Astraea tripping ATO

JoJosReef

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Bottle ATO on my office IM Nuvo 10g started going off non-stop, which caught my attention, and I couldn't figure why. Didn't look like a clog in the AIO chambers. Pump was still pushing out water at normal level. Only thing I saw was an Astraea snail making its way across the intake grates, but of course not covering the entire surface area of the intake. Removed the Astraea and the rear chamber levels returned to normal and the ATO stopped releasing water.

Amazing that a single Astraea snail can alter the levels in the back AIO return chamber so dramatically. How does one protect against something like this?
 

ZombieEngineer

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By using an ATO with a maximum run time built into it and/or using redundant float switches.

ATO and heaters are the #1 and #2 equipment related crash sources in the hobby. I always advocate minimum 2 layer redundancy on both. Heaters you can get the 2nd layer by plugging a normal heater into a seperate temp controller like an inkbird or aquarium controller, but thats a bit harder to justify on only a 10g tank.
 
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JoJosReef

JoJosReef

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By using an ATO with a maximum run time built into it and/or using redundant float switches.

ATO and heaters are the #1 and #2 equipment related crash sources in the hobby. I always advocate minimum 2 layer redundancy on both. Heaters you can get the 2nd layer by plugging a normal heater into a seperate temp controller like an inkbird or aquarium controller, but thats a bit harder to justify on only a 10g tank.
Yeah, I've had the ATO empty out before with a clog in the filtration chamber. The reason I use the bottle ATO is 1) at complete release of ATO water, my tank is still not overflowing or damaging any of my office equipment; 2) I think the salinity will drop a max of 0.002.

Heater is on an inkbird, but I'm always thinking of splitting the heat plug and plugging in two heaters in case one goes out on the weekend with no one around to hear the inkbird go off.

I'm beginning to see the benefits of a larger system with a real sump!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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