Ato advice

[tinyfellows]

I recently set up my first reef tank (Waterbox 20) and I bought the duetto ato which I feel has been giving me nothing but troubles. It is constantly over filling my tank which has made dialing my skimmer in even more difficult as a rookie. I bought a tunze osomalator nano before I heard back from aqua xp. They had some suggestions on setting it up differently so I gave that a try and never unboxed the tunze. But my duetto continues to overfill which they say happens in nanos. But I feel that it overfilling probably 50% of the time isn’t what I’m looking for in a product. Should I set up the tunze or return it and live with the overfilling? Does anyone have any similar issues with the tunze?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Assure the sensors are clean as well as the glass they’re attached to
If still an issue- yes send back

 

[tinyfellows]

I’ve been wiping the sensor everyday or two so I think it’s time to retire the set up and just use it for water changes

 

[tharbin]

If you have the chamber levels set correctly, you have the sensor correctly mounted in the return chamber and you followed the directions for initiation then send it back. The Tunze should work well but if not I'm using a JBJ Nano ATO on a Waterbox 15 and it has been flawless for the last 8 months (when I installed it).

The biggest issue I have seen with Waterboxes is that people tend to adjust the display height by adding water until the display level is where they want it by overfilling the sump so that all of the chambers are the same height as the display. For a Waterbox 10/15/20/25 the chambers should be at three different levels while running the return pump; 1st chamber at about the height of the sock holder--it will vary a little based in media type and cleanliness, second chamber at height of the lower baffle in the third chamber and the third chamber at or below the same baffle--the third chamber is the only one that should change height with evaporation. If they are the same height as the display then the water parameters fluctuate too much because the entire tank has to evaporate to the ATO turn-on point, usually about an inch. In actual practice it usually evaporates until the entire tank comes down to the standard overflow height and then just the second and third chambers continue to go down until the turn-on point. Either way it has to replace an inch to the whole tank instead of just an inch to the return chamber.

That forces the ATO to run too long which defeats most of the fail-safes used on small ATOs (usually a time out function). It also allow far more S.G. swing due to the larger volume of water that needs to be replaced.

Just a possibility... Good luck.

 

[tinyfellows]

I’m pretty sure my water height when filled where I want it is correct. I had contacted Waterbox on the water level before I set the tank up. Thanks for the help

 

[tharbin]

I’m pretty sure my water height when filled where I want it is correct. I had contacted Waterbox on the water level before I set the tank up. Thanks for the help

I figured as much but it was a possibility. In that case I'd return the ATO. It seems to be either defective or just wrong for a nano tank.

 

[Waters]

I used the Tunze Nano on a small AIO for over a year without a single issue. I also use a Tunze on my large reef with no issues so I would definitely recommend them.