ATO nightmare

heybae · Mar 1, 2021

So it’s 2am and I woke up to a waterfall noise my ato has overflowed my tank spilling out onto the floor.On top of that almost electrocuting myself. My salt levels dropped severely lucky I caught it only after a few minutes. I made some emergency saltwater mix and raised my salt levels. My tubing has a siphon break part suppose to make sure this doesn’t happen. I’ve caught my ato filling up past the sensor before but not to were it didn’t stop. Why is keep going past the sensor? Why did it overflow? What can I do to stop this from happening again?i can’t just plug up and unplug my ato everyday. Did I kill my fish? my brand new manderain is pale and white looking. Lots of invertebrates and coral. So stressed

SPR1968 · Mar 1, 2021

Hopefully everything will be fine, I had the previous version (manual float switch)of that ATO when I first started, and it did exactly the same and there’s a recent thread on here with the same issue.

I can recommend the Tunze Osmolator which is sort of the gold standard, and you can also turn it down for smaller tanks

heybae · Mar 1, 2021

SPR1968 said:
Hopefully everything will be fine, I had the previous version (manual float switch)of that ATO when I first started, and it did exactly the same and there’s a recent thread on here with the same issue.

I can recommend the Tunze Osmolator which is sort of the gold standard, and you can also turn it down for smaller tanks

Everyone is living so far.....That’s the one my lfs tryed to sell me have you had any similar problems with it? any cons?

SPR1968 · Mar 1, 2021

heybae said:
Everyone is living so far.....That’s the one my lfs tryed to sell me have you had any similar problems with it? any cons?

No the Osmolator is probably the best and go to ATO, ive got it in my large system, modified, and have used one several times before

I also have the Apex ATK in my smaller system but that was an experiment

RobB'z Reef · Mar 1, 2021

heybae said:
So it’s 2am and I woke up to a waterfall noise my ato has overflowed my tank spilling out onto the floor.On top of that almost electrocuting myself. My salt levels dropped severely lucky I caught it only after a few minutes. I made some emergency saltwater mix and raised my salt levels. My tubing has a siphon break part suppose to make sure this doesn’t happen. I’ve caught my ato filling up past the sensor before but not to were it didn’t stop. Why is keep going past the sensor? Why did it overflow? What can I do to stop this from happening again?i can’t just plug up and unplug my ato everyday. Did I kill my fish? my brand new manderain is pale and white looking. Lots of invertebrates and coral. So stressed

I'm sorry that you had to go thru this first off. Hope everything recovers as best as it can under the circumstances. Like others, I'd really recommend the tunze... it doesnt have the issues the AutoAqua seems to experience. It also has two level sensors (a float switch as well as an optical sensor). You get two chances to catch it. If you have a controller I recommend installing an independent float switch, optical sensor etc that you can program as a back up to shut down any pumps bringing water into your tank or sump. The optical sensors tend to build up with salt creep after a while and stop working as expected regardless of manufacturer.