster that the aqua-lifter I have used on another tank. The high pump rate would concern me a little on a really small tank where this system otherwise has the opportunity to really shine.
Final Thought- So far I love it... I will try and come back with follow-up opinions after it has been in use for a while.
For me, I think that the solution will be to have my controller programmed with a 2 hour delay for the ATO when power returns. This will allow for evaporation to bring the level down below the sensor before it turns it on. I use a similar delay on my skimmer (although much shorter) because if it kicks on right after a power outage when the sump is still full, it overflows.
Now it is also possible that the AutoAqua will attempt to re-initialize after a period of time, but I am not willing to listen to the beeping alarm for a few hours to find out.
I am a big fan of the Tunze and have one on another tank, but the AutoAqua is called "smart" for a reason. It stores info for "pump on period" for the last 3 fills and time since last fill. It uses this info to trigger alarms and shutoffs if it thinks it has been pumping for too long (because of a failed sensor, failed pump, or empty reservoir), or it has been too long since it last triggered (because of failed sensor).
I still think it looks to be apparent that the Auto top up will not be that reliable given it needs to be reset when you get a powercut. also if you do water changers it will again have to be reset.
Just image if you go away for a few days and you get a power cut. for piece of mind maybe a tunze auto top up will be a much better option.
I hope Autoaqua can fix this, really surprised that they would sell this given the power cut issue.
Or
is it not a issue,
when the power comes back does the auto top up initialize when the water drops below the water line and then start again?
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OK... I just un-plugged it and plugged it back in. It tried to initialize, and the initialization failed because the sensor is in the water. I am now going in to another room and closing the door so I don't have to listen to the beeping. I will check on it every 10 minutes or so to see what happens over the next hour or so.
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