Hydor smart ATO with kalkawasser anyone??

Boboe77 · Apr 14, 2014

I wanna start running kalkawasser with my 38 gallon innovative marine tank. Does anyone use kalkawasser with the Hydor Smart Level Controller Auto Top Off? Any problems with it? Is this a good ATO? What kind of pump should I use? Thanks all!

Reefing Madness · Apr 18, 2014

MrDJeep123 · Apr 18, 2014

Boboe77 said:
I wanna start running kalkawasser with my 38 gallon innovative marine tank. Does anyone use kalkawasser with the Hydor Smart Level Controller Auto Top Off? Any problems with it? Is this a good ATO? What kind of pump should I use? Thanks all!

I cannot answer the kalk part. BUT I can answer to the ATO itself. I just bought it. It has been on the tank 2 days. I've tested it different times for different scenarios except a constant running pump scenario if the unit fails. I'm hoping there is a power cutoff that that doesn't happen. I'm sure there is, but stranger things happen daily. I use a return pump from a 29 biocube. I don't remember the gph, but I use a valve to restrict flow. Any pump can be used as long it is 50v or less, if I recall correctly. It has to run a minimum of 25 seconds and at most 10 minutes. The ATO delivers water with the valve around 1 minute and something seconds for where I have it set to fill.
The biggest issue I have with the device itself is that it takes a few seconds to register the overfill mark. Where water is concerned, seconds count. I have the feed line from my fresh h2o container fixed so that no siphon occurs. That is probably the most important issue to make sure doesn't happen.
I guess all in all, I like it. It does what it is supposed to and I can't ask it to do more.

J77 · Apr 18, 2014

I've been useing Kalk with auto aqua smart ato for like 4 months now and love it

Boboe77 · Apr 18, 2014

MrDJeep123 said:
I cannot answer the kalk part. BUT I can answer to the ATO itself. I just bought it. It has been on the tank 2 days. I've tested it different times for different scenarios except a constant running pump scenario if the unit fails. I'm hoping there is a power cutoff that that doesn't happen. I'm sure there is, but stranger things happen daily. I use a return pump from a 29 biocube. I don't remember the gph, but I use a valve to restrict flow. Any pump can be used as long it is 50v or less, if I recall correctly. It has to run a minimum of 25 seconds and at most 10 minutes. The ATO delivers water with the valve around 1 minute and something seconds for where I have it set to fill.
The biggest issue I have with the device itself is that it takes a few seconds to register the overfill mark. Where water is concerned, seconds count. I have the feed line from my fresh h2o container fixed so that no siphon occurs. That is probably the most important issue to make sure doesn't happen.
I guess all in all, I like it. It does what it is supposed to and I can't ask it to do more.

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll just order one and play around with it before I start using kalkawasser.