ATO for an ATO?

[The_Bro]

Was pondering the idea of an ATO for my ATO. Figured I'd post a thread to see if anyone has done this or could give me an idea on how to accomplish it.
Basically I have 4 gallon Glass reservoir built into my sump that I use with your standard ATO level control kit. Currently I just haul buckets of water and fill it, would be nice to automate this.
The idea: I have a 55 gallon barrel that is kept full at all times, level controlled off my RODI unit. This barrel is approximately 40ft from my reef tank.
The Question: How or what can I use to level control my sump reservoir, off my 55 gallon drum that is fail safe.

 

[tripdad]

Look into a unit with double sensors so there is redundancy/failsafe. Hydros comes to mind.

 

[The_Bro]

Look into a unit with double sensors so there is redundancy/failsafe. Hydros comes to mind.

Ty for the response. I Haven't ventured into controllers since the old school reef keepers. Know of any cheaper options?
I have thought of just a manual float valve, but i just don't trust that with a stream of water coming into my house.
Random thought though? Could I just buy a normal ATO and throw the pump in my 55 gallon drum and route it to my tanks reservoir? Would you or I trust this?

 

[tripdad]

I would not without some form of sensors with back up capabilities. Perhaps a stand alone make up controller is more price friendly.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I have an ato for my ato. It's to prevent pumping 55g of rodi into tank in case there's a stuck float switch.

My ato is a 10g (for my 350g tank). It gets filled every 2 days from my 55g rodi tank.

I'm vested in a neptune systems apex system, and used to use a pmup to send water from the 55g to the 10g. The pmups are horrible pumps in that they constantly break. So now I use a peristaltic pump to do the transferring.

The ato has a single float switch that prevents the peristaltic pump from overfilling the 10g sto container.

To me, I view the ato for the ato as a safety redundancy and so far (since 2018) my ato got stuck on 3 times, which meant any one of those events could've lowered the salinity to the point of killing all the corals. But 10 gallons... that was barely noticeable.

 

[KStatefan]

I have an ATO for my ATO. I use a Vittles Vault for my ATO container hold about 13 gallons of rodi which i kept full using a Litermeter. I have multiple things that draw from that container Tunze ATO for tank, GHL dosing pump to QT ATO, Doser to flush kalk dosing line.

 

[Connor At CoralVue]

I do this for mine, with HYDROS controlling everything.

Simply enough, I have my HYDROS ATO that does its simple job, but as you, I never want to actually fill up my ATO Container.

On my ATO Resivour itself, I have 2x Water Level Sensors, High and Low, as well, multiple leak detectors, even further, time controls it only producing during the day, with a MAX on time set, even further, solenoids to physically cut the water production from the RODI, and finally, the actual old school float valve that never actually triggers, its simply there for even more redundancy.

In total, we can consider that 7+ layers of redundancy to control my ATO's ATO.

 

[JTP424]

They make float controlled switches for this, Auto Aqua used to make them... I don't know if they still do.... look up the flood guardian/Smart RO.
They use RO line and are controlled by sensors, you could also drop a float switch on the end.

 

[Tinklez]

I do this for mine, with HYDROS controlling everything.

Simply enough, I have my HYDROS ATO that does its simple job, but as you, I never want to actually fill up my ATO Container.

On my ATO Resivour itself, I have 2x Water Level Sensors, High and Low, as well, multiple leak detectors, even further, time controls it only producing during the day, with a MAX on time set, even further, solenoids to physically cut the water production from the RODI, and finally, the actual old school float valve that never actually triggers, its simply there for even more redundancy.

In total, we can consider that 7+ layers of redundancy to control my ATO's ATO.

Dude this sounds awesome. Can you send a photo of how this is set up with hydros?

 

[mh0ward]

I don’t have an ATO for my ATO, just a Tunze Osmolator 3 that is right in my display. But, I can say from experience that it’s built in thermal safety sensor absolutely works. I had some dinos pop up once and stuck a UV sterilizer in the display… apparently a little too close to the ATO sensor. I didn’t know it until the next morning that the UV being so close to the sensor was causing it to constantly top off. Because of the backup safety sensor, it stopped topping off at that level, which is maybe a 1/2” or so above the fill line.

 

[Danjoethepirate]

I just run a float valve from my ro container. I've never had an issue, mechanical failure on a float valve is not unheard of but is very rare. I've had mine run this way for 5 years and cleaned the float and outlet exactly 1 time. Not saying that nothing could go wrong but it has not yet. Jake at reefbuilders did a bunch of his tanks the same way. That's not a reason to do it but is proof of concept in action on multiple tanks.

 

[The_Bro]

Read through yall's responses ( thanks again for the input) and ran across this. I think this could work It has a mechanical water lever float, and a mechanical emergency shutoff float that just powers a standard 120v plug. I could place this in my tanks ATO. And have it power a peristaltic pump like the BRS 50 mil to transfer the water from my 55 gallon drum.
Thoughts?

​

Double Lower float switch has a protective PVC surround to minimize on/off switching caused by waves and protect from interference from inhabitants. Upper float switch mounts above providing fail-safe protection. Float switches attach to the bracket with included cable ties.​

$42​

 

[Evil1]

Why not just run RODI line with float switch directly into ATO container? I did. When I get a low water alert from ATO I stroll over to the 10 gallon container turn valve on it fills back up and the float valve shuts it off when full. Then I turn main valve off as added security.

 

[The_Bro]

Why not just run RODI line with float switch directly into ATO container? I did. When I get a low water alert from ATO I stroll over to the 10 gallon container turn valve on it fills back up and the float valve shuts it off when full. Then I turn main valve off as added security.

Thanks evil, Would you mind sharing a pic of yours?

 

[Evil1]

Thanks evil, Would you mind sharing a pic of yours?

Sure I’ll take some pictures when I get home

 

[Ziggy17]

I do this for mine, with HYDROS controlling everything.

Simply enough, I have my HYDROS ATO that does its simple job, but as you, I never want to actually fill up my ATO Container.

On my ATO Resivour itself, I have 2x Water Level Sensors, High and Low, as well, multiple leak detectors, even further, time controls it only producing during the day, with a MAX on time set, even further, solenoids to physically cut the water production from the RODI, and finally, the actual old school float valve that never actually triggers, its simply there for even more redundancy.

In total, we can consider that 7+ layers of redundancy to control my ATO's ATO.

Haha. The advantages of free equipment vs us that pay top buck.

 

[Evil1]

Sure I’ll take some pictures when I get home

Yep that’s a 10 gallon dog food container I got off Amazon for like 40 bucks. I refuse to pay hundreds for a fancy water container

 

[The_Bro]

Thanks for all the input! This is what I came up with, I'm going to put a 1/4" RODI tube bulkhead into my Drum approximately 3 gallons down from the top. I consider it an easy fail safe that only 3 gallons of water can come into my house at a time. Going to just run RO line into my house from that to this.

 

[sjfishguy]

I have my ATO pump plugged into this. If the water rises to far, the whole system shuts off.

CoralVue FW110 HIGH WATTAGE Electronic Top-off Float Switch

CoralVue FW110 HIGH WATTAGE Electronic Top-off Float Switch

aquacave.com

 

[The_Bro]

Got this little project almost finished up. Just waiting on my fail safe device to show up.